Edge of Tomorrow

2014 science fiction action movie

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A high-ranking military dude is stripped of his rank and sent to war against some creatures from Japanese tentacle pornography. Not that I've actually seen any of that sort of stuff. And not that I'm just putting that in there to get more random perverts to read my blog although I can definitely see that happening. Hello, middle-aged Japanese men, by the way! You've stumbled--disappointingly--upon the blog of a guy who is likely to mention something like Japanese tentacle pornography but whose focus is on writing poorly and probably ineptly about movies that he's seen. Like this plot synopsis. It's completely off the rails, and a better writer or blogger would likely delete almost the entire thing and try again. That's not me though.

I thought this movie, mostly ignored by the masses because it doesn't have a superhero or a princess or come from a comic book, looked interesting, and I had never before seen a movie where a character has to live the same day over and over again. The premise is interesting, but you're really going to have to suspend disbelief and just go with flow. It's like they had the main idea for the movie and wanted the plot to be like a video game where you had to keep starting over, but unfortunately had no idea how to logically make that happen to the character. And then somebody suggested, "What about if the aliens can do that and some alien blood gets on him?" And by that time, Tom Cruise was impatient, so they just went with it. If you watched this and just went with it, you'll probably enjoy the ride. Tom Cruise, oddly, can play a successful Everyman-type character, something that really doesn't seem like it would ever work. Say what you want about everybody's favorite Scientologist (unless you like Beck), but the guy's charming, has always had the action chops, and has good comic timing. And the script, instead of being that overly-serious sci-fi type thing, is peppered with comedy which makes the whole thing breezy. Sure, it's stuffed with action mayhem, but there's some cleverness there, too. I also liked Noah Taylor and Noah Taylor's beard. I've like Taylor before. He is, after all, the guy in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou who like's Jane's hairdo. I like that Brendan Gleeson, too. I don't know if he could even grow facial hair like Noah Taylor's, but he's got a presence that I like. Well-paced, good-looking, and entertaining throughout, even when hints of romance threaten to annoy, I'm willing to bet this one will end up being something that people are more likely to watch in 25 years than most modern science fiction movies. That is, if people start forgiving Tom Cruise for getting footprints on Oprah's couch.