Edge of Tomorrow (2014) [Movie Review]

Edge of Tomorrow could have easily sucked. The sheer concept of it, in the wrong hands, could have turned from Gold into... well, something else. I am relieved that the film had great writers, a good director, and superb actors to bring All You Need is Kill to life.

"Live. Die. Repeat." When I was younger, I played video games almost non-stop. Though I don't play very often anymore, I can remember that very concept. Playing a game on the hard difficulty, basically memorizing every enemies movements simply because I died so often. This film was a treat, a somewhat throwback to my gaming days. While I might not have been playing the game, watching Tom Cruise try was probably more fun.

The thing that really stuck for me in this movie was it's unusual treatment of the main character. It's not uncommon for main characters to die, but the deaths are almost always made to be significant. My favorite thing about this movie was that, since the main character get's to 'respawn', his deaths don't require significance. He can (and does) die in almost every fashion and the film won't suffer from it. The deaths, and subsequent respawns, were enough for me justify my price of admission.

The respawns truly made this film unique, and not just in the sense that deaths mean nothing. No, they were also utilized perfectly to gradually learn more about each character. We don't see every 'life' that Cage lives, but he fills in for us while talking to certain characters.

Edge of Tomorrow was an extremely fun film. If you want to watch a nice action flick, you really can't go wrong with this.

Rating: 9/10

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