RETRO REVIEW: EDGE OF TOMORROW

Tom Cruise has maintained an admirable grip on the box office (for an old dog) and while he doesn’t have the box office sweet spot anymore, his latest is a great reminder of how hard he fights to stay relevant as an action star. Set on Earth during a future war with invading alien organisms known as ‘mimics’, Cruise plays callow ‘media relations’ expert Major William Cage who spends his days dispensing sound bites at press conferences. Shunted to the frontline during a major offensive by Earth’s United Defence Forces in an effort boost morale, Cage reluctantly undergoes rapid basic training and is introduced to a motley array of battle hardened world ethnicities.

Then he’s dropped into the fray and is brutally killed.

Then he reawakens only to repeat his final hours, caught in a continual loop, storming the beach in France, battling the alien hordes and then dying again. It’s only when he meets Rita ‘The Angel of Verdun’, a super-soldier military poster girl who appears to understand what the hapless Cage is going through. Using her, Cage must solve the greater mystery of why he’s repeating his final day and how he can use this power to defeat the enemy.

Granted it sounds like Groundhog Day or Source Code but what’s derivative on paper is executed with a sense of goofy humour, epic scope, smarts and skill. Director Doug Limon (Mr & Mrs Smith, The Bourne Identity) delivers one of his finest efforts here. There’s a heavy gaming influence on structure, look and mood with the action and set pieces all working in service to the story. It’s a beautifully executed jolt of darkly funny, smart-arsed sci-fi adventure. Welcome back Tom.