Somehow now 51 years old, the ever-youthful Tom Cruise is the ultimate A-list Hollywood battler – he keeps coming back for more again and again and again.
Just like his latest character, Major William Cage, who goes into battle, dies and then repeatedly returns to the battlefield hoping to improve matters next time out.
In any war there can be precious little time to learn skills and lessons. One wrong move and that’s it. Bang, bang, bang – you’re dead!
Here, Cage returns to battle time after time and, in a bid to save mankind from a hive-like alien race called the Mimics, he keeps managing to work out what he might do better.
Edge of Tomorrow opens like Saving Private Ryan meets Alien on the beaches of France while its overall structure is like a video game-style combination of Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day (1993) crossed with Jake Gyllenhaal’s Source Code (2011).
Throw in Emily Blunt’s combative character Rita as a girl worth fighting for and the stage is set for a twist-and-turn thriller that keeps returning to ‘Go’.
Jokey at first, the script is co-written by The Usual Suspects’ Christopher McQuarrie.
Just one gripe: the 3D is superfluous. Co-star Brendan Gleeson (General Brigham) certainly doesn’t need it.
