A Tom Cruise action flick with a strong female heroine and a sense of humor? “Edge of Tomorrow’’ has both of those, plus a “Groundhog Day’’-style gimmick that pays big dividends. Over and over.
It’s exciting and a lot of fun — especially if you’re willing to check your brain at the popcorn stand — and is smart filmmaking by the very modest standards of summer blockbusters.
Welcome to the not-too-distant future, when Europe and Asia have been conquered by deadly extraterrestrial soldiers. But the tide has been turning, and humans are planning a huge invasion on the same Normandy beaches where D-Day occurred.
The allied commander (Brendan Gleeson) in London inexplicably wants the military’s top spin doctor, Cage (Cruise), to embed with the troops landing from the air — never mind that he’s never been trained for combat.
The cowardly Cage not only balks but (oddly) threatens Gleeson with bad p.r. if he’s sent. So Gleeson has Cage arrested, busted from colonel to private, and shipped out the next morning as a grunt with gung-ho commander Bill Paxton’ s first wave of invaders in sophisticated metal battle suits, equipped with built-in guns and rocket launchers.
None of this makes much sense, but director Doug Liman (“The Bourne Supremacy’’) doesn’t give you much time to think about it. Moments after landing, Cage’s is killed by one of the aliens during the invasion.
Then Cage wakes up to relive the same day, thanks to a not particularly well-explained mechanism that allows him to “reset’’ every time he’s killed. And this happens a lot. Every time he repeats the day, he becomes a better soldier and is eventually able to even help his comrades in arms.
Of course, nobody believes Cage when he explains how he’s acquired his improved combat skills — since none of them remembers how he screwed up previously.
The exception is the ever-delightful Emily Blunt as Rita, a decorated war heroine who had the same ability as Cage to reset when killed — at least until she lost it because of a blood transfusion.
She explains to Cage that one of the reasons the extraterrestrials are such formidable opponents is that they, too, can reset — and that Cage’s ability can provide a window into their strategy that may turn the tide for humankind.
Still with me? None of this is going to matter much except to geeks. Everyone else is going to enjoy the action set-pieces, the most elaborate video game-like battles since “Starship Troopers.’’
The acting in this handsome production is better than usual for the genre, though the actors aren’t able to suggest the intense level of dread and peril of the film’s obvious model, “Aliens.’’ The generic-looking tentacled aliens just aren’t that scary.
Blunt makes a convincing warrior, though Rita isn’t as well-written a person as Blunt’s character in her last foray into time-travel sci-fi, the superior “Looper.’’ The actress even survives a half-hearted attempt at suggesting Rita is romantically attracted to Cage — Cruise remains unable to suggest he’s capable of loving anyone but himself.
One of the best standing jokes in “Edge of Tomorrow’’ is the character’s selfishness — and that unfortunately extends to the actor’s lack of generosity at the climax, which seems to be heading toward something entirely new for a Tom Cruise movie. Instead, the movie ends with a truly WTF moment. But even that doesn’t really spoil the fun.