When I went into the theater to watch Doug Liman's Edge of Tomorrow, I was totally prepared for a mash-up of Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Harold Ramis' Groundhog Day (1993). What I wasn't prepared for was how much fun it would be. Edge of Tomorrow is a genuinely entertaining sci-fi film with a fair share of dark humor that manages to also be rather thought-provoking. Based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka's light novel All You Need Is Kill, the film follows US Major William Cage as he is forced to relive the same disastrous day over and over again where he takes part in mankind's final doomed attempt to destroy an invading race of aliens known as Mimics. I won't spoil the mystery concerning why he is stuck in a temporal loop, but I will say that the explanation was surprisingly fresh and original. Cage's transformation from unwilling soldier to super-warrior extraordinaire was delightful to witness. Indeed, the film takes as much joy in exploring the consequences of countlessly reliving the same day over and over again as the aforementioned Groundhog Day. And since Cage's day resets whenever he dies...well, let's just say that it is a situation ripe for comedy. While I was disappointed in the film's over-reliance on CGI both for its futuristic technology and for the design of the Mimics, I did appreciate how all of the military gear looked used and dirty instead of sterile and new.
8/10
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