Edge of Tomorrow - The scoop and digest

Based on the novel All You Need is Kill penned by Horishi Sakurazaka, Director Doug Liman takes a sci-fi risk with an interesting premise fraught with danger.

Plot details and/or spoilers are set to repeat.

Assembling troops to go loop the loop include:

Tom Cruise – Major Cage

Emily Blunt – Rita

Bill Paxton – Master Sergeant Farell

Brendan Gleeson – General Brigham

Extra-terrestrial types (known as Mimics), address everyday boredom by launching an invasion on Earth.

Battle armour is developed to prepare for Operation Downfall as full metal bitch Rita Vrataski becomes a symbol of war for various victories at Verdun.

Enter combat virgin Major William Cage, (Keiji Kiriya in literature) who is ordered by General Brigham to be among Kevin Carter wannabes during an assault in France.

Cage refuses and threatens Brigham with blackmail.  He is subsequently knocked sparko and dumped at Heathrow Airport where the maggot meets up with Master Sergeant Farell who introduces J-Squad.

Donning a suit, his inexperience embarrasses as he’s chastised for been unable to release the safety on his mounted pop gun.

Let’s go to the beach, each.  Let’s go get away.

A mass slaughter ensues but Cage manages to destroy a larger than life monster and blacks out.

He respawns at exactly the same juncture and is forced to endure the same purgatory, every time he ‘dies’.

If you can call it a positive, he remembers how each loop plays out but every endeavour to develop change proves to be fruitless.

During a loop, he manages to rescue Rita who earlier told him something like ‘find me when you wake up’.

Cage manages to give the Sergeant and his training session the slip and confronts Rita at the barracks.

After explaining that he is basically she before Verdun, three types of Mimic exist – Drone (worker), Alpha (guard) and pseudo boss creature Omega.

When blood was spilled, the Alpha transferred its ability to manipulate time.

Oh, if an Alpha is killed, the Omega will instantaneously reset causality.

Yep, the only way out is to eliminate the Queen alien.

In preparation, Cage is put through his combat paces but as every fuck up is punishable by death, the benefit of infinite continues is greedily exploited.

He begins to visualise the Omega hiding out in Germany and it seems practice exercises have paid dividends.

We are able to progress beyond the beach and take five at an abandoned hovel where Rita is killed by a resultant Drone attack.

Germany is a red herring but injecting the contents of a device found at Brigham’s office allows him to learn the true location of the Omega is under the Lourve.

They are involved in a car accident and when Cage is rudely awakened in hospital by a blood transfusion, time control disappears.

Rita discharges Cage and after minimal persuasion, members of J-Squad are recruited for the final push in Paris.

Predictably, only Cage and Rita survive the infiltration of dilapidation and share a tender moment.

Having finally grown a pair, he dives inside the Omega’s watery haunt and sacrificial detonation is made for the good of humanity.

Before death becomes him, blood consumes every orifice.

Major Cage is now in the General’s office and because of the Omega’s demise, Mimics are quickly becoming extinct.

Bringing the curtain down, Cage meets Rita who from her POV; has never laid eyes on him before.

For some stupid reason, John Newman’s Love Me Again plays as the credits roll.

Why not Eat, Sleep, Rave Repeat?

Okay, that would be even more ridiculous but at least title bears more relevance to tagline Live. Die. Repeat.

Hang on a mo.  Repetition by TV on the Radio qualifies as being the ultimate choice…

This ‘borrows’ from so much, without directly stealing.

Imagine Starship Troopers, fused with the ingredients of Triangle, Source Code and a very different Groundhog Day.

Drones tap into Sentinels of The Matrix fame and Alphas infer miniature Kaiju.

From what I remember, the Omega is a blue blob protected by a large sack.

The dropship smacks of a HK from The Terminator.  Yes, not the tank thing. 

You could say power armour is District 9 or even Avatar, but I declare a cut and paste job from Aliens.

Going further, how about F.E.A.R. 2 or MechWarrior?

CGI visuals don’t flop like a drunken jelly on a water bed and environments nicely feel the hangover of alien devastation.  Action is ultimately suffocated by restrictions necessary to achieve a 12A certificate.

Cruise delivers personality and cheeky cheese that emulates the performance in previous sci-fi excursion Oblivion.

Complete with dodgy moustache, which may be some kind of bizarre reference to True Lies, Bill Paxton is fun barking unconvincing motivation.  Brendan Gleeson makes light work of very brief support and Emily Blunt does her best not to irritate.

Does it have more brain than tragic lobotomy?

Well, it’s sharper than most effects laden spectaculars with classy production values and smart editing.

Despite the positives, champagne moments become flat and flirt on the precipice of tedium.

My crystal ball didn't forecast brilliance and is unfortunately translated to reality.

This isn't by any means a disaster but for anybody who's expecting to be blown away, only sucking on a lemon will bring bitterer disappointment.