History tends to repeat itself in all areas, including the movies. Sometimes, there are films that take that concept to the extreme, like in Groundhog Day. 21 years later, the sci-fi version of living the same day over and over again repeats itself in Edge of Tomorrow - only with a lot more of Tom Cruise dying before foiling his latest alien invasion.
After five years of fighting alien marauders called Mimics throughout Europe, humanity is staging a massive assault on the beaches of France to repel the invaders. To help sell confidence in the attack, the powers that be force public relations expert Major William Cage onto the front lines, despite his complete lack of training or desire for combat. Regardless, the entire army is immediately ambushed and slaughtered, yet Cage takes out a powerful Mimic before he dies - and then wakes up at the army base the day before the attack. But after several more deaths and rebirths, Cage finds an ally in Special Forces heroine Rita, who has lived through the phenomenon before - and trains Cage to fight, live and die day after day until they find the key to changing mankind's doomed future.
While Groundhog Day is the obvious movie to compare this with, director Doug Liman actually makes the first movie that can be called a cross between Groundhog Day and World War II, at least in the opening setup. It may be no accident that Edge of Tomorrow is released on D-Day's 70'th anniversary, given the setup of aliens marching through Europe for five years, Americans joining the fight a few years late, and then staging a massive beach attack to take the continent back. But in this version, the enemy is an alien force that can reset the future, not Nazis.
In addition to Groundhog Day and actual history, Liman also mixes the traditional video game formula into Edge of Tomorrow's setup. A good video game player can get a character killed over and over, learn enough to know how to get to future levels, and then ideally win the game. Cage becomes that kind of video game character, with Liman and writers Christopher McQuarrie, Jez and John-Henry Butterworth banging him around like he was controlled by a joystick.
Most of the time, borrowing from so many old elements makes a movie derivative and unoriginal. The trailers sold Edge of Tomorrow as that kind of film, especially considering Cruise's old hat at these save-the-plant adventures. But with Liman combining this unique mix of movies and formulas, he finds ways to make it fresher than it has any right to be - or at least not as annoyingly familiar as it should have been.
The execution makes all the difference, with Liman on a level of execution he hasn't been in since he started the original Bourne trilogy. After the initial historical parallels, and the novelty of Cruise playing a far less gung-ho soldier than usual, Liman gets down to business with a spectacular attack gone wrong - like the far softer sci-fi version of Saving Private Ryan. However, that is not a knock against it.
Edge of Tomorrow is smart enough to keep revisiting its standout scene, with various deadly endings. In between Cage getting killed on the beaches and getting killed in training with Rita, the first hour provides about all anyone can ask for. But when Edge of Tomorrow starts backing away from its 'Live, Die, Repeat' concept, especially in the third act, it starts to become another regular alien war picture after all.
Cruise has taken out his share of alien forces, including in Oblivion. But that movie was another example of how Cruise's ambition seemed to have faded, after he knocked himself off his superstar throne. In his heyday, Cruise at least kept pushing himself in A-list projects and different parts, even if he wasn't all that right for them, yet his recent efforts have included a few B-movies, demented comic turns and just one real hit in America with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.
Cruise isn't the big draw he used to be, but at least he has a resurgence on screen in Edge of Tomorrow. While he does become a world saving hero like usual before long, it is refreshing to see him go back to taking different paths than usual along the way. His typical energy and almost manic commitment always works better in something worth that effort, and this fits the bill. While he may be no Bill Murray, Cruise lives out hundreds of days and deaths with fear, exasperation, humor and the occasional old trick that kept him on top for 25 years.
Nevertheless, Cruise isn't the most hard core action hero of Edge of Tomorrow, as that honor goes to Emily Blunt, of all people. While Cruise is action movie royalty, Blunt still gets to show him a thing or two, to say nothing of audiences who may still know her best from The Devil Wears Prada. While this is mainly Cruise's ride, Blunt makes it regrettable that Edge of Tomorrow wasn't about Rita's time loop wars instead. But before Blunt comes in, Bill Paxton does his own scene stealing as the Kentucky sergeant commanding Cage.
For at least the first half, Edge of Tomorrow makes something new out of a few old things - not just Cruise - before turning more generic once the central gimmick is abandoned. Until then, while the film borrows freely from other genres and movies, it has a more inventive blend and pairings than one might expect at first glance.