Win: An alien race hits Movies@Emnotweni

Edge of Tomorrow

Movies@Emnotweni is giving away a special Edge of Tomorrow hamper (containing a novel, T-shirt and cap) to one lucky reader. Simply SMS the keyword ‘edge’ followed by your name and surname to 35954 to enter the lucky draw. Competition opens Monday June 23, 2014 and ends at 12:00 on Friday June 27, 2014. You may enter as many times as you like. SMSes cost R1.50 each. This competition is a lucky draw. The winner will be notified telephonically and will be required to collect the prize at Lowveld Media’s offices – 12 Stinkhout Crescent,  Nelspruit. The winner may be required to pose for a photo and may appear in any of Lowveld Media’s publications. Terms and conditions apply.

About the movie

An officer finds himself caught in a time loop in a war with an alien race. His skills increase as he faces the same brutal combat scenarios, and his union with a Special Forces warrior gets him closer and closer to defeating the enemy.

An alien race has hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world. Major William Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop-forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again…and again. But with each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt). And, as Cage and Vrataski take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy.

You could describe this movie as a dizzying combination of Groundhog Day, Starship Troopers, Source Code and The Butterfly Effect. Edge of Tomorrow borrows from these films and while some of the individual ideas may not therefore be groundbreakingly original, the way they’re combined and put to use in Edge of Tomorrow by director Doug Liman certainly is. As aliens have invaded Earth, humanity’s only hope lies in a cowardly PR officer Bill Cage (played by Tom Cruise) with no combat skills who is sent to the front lines. His only advantage? A save point, sort of. Are you excited yet? You should be.

You have to love Tom Cruise as an actor, he always gives his roles a 100 per cent and he’s phenomenal in Edge of Tomorrow – Physical, funny and determined. This might be his best performance since Collateral. Emily Blunt is fantastically hardcore as the poster girl of the war, Rita Vrataski. This is her first real action film and she knocks it out of the park.

Cruise and Blunt also have great chemistry together. Bill Paxton and Brandon Gleeson give great supporting performances and most of the supporting soldiers have distinct personalities even with their limited screen times.

Edge of Tomorrow’s world building is slick and credible. The CGI(computer-generated imagery) and the special effects are seamless and bring the great set pieces and the relentless aliens to life.

The action is really exhilarating (the cool exoskeleton suits definitely help here) and the script is very witty and inventive as it needs to be when you’re dealing with time travel (or time resets if you will). Despite its action thrills, Edge of Tomorrow finds plenty of room for character development both for Cruise and Blunt. The script also manages to pull off some quite funny scenes (especially in the training segment).

The the situations could get old really fast if it wasn’t for the fast-paced editing that concisely and freshly shows the differences in each repetition Cruise goes through.

With an IMDb rating of 8.2, this is one not to be missed.

Director: Doug Liman

Writers:  Christopher McQuarrie (screenplay), Jez Butterworth (screenplay)

Stars:  Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 113 min

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