by Matt Sernaker, Managing Editor

You only live once…unless you are Major William Cage (Tom Cruise – Oblivion), in which case you get to re-live the same day over and over again. The new sci-fi thriller Edge of Tomorrow is about to be unleashed on the world, and I think you guys are going to enjoy this one.

When aliens known as “Mimics” invade our world, humanity makes a desperate attempt to fight back with the use of a new super suit. This robotic suit will allow anyone to become a military asset with very little training. When the military calls on lead recruiter Major William Cage to head out to the front lines, he not-so-graciously declines. Now Cage finds himself trapped at a military outpost, forced to fight in the very battle he tried to avoid. After a direct confrontation with one of the aliens leads to his exposure to alien blood, Cage starts to re-live the same day over and over again. With a little help from a solider named Rita (Emily Blunt – Looper), Cage might be able to use this new ability to help win the war for the human race!

If you saw the trailers or marketing for this film, odds are you probably thought the premise was very similar to the Bill Murray comedy, Groundhog Day. Well in truth, you are partially right. While the premise of reliving the same day over and over and learning from your mistakes is a large part of this film, Edge of Tomorrow definitely expands on that premise to a whole new level. Cruise’s character must die over and over again each day in order to retain the ability to reset the day’s events. If he fails to do so, he runs the risk of not being able to fend off the alien attack. Beyond the time travel element, the other fun component of the film is the mech suits. If you watched Exo-Squad growing up, or loved Ripley’s exo-suit in Aliens, you will definitely get a kick out of these. Unlike the suits in Elysium, these suits are pretty bad-ass.

If you are a fan of Tom Cruise (or even if you aren’t), you get to watch him die over and over again. This element was a lot of fun for multiple reasons, and was played off well in the film as an actual plot point. While we see some story elements repeat, the writers added new and interesting pieces to the narrative with each reset. Emily Blunt was a great foil for Cruise, and was very believable as the highly skilled warrior Rita. Bill Paxton (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) plays the role of Master Sergeant Ferrel, who continuously gives Cage grief in every variation of the day. I honestly didn’t recognize Paxton at first, and once I did it made the character even more enjoyable.

Overall

I think this movie will definitely surprise audiences. The premise sounds familiar, but the movie itself runs off in a very original direction. The aliens were definitely something new that we haven’t seen before. The acting was great all around, solid from start to finish. If you want to have some fun this weekend, head out to theaters to watch Tom Cruise die again and again in Edge of Tomorrow.