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This is a really great action science fiction (SF) movie,
capturing very well – through its sights, sounds, and story action – the
authentic chaos, the confusion, and the quick, quick, too quick
terror of immediate combat reality. It
puts you squarely into the war zone with no rescue possible. It is one of Tom Cruise’s better roles in
recent years, primarily because of the fine story writing history. But for me it is Emily Blunt who really stood
out as a warrior heroine, and seeing her performance here was the main event even
though Cruise has the featured role.
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The premise of Edge of Tomorrow is based
on the short Japanese SF novel, All You Need Is Kill (2004),
by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The film also gives homage to other classic
war movies, e.g., briefly to Platoon (1986) but more
especially to Saving Private Ryan (1998).
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Part of the story’s appeal is that it has a “time loop”
somewhat like the film Groundhog Day (1993), always setting
the protagonist (Cruise) back a day. But
it’s not funny. It’s terrifying. Cruise keeps getting reset back to the day
before the combat action that he knows will certainly kill him in some ghastly
new way each time. Over and over
again. The only virtue of this repeated
time loop is that he remembers each earlier time and thus may possibly learn
from his past mistakes, kind of like one’s feeble attempts at karmic
improvement while struggling and stumbling on through endless Samsara.
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The human warriors fight ruthless alien invaders, and they
are physically reinforced by powered armor exoskeletons as originally inspired
by Robert Heinlein’s classic 1959 SF novel Starship Troopers
(but it’s best to forget that dreadful movie with the same name). The odds are against humanity, and it looks
like extinction for us.
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Emily Blunt is fantastic as a warrior who fights individually
with a heroic ferocity that reminds me of Homeric times, e.g., the desperate
combats on the beach at Troy. An epic
heroine, she kicks ass and inspires the human fighters in their grim defensive
cause. They call her the “Full Metal
Bitch” and are in absolute awe of her prowess. Her performance is one of the best female
action roles I’ve seen in a while. Still,
as my cousin Holly remarked, Blunt’s character inevitably seems to play second
fiddle to that of Cruise, the great established male Hollywood mega-star.
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We need more heroines in literature and film. Intelligent steely-eyed warrior women with
individual courage, independent vision, and sovereign executive judgment. In the Western tradition, we only have a few
and their roles have been much too brief:
e.g., the Amazon queen Penthesilea, the Greek goddess Artemis, Joan of
Arc, Spenser’s Belphoebe and Britomart, etc.
Even Ayn Rand dropped the ball when penning her great heroic females,
having them bow too much to their men in the end.
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(My perspective, above, is more of a long-range historical
one. However, isolated SF, action, thriller,
and dramatic books and films in recent decades actually have produced some
remarkably great heroines, and I would really like to recollect and catalog
them into a personal Heroine Hall of Fame someday. Any suggestions for my list? Please help me here.)
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Tom Cruise is best when he precedes his heroics by playing
an unsavory person, in this case a cowardly weasel and a
very reluctant hero. (Tom
is experiencing low ebb in his stardom these days, possibly because of the
unpopularity of his real-life persona as a complete $cientology dickhead. Katie showed him the door with great
intelligence and resolve. Go, Katie!)
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This is science fiction, but when Tom shows up in the first
scenes in a bastardized knockoff of a USMC officer’s uniform, it made me want
to puke. But the Corps et al is redeemed
in the scene(s) when Tom wakes up handcuffed and disgraced, and an NCO with a
naval-block cover yells at him, “On your feet, maggot!” (Ah, sweet Parris Island nostalgia.)
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And Bill Paxton gives a supporting performance here that is
an absolute classic. His role as Master
Sergeant Farell is one with such an absurd mock-military attitude that it makes
me want to smile with every bit as wide of a shit-eating grin as his. He’s a master.
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But it is Emily Blunt who steals the show. See the movie on DVD.
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-Zenwind.
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