I heard Edge of Tomorrow was really good, but like most people I never went out to see it. Tom Cruise in a action/sci-fi movie is usually a good bet, plus this movie was directed by Doug Liman who directed and produced three of the Bourne movies. The guy knows his action movies. With that pedigree, this movie is awesome! Right up to the end.

Tom Cruise plays Cage, a military officer doing PR for the military during the alien invasion by “Mimics”. These large, vicious, shape shifting quadrupeds are devastating the human population. It takes an advanced exo-skeleton suit for mankind to have even the slightest chance of killing more than one. Cage gets thrown into the thick of combat and through a fight with one, gains the ability to reset time every time he dies. He’s brought back right when he wakes up in boot camp. Confused at what’s happened and what to do, he meets Special Forces Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) in the field. When he describes his new powers, she tells him to find her when he wakes up again. When he does, she explains what happened and how they can stop the invasion together.

So time travel is the main hook of the movie and it’s handled really well. Cage is the only one who remembers each day, so he gets to know everyone he meets really well over the course of his resets (I figure he does it at least 300 times). So while they don’t know Cage as they only know him for a day or so, he comes to know them as friends. I’m really impressed by the structure of the script and editing as they repeat things just enough to set the stage and wisely show straight continuity (the farm house scene being the best example) to keep things moving and interesting. There’s some great action scenes, some good laughs, great characters (Rita especially), everything you could want in a movie like this. And then the last five minutes happen.

It’s atrocious. It makes no sense whatsoever with how the teleportation ability is established. It breaks the rules and robs everything the characters were working for. The characters essence is completely thrown in the garbage after all of the hard work and planning  of the production. It simply creates a Hollywood happy ending for the sake of having a trite Hollywood happy ending. With how good the movie is up to the ending (I’ve never read the book either), I can only assume a stupid, redundant studio executive trying to justified his/her job forced this asinine ending upon the film makers.

I had a blast with this movie until the end. It completely mars the experience. The true ending is there too, just roll the credits after the final explosion and you have the perfect beginning, middle and end. I would love nothing more to throw nothing but praise at Edge of Tomorrow, but the end annoys me beyond belief, it’s horrible writing. I still think you should see it though.