Review: Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow Lives, Dies, Repeats on 4K Ultra HD

Tom Cruise has never had, nor has he really needed, a McConaissance-style regeneration at any point in his privileged career path. Empirically speaking, he’s never really needed one. He’s been a reliably consistent box office draw since he paired sunglasses with socks and skivvies, manages his projects as wisely as anyone in his league, and even his detours into arty indulgence—or, as in the case of Interview with the Vampire and Rock of Ages, ludicrous miscasting—have performed better than reasonable expectation. For someone the world seems to hate, that litigious imp sure does seem to charm everyone.

But there’s another possible reason why Cruise has never had to (or had the opportunity to) reboot his mojo. In exaggerated contrast to, if not outright conversation with, his reputation for overzealous image maintenance, most of the characters the actor has played over the course of the last three decades have been studies in thwarted masculine hubris.

The theme was gnawing at the edges of his matinee-idol confidence in The Firm, fully established itself the moment his fast-talking sports agent from Jerry Maguire flipped out in response to getting pink-slipped, and was crafted into a beautifully symphonic two-part suite announcing the seeming death blow to the Lt. “Maverick” era in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. Cruise’s on-screen persona has been repeatedly undercut, his charisma challenged by the extenuating circumstances of the action-movie rulebook. Rather than rise to his challenges, he frequently stumbles upon a workable solution or, as in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, just waits until his nemeses catch a cold.

Edge of Tomorrow remains a benchmark for the microchipping of Cruise’s now well-tamed pit-bull nature. Based on the Japanese sci-fi light novel All You Need Is Kill, the film takes place a dozen or two years in the future. A race of aliens has landed in central Europe and quickly decimated all defenses, owing to their seemingly preternatural ability to anticipate all military forces’ next moves. That and the fact that the Mimics, as they’re known, are thrashing beasts whose lashing tendrils damn near break the sound barrier as they decimate their prey. (They’re in effect a $180-million adaptation of the tornado scribbles in a kids’ flipbook, the unholy love children of the Tasmanian Devil and Stephen King’s Langoliers.)

Cruise plays Major William Cage, a public relations avatar within the ranks of the United States military whose main function is to give square-jawed face at press conferences. As forces gather to storm the beaches of Normandy, Cage is called by General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) to film the assault. Within seconds, his façade of poise drops and he admits that he hasn’t been within a whiff of combat. He’s charged as a deserter and sent straight to the frontlines, where he’s killed within minutes. And then he wakes up at the start of the day. And then again, eventually realizing that he’s caught in a time loop, destined to continue his impossible mission unless he can manage to somehow survive the sandy slaughter.

Though the battle sequences are filmed like an interstellar Saving Private Ryan, director Doug Liman gives Edge of Tomorrow’s grim temporal coils the exact sort of Groundhog Day playfulness that the scenario begs for. Working from a script written, in part, by Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects), Liman doesn’t ever confuse the lines of chronology, only occasionally flirting with the uncanny by skipping past unnecessary “life lessons.”

Had they cast any other action-movie stud in the lead role, Edge of Tomorrow would have remained a clever, knowing nod toward the Sisyphean self-image held by most FPS gamers (who would probably just as soon fire up their consoles than watch Cage fail over and over and over). But Cruise’s participation transmutes, as it always does, everything around him, turning the film’s series of false starts, dead ends, and hard lessons into a working metaphor for his own career. Or, rather, the plucky underdog career he would love for everyone to confuse with the world-conquering, lawsuit-filing, thetan-slinging onslaught he actually has.

Image/Sound

Edge of Tomorrow’s gunmetal-gray color grading and sharp cinematography looked outstanding on Warner’s 2014 Blu-ray, and it gets a healthy upgrade in 4K here. Detail is crisper across the board, even in the murkier, underlit final segment. The desaturated images now reveal subtler variations of color, and the shimmering outlines of the aliens also come into clearer focus. The Atmos soundtrack is absolutely overwhelming, particularly in bass frequencies so strong that you may need to adjust the levels on your TV or external speakers to protect them. Surround channels are filled with the deafening sounds of warfare, all explosions and gunfire. Almost miraculously, dialogue is never obscured, even in the thick of battle.

Extras

Warner’s new disc ports over the modest extras from the earlier Blu-ray, of which the only noteworthy feature is a 43-minute production documentary that chiefly focuses on director Doug Liman and how he organized the shoot, from meticulously working with the art department to avoiding potential snags. Watching it now is a reminder of just how recently Tom Cruise reasserted his star power as the dominant focus of his films. Other than that, there are only a few brief videos on production aspects like designing the film’s weaponry and aliens, as well as a few minutes of superfluous deleted scenes.

Overall

Doug Liman’s sci-fi action thriller remains one of the most enjoyable American blockbusters of the previous decade, and it looks outstanding in ultra-high-def.