Sense and sensibility

Come to think of it, "Edge of Tomorrow", the latest Tom Cruise-starrer and directed by Doug Liman, who megged the very first film in the Jason Bourne series, has a highly-incredible premise, so much so that in less-skilled hands the film could have become no more than a bluff. The Earth has been predominantly taken siege by destructive alien creatures referred to as "Mimics". Any attempt by humans to launch a battle against these creatures would only amount to futility for it turns out that the "Mimics" have the powerful capability of "foreseeing" our actions and thereby hindering them. Moreover, any attempt to kill them would only bring about the opposite result - that is, it would just make them to multiply and "live" more. For these creatures are just nothing but "branches" of a much bigger "head", which virtually serves as their "life-giver". 

Thus explains why the film's protagonist, William Cage (played by Tom Cruise), a US Defense officer who has never been to a battle before but is now all of a sudden plunged into it, is bound to repeat the same course of event in regards waging war against the Mimics over and over and over - he will fight, die and live again, ad infinitum. For the "head" of the Mimics - what is referred to as the "Omega" - just foresees exactly how he (and the rest of us) would behave. The battle then becomes something of a Sisyphusian task. Which brings us to the matter of why "Edge of Tomorrow" becomes a compelling science-fiction in its own way. 

The film's primary protagonists - Cage and Rita Vrataski (played by Emily Blunt), a highly-skilled and spunky soldier who is also going through the same "repetitive" experience as the former - are not the standard "heroes" who can be fully considered as invincible and powerful. In fact, they appear to be significantly helpless and defenseless in the face of a mammoth catastrophe. And this is where the film's time-loop plays a crucial part. On the surface, such a narrative device comes off as gimmicky and superficial, no different from the logistical flow of a video-game. Thanks, however, to the writers' perceptiveness (one of whom is no less than Christopher McQuarrie, who penned Bryan Singer's tricky "The Usual Suspects"), the film's seemingly interminable "repetition" becomes a startling way of highlighting the futility and hopelessness of the soldiers' task, how they are really doomed to a vicious circle of chaos and destruction, at the mercy of some intangible force beyond their control. No small thanks likewise to Cruise and Blunt, as they are able to aptly communicate their characters' vulnerability to the viewers, while still not losing sight of the magnitude of their mission. 

All of these might sound like some heavy philosophical stuff (in the way the great Stanley Kubrick and Andrei Tarkovsky would have their science-fiction). But set your misgivings aside (not to say of course that metaphysics and ontology are not most welcome), for Liman and his trio of writers have managed to lend an air of goofiness to the proceedings, thus tempering whatever morose tendency the film may have. Lest we forget, "Edge of Tomorrow" is still being peddled as a summer blockbuster fare, thus it is not to be least expected that we would be treated to a spectacle of high-octane carnage and combat. And this, the film has plentiful to offer in admittedly engrossing ways. Still, the good thing is that while the visual excitement quotient is satisfyingly met, because of the filmmakers' acute exposition of the premise and the actors' grounded vulnerability, there's still some sense to be found amid all the crash and bang. 

(Photo below:The hero appears to be defenseless and helpless in the face of cataclysm in "Edge of Tomorrow".)