Not on the edge of my seat

“Edge of Tomorrow” shows why science fiction is so well-suited for the big screen.

Science fiction is the genre of strong ideas and strong visuals. Both are storytelling traits that naturally lend themselves to the camera (see “2001: A Space Odyssey” or the more recent “Avatar”).

Unfortunately, “Edge of Tomorrow” also succumbs to the stereotypical weaknesses of the genre. It presents poor character development and convoluted plots that make little sense under minimal scrutiny.

The movie starts out in familiar science fiction territory. Europe has fallen prey to an alien invasion, and humans use mechanical suits like the one in “Aliens” to fight them. The combined armies of the world mass their troops for a final push into enemy turf that will turn the tide of the war in their favor.

Enter Major Cage (Tom Cruise), a public relations guy for the military who is unwillingly put on the front lines of battle by unsavory General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson). It is no spoiler to say he only survives for about five minutes. After he dies, he wakes up at the start of the same day.

It becomes a pattern that repeats itself and shows us how a collision of the universes of “Groundhog Day” and “Gundam” might look. Essentially, Cage has to find a way to end the war that day with the help of decorated veteran Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a modern Joan of Arc who goes by the monikers Angel of Verdun and Full Metal, ahem, Beach.

This premise is interesting and could have been riveting. Instead, director Doug Liman shows us the least interesting aspects of this perpetual reincarnation. We get many training montages of Cage beaten up and Cage killed, but there are no continuous scenes where he shows us what he learns.

Cage begins as a coward and ends as a grizzled warrior, so we know he experiences tremendous growth as a character, but we never see this transition take place. We go from point A to point B as if traveling at warp speed.

Furthermore, Cage’s partner, Rita, is two-dimensional. A backstory is hinted at but never shown. The film consciously deciding not to show these scenes is similar to a chef letting you smell your favorite desert before telling you the kitchen ran out of it.
The movie still gives us some impressive visuals with the invading aliens, which look like spider-dog hybrids made of rope and move as fluidly as if they are on roller skates.
It also provides us with a very entertaining supporting role by Bill Paxton as the eccentric Sergeant Farrell.

But beyond that, the movie’s pleasures are mundane and its run time too long.
For a genre supposedly about bright ideas, you would think sci-fi moviemakers might take a leaf from Christopher Nolan’s scripts and focus on interesting characters to inhabit their far-flung worlds.

Until then, it seems well-developed protagonists will remain alien.