Edge of Tomorrow; Live, Die, Repeat (2014)

It seems this film’s title is Edge of Tomorrow. I’ve been referring to it as Live, Die, Repeat? Anyway despite my confusion, and low expectations from this, it’s actually a rather clever sci-fi love story.

I like Doug Liman a lot as a director, although he’s misfired a few times. The first Bourne is my favourite from the series and really set the tone, Swingers is a 90s classic. The writer of this film is Christopher McQuarrie (and Jez Butterworth). McQuarrie is famously the scribe behind The Usual Suspects, but he also wrote and directed the highly underrated The Way of the Gun.

This film has neat twists, that many may find initially irritating, but sit back and relax… the filmmakers know what they’re doing. It’s a CGI heavy sci-fi, but the CGI is nicely done and doesn’t overwhelm the film. The battle scenes are ferocious, but the central love story slowly begins to dominate the storyline and Emily Blunt is wonderfully understated. Tom is Tom, but at the start of the film it’s very refreshing to see him play subtly against type.

This is intelligent, rousing and refreshing big budget sci-fi. Bravo to the studio and the makers. More please…

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer. He’s also a leading UK script consultant. You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb. You can get in touch with Matthew on matcoop23@yahoo.co.uk or hire him on Peopleperhour