History YMMV / EdgeOfTomorrow

** Emily Blunt (before her StarMakingRole in ''Film/TheDevilWearsPrada'') said in 2005 that she'd rather be an underpaid theatre actress than a SpearCarrier in a Tom Cruise movie. Come this film and it's one of the few times Tom Cruise plays a weak character, and Emily gets to be the one to train him into a badass.

** Being a Hollywood movie starring Creator/TomCruise, it's bound to become better known than the [[LightNovel/AllYouNeedIsKill original Japanese]] LightNovel.

* EnsembleDarkHorse: Sgt. Farrell has gathered a popular and sizable fanbase for being immensely hammy and incredibly [[MemeticMutation quotable.]] The fact that this is one of Bill Paxton’s last performances only increased this.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: The film itself is based on an obscure Japanese light novel, and fans were suspicious on how it will fare. To their surprise, however, it was warmly received all-around - 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.9 on IMDb, and $370.5 million worldwide.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: The film itself is based on an obscure Japanese light novel, and fans were suspicious on how it will fare. To their surprise, however, received a 90% review score, according to Rotten Tomatoes, and earned $370.5 million worldwide, along with a 7.9 on iMDB, something rare for an action movie.

* PresumedFlop: Many news outlets called the film a flop based on the films less than stellar opening weekend in the United States. However, while it did underperform in America, it was a huge hit in South Korea and China, and it did end up making a third of its profit from America, at just over $100 million of the $350 million earned at the box office thanks to good Word of Mouth; giving it a small profit and successful enough for Creator/WarnerBrothers to greenlight a sequel.

* PressumedFlop: Many news outlets called the film a flop based on the films less than stellar opening weekend in the United States. However, while it did underperform in America, it was a huge hit in South Korea and China, and it did end up making a third of its profit from America, at just over $100 million of the $350 million earned at the box office thanks to good Word of MOuth; making it a small profit and successful enough for Warner Brothers to greenlight a sequel.

* CatharsisFactor: A big appeal of the movie is the innate satisfaction in seeing Cage, who starts the movie off as a cowardly and unsympathetic jerk, getting completely humiliated and dying over and over again. It also helps that he's played by a controversial actor.

** When Cage finds Rita in the training center, she's in midst of doing the ''surya namaskar'', a yoga sequence composed by a cycle of moves. As if the metaphor is not clear enough, time itself is considered to be cyclical in Indian philosophy.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Sure, Cage, try to blackmail your superior officer/boss/the supreme commander of the human military, who has very broad leaning powers in a war for humanity's very survival. Just see where it gets you.
** At the start of the loop on at least 2 occasions, J Squad and Master Sergeant Farrell. The very first loop they put a clearly untrained and panicked man into a suit with more firepower than a modern tank, with nobody giving him the slightest instruction or actually paying attention to what the hell he's doing even when he aggressively starts messing with his suit. The movie plays it off for a laugh when he accidentally switches the language on his suit to Japanese, but he could just have easily have accidentally fired off one of the suit's heavy weapons and killed everybody in the chopper, and in fact DOES manage to accidentally finally turn the safety off. Then again later, when Cage is screaming about how he knows the future and everything that's and is having to be physically restrained. Even if they reasonably don't believe his ranting about knowing the future, from their perspective Cage is very clearly having some kind of psychotic break, and their "solution" is to put duct tape over his mouth and AGAIN stick him inside a heavily armed suit. In both cases they dump somebody who either obviously has no idea what he is doing or is actively aggressive and non-rational into a heavily armed suit and set him loose on the beach, which AT BEST results in him having no positive impact on the assault, and at worst has him accidentally or intentionally kill a whole bunch of friendly troops. The film tries to hand-wave it as a way to show desperation of human armies (throwing penal units into direct combat is by default this), but in case of Cage, this goes just too far. Unless, of course, the dispatch from General Brigham outright said [[UriahGambit to put Cage in the first assault wave]], but that's another can of worms.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Being a Hollywood movie starring Creator/TomCruise, it's bound to become better known than the [[LightNovel/AllYouNeedIsKill original Japanese]] LightNovel. Though that has a manga version drawn by the artist of the popular ''Manga/DeathNote'' also. And in a weird variant, people often think the film is adapted from ''the manga'', even though the manga was made only after the film was announced.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: The film itself is based on a Japanese light novel, and fans were suspicious on how it will fare. To their surprise, however, received a 90% review score, according to Rotten Tomatoes, and earned $370.5 million worldwide, along with a 7.9 on iMDB, something rare for an action movie.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The other members of J-squad don't get much lines or development, and as such it's hard to care when their deaths in the final battle are treated as such a big deal.

* WhatAnIdiot: Sure, Cage, try to blackmail your superior officer/boss/the supreme commander of the human military, who has very broad leaning powers in a war for humanity's very survival. Just see where it gets you.
** And at the start of the loop on at least 2 occasions, J Squad and Master Sergeant Farrell. The very first loop they put a clearly untrained and panicked man into a suit with more firepower than a modern tank, with nobody giving him the slightest instruction or actually paying attention to what the hell he's doing even when he aggressively starts messing with his suit. The movie plays it off for a laugh when he accidentally switches the language on his suit to Japanese, but he could just have easily have accidentally fired off one of the suit's heavy weapons and killed everybody in the chopper, and in fact DOES manage to accidentally finally turn the safety off. Then again later, when Cage is screaming about how he knows the future and everything that's and is having to be physically restrained. Even if they reasonably don't believe his ranting about knowing the future, Cage is very clearly having some kind of psychotic break, and their 'solution' is to put duct tape over his mouth and AGAIN stick him inside a heavily armed suit. In both cases they dump somebody who either obviously has no idea what he is doing or is actively aggressive and non-rational into a heavily armed suit and set him loose on the beach, which AT BEST results in him having no positive impact on the assault, and at worst has him accidentally or intentionally kill a whole bunch of friendly troops. The film tries to hand-wave it as a way to show desperation of human armies (throwing penal units into direct combat is by default this), but in case of Cage, this goes just too far. Unless, of course, the dispatch from General Brigham outright said [[UriahGambit to put Cage in the first assault wave]], but that's another can of worms.
* WinBackTheCrowd: For Creator/TomCruise, after the mixed reception of ''Film/{{Oblivion 2013}}''. More than a few critics have admitted to being reminded SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct. Similar with his winning turn in ''Film/TropicThunder'', Cruise received a lot of praise for PlayingAgainstType: Instead of starting out as a badass, Cruise plays a wimpy protagonist who runs around battle (the first time) screaming for someone to turn off his safety and has to learn how to become one.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: The film itself is based on a Japanese light novel, and fans were suspicious on how it will fare. To their surprise, however, received a 90% review score, according to Rotten Tomatoes, and earned $370.5 million worldwide.

** Cruise's determination to keep going even after breaking his leg in the training room in one loop becomes even funnier when you realize that Tom Cruise did just that on the set of ''Mission: Impossible - Fallout''. After breaking his ankle from a roof jump, he climbed up the side of the building and kept running. This take is used in the film.

** And at the start of the loop on at least 2 occasions, J Squad and Master Sergeant Farrell. The very first loop they put a clearly untrained and panicked man into a suit with more firepower than a modern tank, with nobody giving him the slightest instruction or actually paying attention to what the hell he's doing even when he aggressively starts messing with his suit. The movie plays it off for a laugh when he accidentally switches the language on his suit to Japanese, but he could just have easily have accidentally fired off one of the suit's heavy weapons and killed everybody in the chopper, and in fact DOES manage to accidentally finally turn the safety off. Then again later, when Cage is screaming about how he knows the future and everything that's and is having to be physically restrained. Even if they reasonably don't believe his ranting about knowing the future, Cage is very clearly having some kind of psychotic break, and their 'solution' is to put duct tape over his mouth and AGAIN stick him inside a heavily armed suit. In both cases they dump somebody who either obviously has no idea what he is doing or is actively aggressive and non-rational into a heavily armed suit and set him loose on the beach, which AT BEST results in him having no positive impact on the assault, and at worst has him accidentally or intentionally kill a whole bunch of friendly troops.

** And at the start of the loop on at least 2 occasions, J Squad and Master Sergeant Farrell. The very first loop they put a clearly untrained and panicked man into a suit with more firepower than a modern tank, with nobody giving him the slightest instruction or actually paying attention to what the hell he's doing even when he aggressively starts messing with his suit. The movie plays it off for a laugh when he accidentally switches the language on his suit to Japanese, but he could just have easily have accidentally fired off one of the suit's heavy weapons and killed everybody in the chopper. Then again, when Cage is screaming about how he knows the future and everything that's happening. Even if they reasonably don't believe him, he is very clearly having some kind of psychotic break, and their solution is to put duct tape over his mouth and AGAIN stick him inside a heavily armed suit. In both cases they dump somebody who either obviously has no idea what he is doing or is actively aggressive and non-rational into a heavily armed suit and set him loose on the beach, which AT BEST results in him having no positive impact on the assault, and at worst has him accidentally or intentionally kill a whole bunch of friendly troops.

%%* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail

** Also, while this doesn't apply to Sergeant Ferrell in general, it would have been great to see him take part in the final mission, and would have been a good swan song for his career, given that it was the last big action/science-fiction movie he would appear in.

* HarsherInHindsight: A movie about the protagonists cheating death repeatedly is a little sad to watch with the knowledge that Bill Paxton passed away only two years later. The sequel had been talked about for years but wasn't greenlit until after his death too.