Film review: Edge of Tomorrow (7 out of 10)

Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow

Edge of Tomorrow lies somewhere in the middle.

I’m always a bit concerned about a film when the publicity wagon goes into overkill and there’s been trailers for this film seemingly for ages.

Cruise doesn’t often go in for offbeat projects (such as Rock of Ages and Tropic Thunder), his main movies are action-packed, usually with a bit of humour to lighten the mood.

Production of Edge of Tomorrow followed hard on the heels of the excellent Oblivion which appeared last year.

This time, Cruise plays Cage, a soldier whose role is PR - making the army and its decisions look good.

In the near future a war has broken out against invading aliens and England is one of the final places still not occupied.

Cage is drafted into a last ditch battle across the Channel but is killed. However, the alien blood that washes over him sends him back in time to the previous day.

And every time he subsequently dies he returns to the same spot.

In an attempt to defeat the aliens he has to meet up with and be trained by a Special Forces supremo, Rita (played by Emily Blunt) and basically ‘man up’.

It’s all total nonsense really with its time travel theme, but Cruise and Blunt have a good chemistry on screen and the special effects are pretty good.

There are some plot holes you could drive a London bus through and the sight of Cruise on a motorbike in the Capital without a crash helmet definitely sticks out like a sore thumb.

Although it’s like a sci-fi version of Groundhog Day, this doesn’t have the subtlety and warmth of that classic.

But the 3D effects are good and in the IMAX screen there’s plenty of in your face drama.

With its obvious references to the First World War (an earlier victory over the aliens is called the Battle of Verdun) and D-Day (the latest invasion is on the French beaches), this is presumably a kind of tribute to these military campaigns which have an anniversary this year.

Overall, though, this is a good enough sci-fi romp but you don’t want to analyse it too much afterwards.