Edge of Tomorrow is Groundhog Day, set in a futuristic battle with aliens. The gimmick dominates the whole movie, together with Tom Cruise doing his “charming” thing, and it keeps you interested for at least two-thirds of the film, after which you start to glaze over a little bit. But there are additional problems. The aliens look kind of fake, and all the action concerning them happens so fast you can’t even see what’s going on – it gets tiring. And once the novelty of the gimmick wears off (about half way through), it’s perfectly clear what the rest of the movie will entail, and so in the end the film feels quite long and unsurprising. (A good contrast would be the concurrently playing  Snowpiercer, where you have no clue what’s going to happen the entire course of the movie, and are thus completely riveted.) Plus, Edge of Tomorrow has no ideas and nothing to say about anything; it’s a narrative gimmick, combined with CGI robot fighting scenes, nothing more. Tom Cruise is passable in a familiar roll for him: arrogant goofball turned hero. The magnificent Emily Blunt has absolutely nothing to do in this movie, but in Hollywood terms this film is (sadly) a big step up for her, so I guess congratulations are in order.

It’s a summer popcorn movie. Enjoy it for what it is.