this is a copycat move

Rating: 4/10 (31 May 2014)

Yes---This is a copycat movie The plot with the repeated segments is copied straight from "Source Code" and the fluorescent squid-like aliens are copied from the fast-swimming squid-aliens in the Matrix. This boils down to a shoot-em-up! I'd go for Source Code any day---as the real thinking man's SF movie.
Doug Liman's action movie, with its anti-chemistry between Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, is based on a 2004 novel by Japanese SF author Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Earth is fighting an alien invasion and Cruise plays William Cage, a PR guy who starts off as a chicken ------but is forced into combat after trying to bribe a general. There are eerie overtones of World War One with mentions of Verdun as one of the battlefields--then a reprise of a dam on a German lake---
Playing the same plot over again may be Liman's tribute to the Harold Ramis's matchless comedy masterpiece Groundhog Day, but when Bill Murray repeatedly lived out the same ridiculously banal day, it was entertaining, and had a real plot.
Tom Cruise is in a time loop. He fights. He is awesome. That's it. It's supposed to be exciting, but it is a drudge. The film lacks any edge, there is no love interest.....All you have is action...with slight variations each time round.....Like those Spot the Difference cartoons---which are so dull that they don't even put them in Punch magazine any more. A very mechanical movie....OK on a Saturday night when you're boozed up and have low expectations. This could have been so much better with a more intelligent plot.