Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt star in director Doug Liman's post-apocalyptic drama based on the Hiroshi Sakurazaka novel "All You Need Is Kill."

Rating: 10/10 (30 October 2014)

A narratively ambitious sci-fi action, Edge of Tomorrow plays out a familiar alien invasion apocalypse drama in a way that, through repetition, allows humanity to learn from its mistakes and have a shot at surviving until another movie's monsters from outer space show up. Picking yourself up to fight another day might work for the characters, but battle fatigue eventually sets in for viewers as Doug Liman's film keeps folding back on itself time and time again. Tom Cruise and gigantic action scenes assure sizable openings internationally, but several commercial question marks hover over this expensive Warner Bros. release, including the second-tier tent-pole grosses for the star's recent action outings (other than for the Mission: Impossible franchise), a title that sounds like it belongs on an old daytime soap opera and, most significantly, the extent to which audiences will tire of the let's-play-it-over-again storyline.