Nope...not worthy of its praise and hype...

Rating: 7/10 (8 October 2014)

6.5/10
*please pardon the forced incorrect use of nested parentheses; apparently, IMDb believes anything in a bracket is "markup" ...
So, essentially all I've heard and read of this movie is that it's an under-appreciated work of genius that should serve as inspiration for all future sci-fi movies. Unfortunately, the reality is that this movie offers precisely zero original concepts, nothing remotely close to anything requiring intelligence to decipher (it's literally Pacific Rim (horrid), Independence Day (horrid), Source Code (decent, but overrated), and Aliens (yep: excellent) tossed into a blender, the mix being even bitterer than the majority of the individual ingredients), and is simply unworthy of the baseless critical acclaim it appears to have received since failing spectacularly at the American box office. When not even the excellent Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, and Doug Liman can save a totally unworthy script that offers literally nothing that hasn't been done before (and done better, numerous times), you know you have a "problem film" that shouldn't have been green-lit.
To be sure, I went into this movie expecting it to be the under-appreciated work it's been touted as; I personally enjoyed Oblivion (surprisingly superior to this film in literally every way) quite a bit, thanks in no small part to Tom Cruise's ineffable charisma that's made him the greatest movie star of all time (in my opinion). Obviously, despite the fact that his image has essentially been destroyed through a fabricated scenario involving couch-jumping (from what I've read, it was manufactured and coerced), he remains one of the most appealing actors working today. (Granted, there were the Scientology issues--that was entirely Cruise's doing...) I expected to be bored by the necessary repetition that the script requires (Groundhog Day), but impressed by everything else; that was simply not the case. The script is unintelligent and clearly aimed not at the "superior" filmgoers of the day, but the average box office-goer/gamer (see below) who will appreciate (publicly or privately) what he's seen before (a hundred times, at this point) with the added elements of supposed "class" and "intelligence," neither of which are anywhere to be found within this film (most disappointingly).
Of course, a major marketing point of this film is that it "replicates the respawning frequently seen within modern video games." The film borrows very heavily from the Crysis series (if you've played the games, I'm sure you'll agree), as well as numerous other "run and gun" game series (aren't they all, nowadays). That's great and all, but this unfortunately doesn't translate into an exciting concept for a film; it's about as entertaining as watching someone play a mediocre modern throwaway video game. In other words, it's generally exceptionally boring. By the last half hour of this film, I was astounded by how boring and humdrum it had become, with an ending that defies all logic and invalidates any "character development" that's come before it. Worse, said character development is nearly non-existent, Cruise's protagonist is an obvious coward unworthy of subsequent praise (the actions of his character are highly unlikely, given the way the film initially portrays him), and the pseudo-relationship that almost kinda-sorta develops between Cruise and Blunt is entirely dull, misdirected, and insipid.
In short, if you were disappointed by Oblivion and were counting on this film to represent the "true potential" of a modern Tom Cruise sci-fi spectacle, think again. Re-rent Oblivion, disregard the critical indifference it received, and recognize it as being far superior to this failed effort to capitalize on recent sci-fi trash. After that, re-rent Minority Report. Forget this film.
p.s. as they essentially retitled this movie, I had to do a double-take when renting it from Vudu; I wasn't sure if it was a lengthy set of bonus features of "Edge of Tomorrow," the film that I intended to rent. Don't retitle films simply because they failed at the box office, guys. Please and thanks.