Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt star in ‘Edge of Tomorrow’, a sci-fi romp with Groundhog Day elements and an increasingly worried protagonist thrown in to battle an alien invasion that show no signs of abating. Stuck in a loop – live, die, repeat, as the film’s tagline reads – Cruise’s character Lt. Col. Bill Cage relies on Rita Vrataski’s (Blunt) smarts to break the cycle.

Edge of TomorrowEmily Blunt and Tom Cruise star in 'Edge of Tomorrow'

“Tom Cruise stars in this cleverly crafted and propulsively executed sci-fi thriller about a soldier forced to relive the same day over and over again,” writes Variety’s Justin Chang. “If “Groundhog Day” is an obvious influence, then those “Choose Your Own Adventure” novels are another (amusingly, whenever Rita feels they’ve taken a wrong or unproductive turn, she simply whips out her gun and resets the clock),” he adds.

More: click for the 'Edge of Tomorrow' trailer

“‘Edge of Tomorrow’ is science fiction at its finest and in its purest form, and unlike other movies that involve time travel, there's none of the confusion or head scratching that often comes with the territory, because you're so caught up in the characters and their surroundings, you never feel the need to dissect it for continuity glitches,” notes Comingsoon.net’s Edward Douglas. 

"It's a razzle-dazzle triumph, and one we can't wait to experience again and again and again...” said Drew Taylor of Indiewire's The Playlist in a doting review. “It's snappy and funny and violent and weird and sets the bar impossibly high for the rest of this year's summer movie crop,” he added. Alonso Duralde of The Wrap was equally impressed, saying Edge of Tomorrow “Feels sharper and more clever than it might have been in other hands, and for a big summer star vehicle, that's surprise enough.”

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It wasn’t all positive, though; an 89% score on Rotten Tomatoes could have been improved upon had Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter not filed his thoughts. “Although the humor helps,” he writes, “the Groundhog Day-like repetition gets tedious; it makes you feel more like a hamster than a groundhog - or rather a hamster's wheel, going round and round, over and over again.”

‘Edge of Tomorrow’ hits cinemas on May 30.