Tom Cruise in total control as Groundhog Day meets War of the Worlds in Edge of Tomorrow

EDGE of Tomorrow: It’s the cleverest affair to carry the Cruise brand in years. Even if you’ve written the bloke off, you might just want to take a look.

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Tom Cruise in a scene from "Edge of Tomorrow." (AP Photo/Warner Bros. Pictures)

AND the moral of the story of Edge of Tomorrow is ... ?

If at first you don’t succeed, die, and die again.

Pretty nifty, huh? Especially for a movie where Tom Cruise is the nominal hero of the hour.

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Tom Cruise manages to live to fight another day in <i>Edge of Tomorrow</i>.

This is just about the cleverest and most engaged affair to carry the Cruise brand since the superb Minority Report so many years ago.

Even if you have written the bloke off some time since, you might just want to pencil in a look-see at Edge of Tomorrow anyway.

This futuristic action adventure has been carefully designed to steadily fascinate rather than truly thrill, a smart move that gives some real impact to the unexpected shapes it can often throw.

Tom Cruise smiles on the red carpet at the <i>Edge of Tomorrow </i>premiere in Toronto.

In a plot that could be described as Groundhog Day meets War of the Worlds — with a dash of Predator thrown in for good measure — Cruise stars as an under-skilled US soldier who keeps dying on the battlefield just as a fateful alien incursion is reaching its apex.

We’ll get to those vicious visitors in a minute. What first looms large in Edge of Tomorrow is the unheroic role Cruise is playing, and the intriguing condition that has him dying over and over again.

Emily Blunt’s character is the only reliable ally for Major William Cage, played by Cruise.

Major William Cage (Cruise) is a PR frontman. Wielding a weapon is not his thing. Spinning lies into truth is all he can do. That is until he cops a demotion and finds himself with a one-way ticket to the worst theatre of war on the planet.

A very organised squadron of bloodthirsty alien organisms has been slowly conquering Earth for the past few years. Now they are just about to finish off Europe and jump the channel to England.

Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise glam up for the New York premiere.

William Cage could be all that stands in the way of their most telling victory yet. Somehow, Cage has an unworldly ability to learn from his fatal mistakes. That’s right: every time Cage dies, time resets, and the fateful skirmish with the aliens goes right back to minute one.

After a while, Cage learns to make the most of each new life, gleaning a little more vital info about how to vanquish a dominant and mystifying enemy at the deathly conclusion of every mission.

The one reliable ally Cage can call on whenever he must start over is the most decorated soldier in the long war Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt).

Tom Cruise’s character finds himself in the worst theatre of war on the planet.

Though lacking the overall conceptual sophistication of modern time-warping classics such as Looper and Inception, Edge of Tomorrow is still more than capable of applying an unshakable grip upon the viewer from start to finish.

Cruise is in fine form here: he conveys both the obvious flaws and hidden strengths of his character with total clarity, and sometimes, great humour as well.

Edge of Tomorrow (M)

Director: Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity)

Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Brendan Gleeson, Bill Paxton

Verdict: Three-and-a-half stars. Adventures of a repeat defender

Tom Cruise readies for battle in <i>Edge of Tomorrow</i>.

Originally published as Tom Cruise in total control as Groundhog Day meets War of the Worlds in Edge of Tomorrow