Count me among the very few who are not big fans of the Bill Murray film Groundhog Day.

Blasphemy, you say?

I suppose.  Mind you, I like the movie’s concept and the fact that it presents a potentially fascinating story about how a self-centered person, through the magical repetition of a single day, becomes a better man.

But the film, for whatever reason, just didn’t do all that much for me.

In Edge of Tomorrow, we have Groundhog Day’s essential plot transposed into a sci-fi/action milieu.  In fact, the less charitable might say this film pretty boldly rips off Groundhog Day’s essential story to an almost alarming degree, and that its surprising lawyers aren’t swarming the studios for compensation.  I don’t know how closely the movie adheres to the novel it was based on, though my understanding is that the central conceit remains the same.

But that, in the end, didn’t bother me all that much.  In fact, as I sat back in a pretty empty theater and watched the film, I was pleasantly rocked by what may be the best Tom Cruise sci-fi films of them all.

By my count, Tom Cruise has starred in, including Edge of Tomorrow, five sci-fi films: Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, War of the Worlds, and Oblivion.  I consider Interview With A Vampire a “horror” film and Legend a “fantasy” film, thus do not include them in this list.  But even if you were to do so, Edge of Tomorrow still pulls ahead of the pack.

I liked it that much.

Tom Cruise is Cage, a military officer who is often found on the news “rah-rah”ing the military’s victories against a vicious alien menace that has taken down almost all of Europe, killing millions in the process.  In London, he meets up with the allies’ commander on the eve of a second Normandy Invasion.  If the allies successfully get a foothold into Europe, they can start the long process of kicking the aliens out of this world.

If they don’t…

Thing is, regardless of the outcome the Invasion occurring the next day will be heavy in casualties.  That’s why the commander wants Cage to be on the front lines (albeit in an area less fighting is expected) filming what’s going on.  If the beach landing fails, the commander will obviously be crucified, but it won’t matter as Earth, and humanity, will be decimated.

But the commander also knows that if the landing succeeds he may very well be crucified because of the expected amount of casualties.  So he wants Cage to document the events in a positive light and show that his decision to invade was a good one.

Only problem?  Cage is a sniveling coward.

He has no problem going in front of cameras and building up the military for the masses.  But he absolutely, positively, does not want to be anywhere near actual life-threatening danger.

He tries to sweet talk his way out of the assignment and, realizing this isn’t working, makes the mistake of trying to blackmail the commander.  Sure, Cage says, he can “rah-rah” the commander’s invasion from the front lines.  But he can also present the commander’s decisions in a far less pleasant light, so wouldn’t it be better if he weren’t there at all?

The commander, understandably, isn’t too happy to hear this.  He has Cage arrested and boots him down to a squad involved in the invasion’s first strike.  Most of the people he will fight with are not expected to survive.

The next day the barely fight-ready Cage is rigged to a metallic battle suit and dropped into the heart of the new Normandy Invasion.  He survives for a while out of sheer luck as his fellow soldiers are brutally cut down.  He even sees Rita (Emily Blunt), the allies’ almost mythical soldier who against all odds won a battle against the aliens, before seeing her also killed.

Cage huddles with the remains of his group but one particularly nasty alien appears in their foxhole.  It kills the rest of his fellow soldiers and sets its sites on Cage.  Trying to defend himself, Cage grabs a directional mine and holds it to his chest.  It explodes, killing the alien creature instantly but not quite killing Cage.  As he dies, the alien’s blood flows into him and…

…he awakens at the moment he is about to join his squad and the day before the deadly beach assault.  He comes to realize that every time he “dies”, he awakens at that moment, over and over again.

What follows is an at times riveting film where Cage slowly learns from each relived day and, in the process, discovers the secret as to why he’s reliving this experience over and over again.  The science of it may be hockey, but there is no denying the excitement generated.

But what is the most exciting, to me, was the evolution of Cage’s character.  When we first meet him, he is the walking definition of an empty suit.  He may look handsome on the outside and has a charming, camera ready smile, but he’s a coward and not a very pleasant character at all (shades of Groundhog Day).

It is his evolution into something else that is the heart of the film.  His interactions with the battle tested Rita further add to the fun as her character, we find, also has hidden layers and is a great foil to Cage.

In the end, Edge of Tomorrow is an easy recommendation.  No, it is not a “perfect” action film as there are a few minor things here and there that make no sense (I would point them out, but we might get a little too spoilery…well, without getting into too many details, one of the biggest issues is that the aliens should probably be a little more careful with the units they send into battle.  I’ll say no more.)

Ok, quibbles aside, check the film out.  It is a great piece of entertainment.