A few decades back Harold Ramis made a small film called “Groundhog Day” set in the winter of Pennsylvania. The protagonist, a crank weatherman (brilliantly potratyed by Bill Murray), has to live the same day again and again, till he learns the lessons of his life and finds his true love. My notes here>>>>

I did wonder back then,  if the same material were picked up by a ‘big’ directors like Steven Spielberg 🙂 Well, guess it happened in some form, with Doug Liman (who directed the likes of ‘The Bourne Identity’, ‘Mr. and Mrs.Smith’ doing the honors, albeit with a futuristic setting and ‘Tom’ Cruise. 🙂

‘Edge of Tomorrow” is “Groundhog Day” with a  little bit of logic (or lot of it, depending on your predilection for science fiction stories) as to why Tom Cruise has to relive the same day/s and peppered with superlative action spectacles. The movie mounted on a US$178 million canvass, spares no expense and it shows on the big screen. But you don’t see is enough of stars, who hide in huge battle suits. Tom Cruise does realize this after an hour or so, and chooses to let go of his helmet. Emily Blunt and the rest of the star cast do what they can, without being trite.

Overall, the movie works at the action level, and makes it a decent watch for action sci-fi film fans. But, if you are/were a’Groundhog Day’ and Tom Cruise fan, then it would leave you a tad unsatisfied.

Tailpiece: Movies like these work with limited budgets? ‘Vantage point’ though not a science fiction movie but with a similar concept was made in USD 40mn and cannot match success of films like  ‘Memento’ (USD $9mn) and ‘Groundhog Day’ (USD 14.6mn).

Related links: 
Wikipedia’s list of films featuring time loops 

Director Bryan Singer’s return steadies the X-Men franchise, after the recent Wolverine dominated film. His  latest installment ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ deals with a post-apocalyptic scenario, but not on how to handle it, instead how to preclude it. Wolverine volunteers for a life threatening time travel mission into past and change it for a better future, both for mutants and human beings.

Visually, this is a great  X-Men movie, with VFX, set designs, costumes, and cinematography being exceptional.

Set piece scenes are pretty satisfying, for instance, Prison Break in the first half and Magneto’s attack towards the climax. 3D effects are used judiciously, except for the long sequence at the beginning of the movie. Quick silver’s scene during the escape is definitely one of the highlights of the movie. (FXGuide covers this in detail here.)