There’s been a lot of hype concerning Edge of Tomorrow, and let me tell you, it’s all well deserved.

The premise is familiar, to be sure.  Tom Cruise plays “Cage,” an unwilling, inept soldier who is better suited as the military’s brilliant public relations man.  Cage pisses off the wrong superior and finds himself on the front line of an alien war.  He dies, and then he wakes up at a set point before leaving for the battle.  He goes to the front line again, dies, wakes up again at that set point, and this goes on for a bit.

After a while, he meets up with Emily Blunt’s “Rita,” humanity’s greatest soldier.  The two team up for reasons I won’t divulge, and Cage slowly but surely begins to learn from his mistakes with the help of Rita.  The bad news is, if they don’t destroy the alien leader, mankind is doomed.

If you’ve seen Groundhog Day or Starship Troopers, this movie does not, at first, seem terribly original.  Yet Edge of Tomorrow inexplicably feels fresh, even unique.  I think it has to do with the editing in large part.  Though many of the scenes are similar by design, they always feel new, we always see Cage develop, and we always are awarded with new information, a killer action scene, or true gallows humor.

I haven’t seen Cruise this charismatic in quite some time, and I’m glad to have him back.  He was wise to pick a character who starts off as a real jerk, a guy you delight in seeing get killed time after time.  Emily Blunt is always great, and this movie is no different.  She’s tough, smart, and an action hero through and through.  Best of all, she and Cruise actually have chemistry.

I took issue with only one aspect of the film, and that was its very end.  I didn’t care for it.  It didn’t turn me off of the film as a whole, but I felt it pandered to the masses which disappointed because it previously blazed a trail all its own.  Otherwise, the movie delighted me from start to (almost) finish.

With lots of action, awesome special effects, a dark sense of humor, incredible editing, and a plot that manages to surprise despite its familiarity, Edge of Tomorrow really is a must-see.