TO beget this noisy farrago for lovers of mindless futurist military violence, “Groundhog Day” (1993) copulates with just about every aliens-from-a-hostile-planet-coming-to-take-over-the-earth movie ever made.

“Groundhog Day” was a comedy about a man who woke every morning to discover that today was yesterday. Its dramatic thesis was learning to break what seemed like an unbreakable loop.

In “Edge of Tomorrow”, the man is Major Cage (Tom Cruise) of the US Army PR service, sent to document the landing of allied forces on the beaches of Western Europe to annihilate the extra-terrestrial invaders, ugly little blighters with bad manners, vigorous tentacles and angry teeth, who arrived on a meteor now safe beneath a dam in Germany.

On Day 1 in his assignment, Cage gets offside with the allied commander (Brendan Gleeson) who has him demoted and assigned to a front-line unit about to suit up with combat gear that looks heavier than the wearer for next day air-freight delivery to the combat zone where Staff-Sgt Rita is earning a reputation as a fearsome warrior.

Having now provided enough information about director Doug Liman’s staging of Christopher McQuarrie’s screenplay to help readers decide go or no-go about seeing it, I’ve discharged my obligation. But I can’t move on without bemoaning the use of Emily Blunt in a role that insults her reputation. I hope playing Rita gave her pots of money and a personal buzz.

At all cinemas