Good concept, solid acting and good execution, but the film doesn’t quite deliver in the end. The time-travel element is the heart of the movie, but there are plenty of holes in it. As long as you can ignore these and just enjoy the story, this isn’t much of an issue. Tom Cruise is still an engaging lead, playing both the military PR man and the warrior he becomes convincingly. Emily Blunt’s character is fine in the action scenes, but her overly mysterious nature makes it difficult to get too into her. The fellow soldiers we meet early in the film have potential to be somewhat interesting, but they get shuffled to the background early on and have little impact on the story. The alien creatures have a unique design, but they rarely stand still long enough to admire it. Generally, they move so fast that they’re just a blur, looking a bit like the squid-like robots from “The Matrix” if they were on speed. The time-loop has potential to get tedious, but they show just enough to advance the story or inject some well-placed humor. There is a point where Cruise’s character has an epiphany, but it’s downplayed too much and never really feels like the turning point it was meant to be. The end of the film is a bit muddled, and the ending is a cop-out that is telegraphed pretty clearly. (Not to mention that it creates one of the bigger plot holes in the film.) The 3D was actually not too bad, less than a distraction then I expected.
**1/2 out of *****