June 9, 2014 -- Yet another time traveling movie has rolled into town (now there are two of them here at the same time) but this one is a bit better than the first one. On the heals of “X-Men: Days of Future Past” is the new time travel flick “Edge of Tomorrow.”

This one is like “Groundhog Day,” where a very reluctant soldier, Cage (Tom Cruise of the “Mission Impossible” movies) lives the same day over and over again, the day he is killed in battle. In this dystopian future, Europe has been invaded by a species sort of like big spiders with a hive mind, led by a brain bug who can see the future. The aliens are winning the war because they know exactly what the enemy (humans) will do in advance.

Cage, however, is different than the average grunt. He kills a rare alien with the ability to see the future. Soaked in the alien's blood, he acquires the alien's ability to see into the future. This is hardly an advantage, however, because he always wakes up on the day he is going to die (sort of like re-setting a computer to yesterday's configuration) and he eventually learns there is nothing he can do to avoid that destiny. Then he meets up with a woman, Rita (Emily Blunt of “Looper”) who also has seen the future. Cage teams up with Rita and a kind of mad scientist cook up a scheme to finally outwit the aliens and beat them at their own game.

The aliens, however, have more tricks. They aren't giving up without a fight and they are very smart. This film reminded me in a way of “Inception” in that there are a lot of dubious “rules” to time travel, just as there were in dream manipulation. The rules seem to be crafted, as they were in “Inception,” for the sole purpose of delaying the resolution of the plot. The script also seems to play fast and loose with the rules.

There is a good bit of humor in the movie and the performances of Cruise and Blunt are spot on, with good supporting work from Bill Paxton, who plays a very hard-headed sergeant, and from Brendan Gleason, who portrays a shifty general. In addition to all the action, there is a romantic element built into the story as well, and it is not as heavy-handed as one expects these days. The special effects and stunts are also top-notch. This is a very entertaining movie. It rates a B+.

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