Based on the Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill – the film’s original title before it went for the less interesting Edge Of Tomorrow – this is a lithe, exciting sci-fi action film with all the affection for mecha and heavy weaponry you’d expect from such directors as Neill Blomkamp and James Cameron. It also features some great performances and a welcome tendency to subvert genre expectations as well as adhere to them. A self-confessed coward more used to being on television than on the battlefield (“I can’t stand the sight of blood, really,” he stutters), Cage is horrified when he’s forced to join a full-scale ground assault on mainland Europe. Strapped into a high-tech battle suit at the behest of Brendan Gleeson’s bullish General Brigham, Cage is dropped into the middle of a roaring, D-Day-like counter strike on a French beach. And unlike, say, Ethan Hunt, Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, or any of the other heroes Cruise has played in the past, Cage shows no particular talent for fighting at all – at first, he can’t even work out how to turn off the safety catch on his weapons system. Fate does, however, give Cage one unexpected advantage: when he’s inevitably wiped out by shrieking space invaders, he wakes up at precisely the same time 24 hours earlier, and winds up having to live through the battle again. And then again. Initially mystified by the time loop, he gradually learns to use it to his advantage, and with the assistance of the far tougher soldier Rita Vrataski (a sinewy Emily Blunt), he tries to find a means of repelling the invasion. The assured pace certainly helps: director Doug Liman keeps the plot speeding along at a boisterous clip (demonstrating a feel for pacing we first saw in 1999’s Go), and he makes unusually light work of establishing the near-future setting (largely through the use of fake BBC news footage and the like) and its fight-die-repeat premise. Aggressive bursts of effects-heavy action give way to carefully-judged flashes of humour, with colourful supporting turns from Gleeson, Bill Paxton – who’s now advanced to the rank of Sergeant after playing Hudson in Aliens – and Noah Taylor as an eccentric scientist. Edge Of Tomorrow also provides a surprisingly solid platform for Tom Cruise’s oft-overlooked abilities as an actor. While he was good value in last year’s Oblivion – a film we genuinely liked – he’s even better here, having been handed a character with more to him than a winning smile and a strong right hook. Cage is a coward, sure, but no more so than most of us would be if we were suddenly dropped into the middle of a warzone without adequate training. This isn’t just a Cruise vehicle, either. Emily Blunt is arguably his co-lead here, a battle-hardened warrior who matches Cruise blow-for-blow right up to the final reel. It’s difficult to think of another actress who could embody such a tough character while still retaining an air of knowing humour. Liman’s movie doesn’t aspire to any greater significance other than to be a big, entertaining sci-fi action film – unlike Groundhog Day, we can’t see Edge Of Tomorrow being studied in philosophy classes any time soon, and it lacks the satirical humour of another of its touchstones, Starship Troopers. But oddly enough, this makes Liman’s film all the more refreshing. At a time when writers and directors feel a need to engage with the zeitgeist, Edge Of Tomorrow simply establishes the rules of its premise and lets rip. The result is one of this summer’s most unexpected and entertaining big-screen surprises. The Edge Of Tomorrow is out in UK cinemas now. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.