Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Brendan Gleeson
Though he's been passing himself off as an officer working for the military in a non-fighting capacity, William Cage (Cruise) is apprehended as a deserter and sent to fight in what is believed to be the battle that will ensure mankind's liberation from an alien invasion. The humans find themselves grossly outmatched however and Cage (who has been given next to no training) is killed. He then wakes up the day before the battle and is killed again, with this pattern coming in a continuous loop. With the help of a war heroine (Blunt) who experiences the same phenomenon, Cage uses his new "power" to try and end the alien invasion.
Even though it's an adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka's novel and manga All You Need Is Kill, a lot of people will find this film all too comparable with Source Code (2011), both being science-fiction films set around the idea of a protagonist having to relive (even after "death") the same event until a solution is found. So throughout the comparisons to the two and the derivative nature of the piece hangs over it. However, whilst the film lacks in innovation, it's a dynamic and enjoyable film thanks in no small part to Tom Cruise.
Cruise's character of William Cage is not a radical departure from Cage's usual line. We've been used to see Cruise play the selfish jerk with a slowly unwrapped selflessness and/or heroism from Rain Man (1988), through to War Of The Worlds (2005). It's his raison d'être. But the charisma and humour he brings to the performance make him great to watch and do actually bring an intriguingly light side to the proceedings, with almost as much of a debt seemingly owed to Groundhog Day (1992) as it is to Source Code. After all, if you have character who is bumped off many, many times over the course of the movie if you don't sprinkle some comedy into it, it runs the risk of being very depressing very quickly.
Emily Blunt plays Cruise's accomplice. A hard-talking war veteran and a role that Blunt pulls off pretty effectively even if the shots of her finishing off some exercises by basically slithering her lower body to the ground every time she supposedly meets Cage for the first time get tiresomely lingering. There isn't much in the way of a real supporting cast and this hurts the film by depriving it of more colour. Brendan Gleeson plays a stubborn general who has a couple of sequences here and there, Nick Curry plays a scientist who largely serves to espouse scientific detail and there are various grunts as part of the invasion, but this is certainly no ensemble piece.
Whilst the aesthetics are at times pleasing, they can be frustrating. In particular the dull grey metallic view of this future really clashes when 3D is involved, given the dimming effect of the glasses making for a film where actually seeing what's going on is a little more effort than the norm. If you think you'll enjoy this, you're probably okay to trust your instincts but you're probably best off watching it in 2D format unless your 3D screens have very good lighting.
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