Animation is Film Review: ALL YOU NEED IS KILL has stylish thrills on repeat

A time loop is a delightful thing, and a difficult one to pull off. The name of the game is repetition, a character trapped int he same day, which can leave hte viewer feeling trapped, even suffocated, too. Even when the genre is different, the beats of the story can end up feeling same-y. Because the end goal is almost always the same: how can our hero break the loop? For the filmmaker, the challenge is similar: how can they make a familiar narrative structure/gimmick feel fresh? How can they break free of the conventions?

For ALL YOU NEED IS KILL (yes, all-caps), the challenge is perhaps even a bit higher, since this source material (a Japanese light novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka) was previously adapted to the big screen in stunning fashion by Doug Liman. Edge of Tomorrow, starring Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise, remains one of my favorite time loop movies, and one of my favorite action movies. It has, I think, only grown in esteem over hte past eleven years. So director Kenichiro Akimoto had his work cut out for him, tackling it anew.

His version is largely a winner, and one that is decidedly not Edge of Tomorrow. from the get-go, ALL YOU NEED IS KILL strikes out in its own way, and finds its own identity. This is a lean and mean movie, one that benefits and suffers from being such. There's not much fat to be found here, but there also isn't as much meat as you might want.  As it goes on, it sometimes surprises by adding a bit more depth, giving its characters more dimension. But largely, it's more focused on its sci-fi action cool-ness, and on that front, it completely delivers.

Rita is a woman who's listless and a bit lost, whose past trauma sometimes has her wishing tomorrow wouldn't come. The advent of Darol, a behemoth alien tree thing, gives her life a bit more structure, but not enough that she's willing to fully put down roots (as evidenced by the still packed boxes in her room). A year after Darol's arrival, Rita is part of the team that ventures in to chop up the roots, collect specimens, and do research. But one day, something shifts. Darol lets out a sort of electro-magnetic pulse, which causes flower-crab monstrosities to emerge and kill everyone on the ground. Rita isn't spared, but before her death, she's exposed to a bizarre bright light.

And then, she wakes up at the beginning of that same day. Everyone is still alive. Darol hasn't made a move yet. The monsters are still dormant. But not for long.

Rita is an easy heroine to root for, with her sculptural coif of orange hair, steely gaze, and (literally) endless ingenuity. She's a bit of a loner, bordering on being a jerk, but that's forgivable considering the circumstances. Watching her figure out what's going on, and her various attempts to thwart her fate, is fun, frustrating, fascinating. And, yeah, a bit repetitive, but that's par for the course in this kind of story.

Which is what makes this movie a bit hard to critique, because a lot of my dings against it are just the movie being what it is, and doing what it does, and having me right where it wants me. Like, yeah, of course it's kind of repetitive and annoying to watch Rita get killed again and again. How do you think she feels? And then there's the difficulty of a movie that's solely centered on one character. Watching a single person navigate such a tough and confusing situation is hard to pull off. ALL YOU NEED IS KILL handles it well enough, but I still found myself longing for an ally for Rita (again, a feeling the film arguably wants me to feel). 

Luckily, on that front, we get relief in the form of my boyfriend, Keiji, who joins Rita's efforts about halfway (maybe a third of the way?) through the film. At that point, this thing really hits its stride. Keiji is jittery, a bit of a buffoon, quick to laugh. Basically, a perfect foil to Rita's clear-eyed toughness. THey make a fun team, and a weirdly good one. Whereas watching Rita's solo efforts is a bit grating, watching her team up with Keiji is a joy.

And an exercise in amplification. It's so satisfying to watch our heroes build their arsenal, from bigger weapons to robotic allies to augmented suits. I felt giddy watching these two find their groove, dispatching the alien hordes with increasing ease. Sometimes the action scenes feel like well-choreographed dances. Some of the earlier ones feel like Looney Tunes buffoonery. I love both modes.

That giddiness is also something of a constant throughout this movie because of how gorgeous this movie is. This was made by Studio 4c (who also had ChaO this year -- good year for them), and it is a colorful marvel. So much crazy dynamic action, explosions of color, expressive shifts in style. It's so gorgeous, thrilling to behold. 

And while my main takeaway was "Oooh, pretty action," there is some depth here. I actually found some echoes of Scarlet, as ALL YOU NEED IS KILL is very much about embracing life, enjoying the time we're given, looking forward to tomorrow. It's easy to give in to despair, to let ourselves drown in it, but there's another way, one that's worth taking. Even when you're in the midst of whatever personal trials and troubles might be plaguing you, if you can take a breath and look around you, you might just notice that it's actually quite a beautiful day.