‘All You Need Is Kill’ Review: A Bloodbath Worth Repeating

All You Need Is Kill is an anime film based on 2004’s light novel by the same name, but most movie goers will likely be familiar with its 2014 live action adaptation, Edge of Tomorrow, with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. The general gist of the story revolves around humanity’s survival at the hands of an alien invasion, referred to as Mimics. The Mimics have a unique ability to loop time and the main characters finds themselves repeating the same day over and over again when they get covered by the Alpha Mimic’s blood by accident. It’s one of the most video game movies I’ve seen in how the story progresses by trail and error, or in this case, death. Studio 4°C’s All You Need Is Kill is a more faithful adaptation of the original light novel than Edge of Tomorrow but still differentiates itself from other interpretations to make this time loop worth repeating, even if you’re already familiar with the franchise.

It’s been a year since an alien, flower-like organism landed on Earth, and while it’s mostly remained dormant, that hasn’t stopped humanity from studying and experimenting on the mysterious life form. Rita is a member of the crew tasked with cleaning up and rebuilding around the giant flower, which everyone has named Darol, but one day something goes terribly wrong when a bunch of smaller alien flowers burst forth from Darol and quickly decimate everyone around. Rita gets caught up in the destruction and is killed, only to then find herself waking up the morning of that same fateful day with all her past memories. Every time she dies, she wakes up in bed, doomed to repeat the same day over and over again. As she slowly learns more and more about what’s going on, including discovering another solider named Keiji who is stuck in the same time loop, Rita must figure out a way to destroy Darol and end the time loop once and for all.

The main difference between All You Need Is Kill and all the other adaptations is that the anime film follows Rita as the main character while the others focus on Keiji. Here, Rita isn’t some hardened warrior hero who has won the hearts and minds of all of humanity. This is essentially her origin story, showing how she first got stuck in the time loop and slowly built her strength and knowledge to fight against the Mimics. There hasn’t been an ongoing battle, either; it’s Day 1 of the war that keeps repeating over and over again. Because it’s so early on in the invasion, we don’t see much of its impact across humanity. Early on in her time loop Rita attempts to run away so we get a glimpse of the world beyond the area surrounding Darol, but there’s only so much that can be covered in a single day. The repetitive nature of the film is thankfully never boring, it’s just somewhat limited in its ability to dive deep into the narrative before it has to reset.

The animation is beautiful with the exception of the character designs. I love how colorful and detailed the environments are and the flower-like design of the Mimics is beautiful yet terrifying. Colors shimmer like oil on water, and the action is fluid and smooth with an emphasis on these parkour type moves that live action could never do it justice. What doesn’t work is the human character design. They’re too much like stick figures who have been stretched out with barely designed faces. It looks awkward and unfinished. While I somewhat was able to move past the shock of their design as the film progressed, I never fully adjusted to them. It’s a shame too because the rest of the animation looks wonderful, so the human characters stick out like sore thumbs.

Ever since I first watched Edge of Tomorrow I’ve been fascinated by everything the franchise has to offer. All You Need Is Kill is a solid addition to the loop. It’s not a perfect adaptation, but it still manages to deliver a satisfying story that feels warmly familiar but with enough changes to keep you on the edge of your seat even if you know the lore. I enjoyed that we got more of a focus on Rita this time and that the film tries to differentiate itself from the others. Whether you’ve been stuck in the loop for a while or this is your first go around, All You Need Is Kill delivers a endless cycle of death, blood, and beauty that’s all but repetitive.