All You Need is Kill

After a giant plant lands on planet Earth and takes root, the invader is given the name Darol by scientists who move in to study it. As part of the excavation team, Rita is withdrawn and sullen most of the time, listening to her music through headphones in isolation and distancing herself from her colleagues.

On a seemingly normal day, Rita and her team arrive at the plant in their hazard suits to take more samples, only for a sudden vibration to unleash a horde of plant-like monsters from hidden pods that slaughter everything in sight. Rita swings wildly to defend herself, injuring the alien and getting covered in its blood. Shortly after she's killed and wakes up, only for the day to repeat.

Rita's attempts to warn her colleagues fails, so she turns her attention to escape, then survival. Constant failure means constant reset, so she starts to think aggressively, though coincidences start to pile up too many times and it's revealed that Rita may not be the only human in the loop...

The film is highly stylised

The film moves the perspective from Hiroshi Sakurazaka's original novel from United Defense Force soldier Keiji Kiriya to Rita and sets the story at the moment of the initial alien attack, rather than partway through an established conflict. I'm actually in favour of this as it further distances itself from the live-action adaptation, Edge of Tomorrow, and makes the story less predictable, though in other ways the animated film is closer to the original novel's ending. The film takes what it needs, refines it into a brisk 83 minutes and tells its own story.

So let's talk about this film; firstly, the production is quite striking, though I imagine it might not be to everyone's taste. The characters themselves are presented in a very stylised manner and almost looks Western - exaggerated facial features, stylised bodies and very little shading makes them look quite simplified, while the backgrounds are highly detailed CGI renders that seem completely divorced from the cast that inhabits them. It works in an arthouse sort of way, the characters no less expressive for their simplification, though I will admit that the eyes being a bit too far apart did distract me at times, especially when characters are looking directly at the camera. 

The action is also superb, set against the surreal alien plant that looks beautiful while setting a menacing tone - colourful fauna is, after all, often dangerous. As the action intensifies and Rita becomes more skilled, the fights are nothing short of balletic - her swift, sure-footed movements the result of much practice and knowing the beats of every battle, set to a heroic and uplifting score from Yasuhiro Maeda, which is superb. First-time director Kenichiro Akimoto cut his teeth on visual effects for Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III and games like Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, and he puts his skills to good use here, with wonderfully esoteric movement from the aliens and some beautiful atmospheric effects during battles and resets. Backed up by excellent production values courtesy of Studio 4°C (Harmony, Children of the Sea), it's a visual feast for much of its runtime, given that the story wastes no time getting started.

Rita's repressed feelings burst to the surface

There were a few standout elements for me - the brutal backstory for Rita is hard to watch as a parent, but it gave us a concise insight into who she is and why she views the world as something distant - her desire to be wiped out by a meteor seemingly prophetic given her circumstances, making her an unlikely saviour figure for a human race she has no real time for. Her raw emotions also greatly humanise her - bursting into tears at one point made he no less heroic, and I wish more Western films would adopt this approach with their own female characters. There's also a vein of humour in the film that further infuses the spirit of humanity into proceedings, elevating the narrative and emotional beats.

In all I was greatly impressed with All You Need is Kill, Warner Bros has done great things for this IP and with the shift in focus and alterations made for this film, it stands as an excellent double-bill with Edge of Tomorrow, which also found a way to humanise the conflict with heart and humour. I can highly recommend an outing to the big screen to catch it at cinemas while you can - time isn't going to reset and give you the opportunity again for some time!

All images ©Hiroshi Sakurazaka / Shueisha, ALL YOU NEED IS KILL Project