Live. Die. Repeat.

It's just war.

Or so we're told halfway through Live. Die. Repeat/ Edge of Tomorrow/ All You Need Is Kill. The ambiguity of the title was a bullet in the chamber of all those who thought, pre-release, this would be another generic action sci-fi with The Cruiser playing, well, himself. But if there's one thing audiences have proved over time it's that they know when to listen to the press and when to believe their eyes, even when they can't believe what they see. Who cares what it's called when a film is this inventive, this engaging, and this good. 

The story starts thus: Cruise is a U.S. Army Major who attained his position through being a world class promoter and propaganda spinner who gets sent to document the front lines on a war of attrition between a world force and an intergalactic super alien species who have already taken over half the world. Snivelling weasel that he is he tries to beg, plead and blackmail his way out of going before being tasered, tagged and bagged and dropped off for front line duty minus his essential credentials. It's all set up and introduced with a smile and wink and finally a shock as Cruise's Major Bill Cage realises no amount of explaining and complaining can save him from his drop from officer to grunt. From then on it's a whirlwind of introductions, to his new squad, his new exo-suit, a normandy beach and finally the tentacled extra-terrestrial antagonists, Cage flabergasted and justifiably panicked throughout. He runs, he gets knocked over, he can't turn off the safety on his weapon and then he dies, in gloriously OTT face melting fashion.

And then things really kick off. He wakes up, maggot re-awoken, to relive and moan another day. It's no secret that the crux of this film is based around Major Cage's unnatural ability to Groundhog Day himself and repeat the same 24 hour period over and over again, but it's the style and quality of the delivery of this mechanism that really impresses. Director Doug Liman and his team of editors (including James Herbert who has had previous with snappy editing as Guy Ritche's go to guy) keep each death and rewind fresh and interesting, never repeating the same tactic twice, whether that's a new way to kill off Cage or a quicker cut of his day's activities. The real success lies in what is reserved and what is revealed, where each time Cage lives and dies a different part of his journey is shown. For example, one short sequence includes purely beach battle deaths, featuring his attempts to navigate a safe way through the carnage. It reads: run, move, die. Run, move faster, move, die. Once he meets Emily Blunts' Full Metal Bitch and poster girl Rita Vrataski on the beach, the location and focus shifts to sequences showing his pre-battle squad training, and then to their now combined efforts. What could become rote remains interesting due to this expert storytelling and story showing, changing locations and paces at a drop.

Possibly the greatest of these is the films character focus shifts. To begin with we're following Cage, we're picking up what's happening with him, on his level, at his pace. Everything we see we see in tandem with him. The beach slaughter, the training, the exhausting repetition, the constant pain and death. And then there's a moment where it dawns on you that you're no longer running with Cage, and the perspective drops completely, but subtly, to someone else, and you feel like you're behind somehow and doubling back. It's a real feat of screenwriting. And then later as the story develops you're thrown into a new scenario with more tension and imminent jeopardy than before and this focus switches again. It's a theme that the time travel mechanism allows, but the director and screenwriter, as storytellers, embrace and hone. And again it keeps things fresh and new and interesting.

There exists a balance in LDR/EoT/AYNIK that very few films manage to achieve; there's action (lots of it), a distinct storytelling mechanism, a twisting, turning plot and importantly and above all characters you can actually engage with. Character is a priority here, with both Cruise and Blunt on top form, two actors whose natural charm and charisma could carry them through and above most hollywood dross, and when given something substantial can really shine. Vrataski is strong and determined, a female battle warrior we rarely get to see on screen, and over time we gradually get to see her more vulnerable core, and Cruise goes through the greatest arc starting as weak and weaselly and through many many lifetimes becomes the classic Cruiser we know and love. It also demonstrates what a great subtle physical actor Cruise is, and with the help of some well placed camera angles his height, or lack of it, is exploited to magnify the fall to the bottom rung of his early character, and later to emphasise, despite his height, his new confidence with his current situation. It's subtle, but impressive. 

His internal struggle changes over the course of the film, and as Cage gets further into his journey and is met with more frustration at his lack of progression he sees even with so much power you can still feel powerless, his near immortality no match for such a relentless enemy. In life there are wars we cannot win, against nature, against physics, against time. It's a deeper message than you find in most standard blockbusters, but this film is anything but standard. 

With so much focus on the central pair there's little room for peripheral characters, and they need to make an impression with the time they have. It's a difficult omission to have to make, and mostly Cage's adoptive J Squad make a good fist of being more than just 2D versions of cliched ideas, though it's not till the final third that they get to open up and we see their purer motives, and Brendan Gleeson and Bill Paxton give extra weight to lighter roles. The aliens too are merely functional, an embodiment of pure opposition, and while they look great all whipping tentacles and slippery ground digging movement, they are just a barrier to be overcome. 

But these are minor gripes against a 2 hour thrill ride thats intelligent and character driven as well as action packed. 

It's just war? It's far more than that.