Gripping movie with an interesting plot and good acting

Rating: 9/10 (9 November 2017)

I remember watching behind the scenes footage and interviews for this movie back in 2014 and I really did not get the impression that this would be a memorable movie at all. It came across as some generic sci-fi flick that would be some nice popcorn accompaniment with special effects but nothing original in terms of plot and story.
Boy, was I blown away when I happened to watch this movie recently on Amazon Prime Video. The movie seems to be very original because I haven't seen a movie with such a unique narration style where most of the movie is about reliving and redoing what happened the first time.
Perhaps, this movie even has philosophic undertones as it made me ask the question and presumably more viewers, "What if I had approached that situation differently or I approach this situation differently in the future, surely a different approach will alter the outcome vastly and perhaps our destiny will be very different if we adapt different attitudes."
The movie definitely comes across at the start as very WW 2 like, reminiscent of the second world war as the troops make an ambitious savage surge at Normandy beach.
Tom Cruise acts very convincingly as a bumbling, floundering pretty man PR officer at first who is forced to join the infantry when he has no training and no interest in doing so. His transition from a reluctant inept coward to a virtuoso fast reflex sharp warrior is quite interesting to watch to say the least.
Rita (Emily Blunt), the female lead is very convincing in her bad ass role as she and Cage (Tom Cruise) work together to win the war by reliving and redoing things differently.
The only part of the movie I'm not fully satisfied with are the alien characters who don't seem to have much motive for their actions except for us to understand that they want to enslave humans and dominate Earth's natural resources. But then again, they are aliens who look fiercely savage and barbaric with their multi- tentacle fast lithe bodies and their savage screams with which they seem to kill all humans effortlessly. All the special effects are added in through the green screen and you'll have some laughs if you watch the movie and then see behind the scenes footage or images.
Except for Tom Cruise and Bill Paxton, most of the characters are British so there is a very healthy dose of British and American comedy which makes the film much more fun, providing great moments of relief to the viewer in a movie with a serious concept and plot.
Perhaps this sort of plot could even be made in to an interesting series to delve deeper in to the human characters as well as the aliens to understand their motives better.
Though I haven't watched any Doug Liman films before this I am definitely going to watch more of his movies now because this film is very good. The writers including Christopher McQuarrie, Jezz Butterworth, John Henry Butterworth as well as the editors James Herbert and Laura Jennings have done excellently in the writing and editing department -- making the movie slick and entertaining when this kind of plot could have been messed up. The cinematography by Dion Beebe and the music by Christophe Beck is breathtaking as well and definitely adds more atmosphere and layers to this movie.
The cameos by different actors is very good, comedic as well and it's a stellar team effort with everyone with big and smaller roles delivering some great acting performances.
Sometimes it's worth watching a movie even if the initial trailers, behind the scenes footage and interviews don't make it seem very interesting or original. This movie is very interesting and inspiring to say the least but don't take it too seriously, it's just a movie after all! Cheers and thanks for reading!!