Come find me when you wake up!

Rating: 8/10 (8 June 2014)

As a big fan of these time travel/repeat days over and over again stories, I really thought this would be one of the better movies of the year. Sadly my expectations fell short of that because of a overlong final forty minutes or so. The first part of the film runs smoothly and nice, even with a lot of repeating, however oddly enough when the story starts adding more aspects into the film, it slows down to almost a complete stand still.
Directed by Doug Liman, director of The Bourne Identity and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, brings us a really nicely shot film. There is a good bit of high powered action and the scenes look fantastic, even with all the CG involved in the shots. Liman is able to get the most out of his top stars like Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Blunt really steals the show here and proves she is more than just a beautiful actress. The secondary actors such as Bill Pullman and Brendan Gleeson are acting professionals and deliver another great performance in this film, even with their limited roles.
The film was written by Christopher McQuarrie(Jack Reacher), Jez Butterworth(Fair Game), and John-Henry Butterworth(Fair Game), and based on the novel "All You Need Is Kill" by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. McQuarrie is truly a great writer, and I saw that after watching Jack Reacher, which is another amazing Tom Cruise film that is a must see. However this film felt almost flat for a good chunk of the film. I'm not saying it completely ruins the film, but when you start the film out with a great one hour run of the story and characters, and fall flat in the final forty minutes or so, that is a problem. With a story like this with a lot of repeating for a good chunk of the film, it can be tiring to the audience, however the writers handle that amazingly overall. Sadly when different aspects of the film start to break out in the final forty minutes of the film, it really seems like the last forty minutes was longer than the first hour of the film. The end of the film was a nice touch in an overall pretty good job from these three writers.
The film was composed by Christophe Beck, who recently scored the hit film Frozen. Overall Beck does a fantastic job scoring this film. The action scenes are key to deliver amazing music, and I feel he did an amazing job with it. Not one of my favorites scores overall, but he still deserves much credit scoring this film.
Overall while this film fell short of my expectations, it is still a must see film without a doubt. The action and overall great story, with amazing acting by the way, puts this film in a nice spot for some of the better films of this year when it is all said and done.
Side note for those wondering about the 3D/IMAX. I went to an IMAX 3D showing of this film and thought it was well worth it. Sure the 3D is post converted, meaning not shot using 3D cameras, but the added depth the 3D adds is very nice. IMAX, while so much better if a film is shot using IMAX cameras, was still a great experience. The amazing surround sound and the massive screen does make for a fun experience with this film. So again, if you are wondering if this film deserves the extra money for IMAX 3D, the answer is, without a doubt yes.
7.5/10