Much better than my expectations

Rating: 9/10 (20 June 2014)

Cruise's 'Oblivion' came to mind when I first saw the movie trailer. But being cloned in a merely risky environment is completely different than repeatedly dieing in an inevitable slaughter and then being reset to the day before your death. Ad infinitem. The producers of this movie proudly offered the fact that this movie revisited themes explored in so many (6) films that came before. They rightfully left off 'Oblivion' on that list. Groundhog Day is the most relevant. Live, Die, Repeat is the movie slogan. The biggest drawback is how similar to Cruise's 'religion' that slogan is. The movie is riveting throughout without any loss of intensity. Levity is provided and very natural to this story flow that involves the perennial human story of avoiding the inevitability of death as a finality. Spoiler Alert: Crucial to this story are the 3 types of alien attackers. Alphas occur only 1 in 6 million aliens. Omega's are carefully hidden alien Generals that control the action of the enemy fighting units from afar via telepathic communication with the battlefield Alphas. They (Alphas & Omegas) alone are capable of imparting the time resetting capability that Cruise experiences. Killing the Omega is Cage's (Cruise) and Rita's aka Full Metal B**ch (Blunt) objective to win the war. The movie is based on a Japanese novella by Hiroshi Sakurazaka "All You Need Is To Kill". This movie is a very enjoyable ride with an absolutely believable deus ex machina ending. The only movie that was more literal at deus ex machina and satisfying: Toy Story 3.