All You Need Is Kill: a striking take on Edge of Tomorrow’s source novel

All You Need Is Kill, Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s 2004 light novel about a soldier stuck in a time loop, previously inspired the thrilling, hilarious 2014 Doug Liman film Edge of Tomorrow, where Tom Cruise dies over and over again while Emily Blunt belittles him. First-time director Kenichiro Akimoto adapts that novel again with the anime movie All You Need Is Kill, in theaters on Jan. 16, taking a more meditative approach to its characters while making its action more explicitly like a video game. The results are surreal and beautiful, but a little shallow, with a thin plot that changes tone too quickly.