Review of Looper (2012) by Josh%20 B — 10 Jul 2018

What an over-hyped steaming pile of excrement. It's cinematography was indeed competent, but in no way is the story intelligent. But but but... Shhh... Just because it's convoluted and beyond your ability to wrap your mind around it doesn't make it good. Strip it down and it's one thing... a time travel movie. There exists two types of time travel movies / fiction... those that are touchy feely and devoid of all logic, using the time travel as a deus ex machina to resolve really lazy and bad writing.... looking at you Frequency. Or true intelligent stuff from the likes of Philip K. Dick and Dr. Who; explaining time paradoxi (?) , loops, the dangers of giving birth to yourself, and creating alternate dimensions or timelines.

Looper, does NOT fall into the intelligent category. Because it ends with the creation of a paradox. But the kid... shhhh shhh shhh.... the kid is a red herring and a very weak plot point. Because it's basically the TIRED (oh so bloody tired) story of "Would you go back in time to kill Hitler?" That's right... not only does it end with a paradox... it's unoriginal as fuck.

What's the paradox. The gimmick in this is (Spoiler Alert) Guy goes back in time to kill Hitler, but is supposed to be killed by himself at the moment he goes back... he escapes, but his younger self solves the problem by killing himself at a young age. Hence... everything that happened didn't... thus he never met his lover... never went back in time to kill Hitler... thus he didn't have a reason to kill himself... thus resulting in a loop or paradox in which one of three things happen. 1. Creating divergent timelines / dimensions. 2. Creating an endless loop. 3. Triggering the second big bang in at least one universes. (Thank you Doctor Emmet Brown & over fifty years of Dr. Who).

You can try to add all the magic bollocks you want to try to "explain it away"... but you can't.. because to do that further exposes the writer's very weak logic and ignores that the "heroic self sacrifice" probably killed an entire universe.... Yup.... thanks for that.

In summation: Not a smart movie... on par with Frequency. Two stars. 1. Because of cinematography. 2. 'Cause I like Bruce Willis.