Review of Looper (2012) by Kollin S — 16 Mar 2017

My kind of science fiction. So this takes place a few decades in the future, right before time travel is invented and then immediately outlawed. Mobsters use it as a means of getting rid of unwanted loose ends, and they dispose of people by sending them into the past to be killed by waiting executioners, who are called loopers.

When a young looper (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) fails to kill his older self (Bruce Willis), it disrupts the natural order, and it isn't long before things escalate from there. Now I've been watching movies seriously since 2008, even though I only just got this blog in 2014.

I had some time off, so I figured I would go back and revisit some of my favorites. Looper was my favorite movie of the year 2012, and I still admire it. I have a serious soft spot for science fiction when it is done right, and Looper is exactly that.

It's not Independence Day, but it does have some cool special effects featured throughout. It is a movie that uses its budget smartly, as they did not have money for days to spend on this, so they get their points across by using a lot of cool camera tricks.

This is directed by one of my favorite up and coming directors Rian Johnson who hasn't created a bad thing yet. He was the man behind the high school noir film Brick, the fun Brothers Bloom, a few episodes of the amazing Breaking Bad and he is also helming Episode VIII or Star Wars, which isn't a bad resume at all.

I think Joseph Gordon-Levitt does great work in here, as he has to play Bruce Willis (because you know it's not going to work the other way around). He did a lot of studying of the television series Moonlighting to get the younger version of Willis down, and after adding make up and color contacts, I think he really pulls it off.

Some of my favorite parts of this film are when they are just having a discourse with each other, like with the diner scene. Now I do still love this movie, and I've seen it three or four times now, but I will say that there are few logic things that stand out upon multiple viewings, namely with the time travel.

I can blur my eyes and ignore them though, and the same thing can be said about any time travel piece, really. Looper is a movie that makes so many intelligent decisions with the story telling, and it sells it with developing character motivation.

I've heard a few people say that they got bored with this when they got to the farm, but I feel like all that did was heighten the cool stuff even more, because you then care about what happens to these characters.

This is one cool film, and I highly recommend it.