Review of Looper (2012) by Bradysmith — 01 Dec 2013

An intelligently written and fairly original sci-fi thriller that carries a decent amount of emotional resonance; Looper will reward your time greatly, if not exactly perfectly. The premise is somewhat similar to other time travel movies, like The Terminator, but it's been reworked into something more intellectually complex while staying fairly easy to follow.

The characters all feel fleshed out and all have extremely well rounded personalities. (This is no Prometheus.) Action is rarely this exhilaratingly brutal. None of it feels like filler here. Every last shot and every fight is embedded with incendiary energy.

While the movie is extremely well acted and decently unique it still lacks the weight to be a masterpiece, but I'm not exactly sure why. The fault may lie in its futuristic world. A lot of the environments seemed unimaginative and I kept yearning for this future to catch up to the narrative in terms of creativity and awe.

That's not to say that the film lacks atmosphere. It's just missing that extra spark to make it incredible. Still, it's definitely worth seeing, and is head and shoulders above most action fare.