Review of Looper (2012) by Do You Even Jay C — 18 Jun 2014

Rian Johnson's Brick was a rather unique film. Nothing bad, but it was definitely overrated. I'm not saying high school kids acting like they're your typical mafioso is stupid.. I'm just saying it wasn't that good of a film. So, a couple of years later, Rian Johnson reunites with his Brick star Joseph Gordon Levitt, and we're given an extremely entertaining-albeit flawed time travel piece. Looper has a very promising start, with some hint of noir thrown into it. Unfortunately, the film just never soars off. It just gets kind of convoluted in a sense, and there are some lapses in logic as well.

So what is Looper about? It's kind of hard to say at once, but here we go. So in 2045, there are these special set of hitmen known as Loopers. In the more distant future, killing someone and getting away with it is near impossible for some unexplained reason. We're just supposed to know that they don't get away. So they send people they want killed 30 years in the past to be executed by the Loopers, where the Loopers dispose of their body, thus erasing said the dead guy from history. So, all of a sudden, this guy dubbed The Rainmaker (And no, he does not make it rain with $$$$) sends old Loopers to the past to be killed by their younger selfs. So, Bruce Willis wants to make it stop, but his younger self (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) wants to kill him and "close his loop" as they say.

Now, before I get into my problems, I will say this: It will not deal with time travel. Yes, I know that no one on this planet can fully grasp the concept of time travel. However, I will base my complaints on the world Looper sets itself in. So my first complaint is what's the point of using Loopers? The mob could send people all over the planet, maybe the universe, and they just send them to someone to be killed, losing money? Sounds far-fetched to me. If I were the crime boss, I would send the guy to the middle of the sun. Problem solved, and I get to keep my money.

Second, why send the future Looper to be killed by his past-self? I mean, if I saw my future self, I don't think I would kill him. Why not just send the future Looper to another Looper? That way, the guy doesn't know his loop has been closed. It makes no sense to risk an operation like that. Also, I thought killing people in the future was illegal. Well, there was the scene where they shot Bruce Willis' wife and she died. But they burned the house down, so I guess you can kill the person so long as you burn the house down. Makes sense, huh Rian Johnson.

Also, around the half-way mark, where JGL meets up with Emily Blunt's character, the film just gets boring. Now, I love dialogue as much as the next guy, but they don't have anything interesting to speak about. It's just Joe (JGL) talking with a little kid and just standing around. Oh, and don't get me started on that one-dimensional love story. It felt very forced and out of place.

With all that said, I can't say that I hated Looper. No, I actually had fun with the first and last acts of the film. The first half was a neo-noir type of sci fi, which really reminded me of a lot of noir films of the 50s. The last quarter was much more of an action-packed sci fi ride, and it was pretty good. The acting is also really good, as well. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was really fun to watch, even though the make-up was pretty bad. Bruce Willis was another John McClane, again. It was a really well made film, to be honest. I just wished they addressed many plot points a little better, and didn't set up rules for it to break.

All in all, I really wouldn't agree with the reviews saying its clever etc. In my opinion the plot is extremely lazy and is secondary to the action. Which is fine. If you want to watch an action film. One of the main reason's I've even written this view is to counterbalance these reviews raving about this very mediocre film calling it a "masterpiece". I read reviews touting it's cleverness or how it goes to extra lengths to not leave plot holes and I think: am I even watching the same movie here? I mean, it's a good action film, but it never soars off.

4/10.