Skip to main content

Looper

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, and Emily Blunt
Directed by: Rian Johnson
Screenplay by: Rian Johnson

     The year is 2074 and time travel has finally been invented.  But it's only used for one thing.  When the mob wants to get rid of somebody in the future, they simply blast them back in time 30 years to be shot by a looper.
      Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is one of these loopers.  His job is to shoot everyone who is sent to him without hesitation.  But when he has to close his loop (by killing his future self (Bruce Willis)) like all loopers eventually have to do, will he be able to do it?  What happens if he doesn't?
      Time travel is a concept that fascinates me like no other.  And since it doesn't yet exist in our world, it's only up to people's interpretation of how it will work and who will use it.  As a fan of Sci-Fi, this concept of time travel always catches my attention when I see a movie trailer for a film involving this abstract concept.
      Rian Johnson depicts this concept of time travel as something that's done on a daily basis and therefore there's really nothing special about it.  It's more about the future and present connecting through the main character of this story.
      The concept and story are both well developed and relatively well explained.  There are a few things in the film I was left unclear about, but not major details.
      When I first walked into the theater, I expected the film would be another giant action-packed film like we've seen so many of so far in 2012.  I was wrong.  Yes, the film does have its action-packed moments and its explosions, but it weighs much more heavily on the story and the details of the story.
      What impresses me the most about the film is the makeup on Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  In real life, he and Bruce Willis look almost nothing alike, yet they play exactly the same character in the film.  While one can definitely tell that it's not what Joseph Gordon-Levitt looks like in real life, it is very clear that he looks like a younger version of Bruce Willis.
     My only problem with this film is that it doesn't mess with your mind as much as you would think it should.  When I see films about time travel, I expect some degree of mind bending that is greater than you would find in many other films.  This film fails to mess with my head, which would be a good thing if I couldn't keep track of the story very well.  But the nice thing about not having the mind-bending aspect to it is that it's easy to focus on the film and find it entertaining without having to think about what's going on.
     I'm probably going to wish I could travel back in time to revise my grade for this film once all the comments and questions come flying at me, but for now, I give Looper a B.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Hunger Games

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth Directed by: Gary Ross Screenplay by: Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins Based on the novel by Suzanne Collins      If reality television hasn't gone too far yet, then this show should definitely make it go too far.      In a futuristic nation called Panem, one boy and one girl are selected from each of the nation's twelve districts to represent them in an annual television event called the Hunger Games.  Of the 24 contestants, only one will survive in this televised fight to the death.      I like the concept of the story.  While this futuristic society seems somewhat simple, it does not seem all that well developed.  It is unknown how this society came into being, even though it is known how the Hunger Games began.      If this film were released last year, I would have hoped it would be nominated for best make-up.  Many of the characters look absolutely ridiculous and are way too flashy, but the make-up is v

First Man

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, and Corey Stoll Directed by: Damien Chazelle Screenplay by: Josh Singer Based on the book by James R. Hansen      Yes, this is the same director who did La La Land from a few years ago.  But this is a true story this time, and not necessarily a feel good one.      Many of us know about Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.  First Man is not simply the story of the moon landing, but the story about Armstrong and what led him to be the first man in history to walk on the moon.  It's a story about making huge sacrifices for himself, and his family, in order to accomplish such a goal, as well as overcoming a great deal of grief.       The film focuses almost entirely on Neil (Ryan Gosling).  The film opens up on him as one of the premiere pilots in the military, piloting the X-15; a plane that was capable of flying over 100,000 feet altitude.  He is portrayed as

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Starring Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter, and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson Resident Evil: Afterlife is a somewhat scary action thriller about a zombie dominated planet during present times. It's the fourth movie in the franchise. Alice (Jovovich) is the former head of security at the Umbrella Corporation, the company that created the T-Virus that accidentally escaped and turned everybody into zombies. She travels to Alaska to what she thinks is a small town called Arcadia, where there is supposedly a colony of survivors that are infection free. She is drawn by transmissions saying that they offer safety and security, food and shelter. When she arrives, nothing is there, but she picks up Claire Redfield (Larter) and travels to what once was Los Angeles where there is another colony of four survivors living atop a prison rooftop and surrounded by zombies. They find that the Arcadia is actually a ship just offshore. Can they make it to the ship? Milla Jovovich plays a very act