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

Unknown

Starring: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, and January Jones Directed by:   Jaume Collet-Serra Screenplay by: Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell     "They had me convinced I was crazy.  But when they came to take me I knew."  Identity theft is a major problem in today's world, but it can't get much worse than the situation present in Unknown .       While on a trip to a biotechnology conference in Berlin, Germany, Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) is involved in a car crash putting him in a coma for four days.  He awakens to find out that not only has his identity been taken, but he has been replaced by someone who also claims to be him.  Even his wife Elizabeth (January Jones) claims to not recognize him.  He begins to believe that his entire life has been thrown away, or never existed at all.  As he finds people who can help him remember what happened to him before the crash, he becomes part of a conspiracy involving...

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 ...

Django Unchained

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson Directed by: Quentin Tarantino Screenplay by: Quentin Tarantino      I think it's safe to say that this film is the most badass film of 2012.  My only explanation; Quentin Tarantino!!!!      When someone asks what a Quentin Tarantino film is about, I first respond with "that's a good question".  But there is actually a real story behind all of his films, including Django Unchained.        Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) is a bounty hunter in the pre-Civil War South.  He's looking for a group of bandits known as the Brittle brothers.  He comes across a slave in a slave transport known as Django (the D is silent (Jamie Foxx)), who knows where to find the Brittle brothers.  But Django has a wife he wants to find (Kerry Washington).  She's a slave at a plantation owned by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). ...