TFL Reviews: Looper

***This Review May Contain Spoilers***

Do you like action? Do you like adventure? Do you like time travel? Then Looper might just be the movie for you. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Bruce Willis and written/directed by Rian Johnson , Looper is set in 2042, time travel doesn't exist but it will 30 years in the future. The catch is that time travel is illegal and controlled by the mob. When the mob wants to get rid of someone the send them back in time to be killed by a "looper", a hitman who specializes in killing and disposing of people from the future. When the mob has run out of use for these loopers they send them back in time to be killed by their younger selves thus "closing the loop". Joe(Levitt) is a looper but things go wrong when his older self (Willis) escapes execution and now he must hunt himself down with the mob on his heels looking to kill both Joes. But the reason for older Joe running sets them both down a path, one to save his past, and one to save his future. Now if that plot sounds a little confusing to you don't worry it is a little confusing for everyone but once you get past the normal time travel questions and logic holes you'll come to find a surprising story with great twists and an inventive new entry into the sci-fi genre. So let's dive into the world of Looper and set the way-back machine for action. As always we start off with The Good.

The good of this movie is the movie itself. In a time of so many movies based on pre-existing properties you have to look at a movie like Looper and wonder at the fact that someone had an original idea and executed it so well, and for Rian Johnson's first foray in this genre major kudos must be given. The thing that stood out to me is that the time travel element of this movie could have been written out and you would still have a really good movie. Now that sounds like a slam but its really not. The story is so solid that this film doesn't have to rely on the usual tropes or gimmicks one comes to expect from it's genre. The only other recent movie I feel that way about is The Dark Knight, the second movie in Nolan's Batman trilogy. That movie worked so well as a crime drama that Batman could have been replaced by a rogue cop and The Joker by some other psychopath and the film would have been just as good. Same goes for Looper, it feels like with some minor re-writing the time travel element could have been replaced and the story would have been just as compelling. That is where a lot of genre films go wrong these days, relying to heavily on flash, special effects, and worn out sci-fi cliches and not focusing on the actual substance of a movie. A good sci-fi movie uses the genre as a compliment to a good story not a crutch to lean on. Next awesome thing on the list is Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance. He does an amazing job in his role but that's just half of it, you forget that he also has to act like a young version of Bruce Willis. He really nails Willis and in a very early scene, where he is called into his bosses office, totally makes you believe you are watching a 30 year old Willis (but with better hair). Not only Levitt but the whole cast acted their collective asses off in this movie but the two others I must not are Jeff Daniels as Abe, the mob boss who runs the loopers, and Pierce Gagnon as Cid, the little boy who....well you should really watch the movie. Now with all that love fest out of the way let us look at a few points that the film could have done better with in The Bad.

One thing that I wasn't to thrilled with was the use of voice over ot reveal plot points. Yes while exposition scenes can get a little boring sometimes with a little creativeness they can fit nicely into a film. I just felt that with everything else in this movie the information given in voice over could have been worked into the script as regular dialog. Ok this next thing will sound weird but this movie caould have done without hover-bikes. For the most part the CGI in this movie was understated and well done. Case in point, they used a mix of make-up and CGI to make Joseph Gordon-Levitt look more like Bruce Willis and that worked really well. Also the effects for the telekenisis (yep that's right telekenisis) looked seamless. With all that, however, the special effects really fall apart when anyone rides a flying motorcyle, the only "future-y" type of vehicle in the movie. It looks like those scenes were filmed in one of those mall green screen booths where they put you into a music video (those may be something I just made up by the way). And that's basically it, there wasn't a lot to wrong with this movie.

So what did I think of Looper? If you can't tell I freaking loved it and think that you will to even if time travel sci-fi movies aren't your particular cup of tea. I give this movie 4.5 out of 5 Blunderbusses.