Rian Johnson has worked with Joseph Gordon-Levitt before; with the indie hit “Brick.” Now the duo are working together again in one of the most anticipated sci-fi movies in recent years “Looper.” The movie deals with time travel and any movie dealing with time travel can become complicated but in short: Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe and Bruce Willis plays Joe as well, except 30 year older. The movie takes place in 2047 and 30 years from that date time travel has been invented. Instantly outlawed, the mob now controls it and sends back people they want dead to 2047 so they can be killed off and the crime of murder technically doesn’t exist. A brilliant and equally horrific plan. Joe is one of these hired assassins called “Loopers” and he’s living the life with his job, but there is a catch. Eventually all loopers will end up killing the future versions of themselves it’s called “closing your loop.” So it’s a job with an extreme expiration date. “Looper” takes off when Bruce Willis (Joe older) is zapped back to the past but escapes and now it’s up to Joesph Gordon-Levitt to stop his older self from changing the future and getting the both of them killed.
“Looper” is an effective and well done film, and one that certainly deserves multiple viewings to take everything in. That being said this movie is good, not great. There has been a lot of hype and high praise for the film, so maybe my expectations were too high and I recognized that so I waited a few days to review the film. And while I find is satisfactory it’s missing something. I’m not sure what it is but it’s missing something that would take it to that level from “Entertaining” to “Classic.” Without spoiling anything the 1st and 2nd acts of this movie are outstanding, tense, inventive and the stuff of masterpieces. The third act though causes a lot of issues and the film almost collapses under it’s own weight. And I wouldn’t even say it packed on that many pounds.
If you like science fiction it’s surely a movie to see for the technology and fine acting performances. For me the single most impressive aspect of this film is the make up. Joseph Gordon-Levitt looks strikingly like a young Bruce Willis in many shots and even was able to nail some of Willis’ mannerisms like that cool cockeyed smile. The make up was done by Brent Baker, Jamie Kelman and Kazuhiro Tsuji among others. The prosthetic work on Joseph’s face alone in my opinion makes it worthy of an Academy award nomination. You may not notice how similar they look in the commercials but trust me once the subtlties sink in during the course of the film you’ll be convinced they are the same person. Joseph and Bruce do tremendous work acting as does Jeff Daniels in a very cold but never distant performance. Emily Blunt is solid in her role but I don’t think her character is written strongly enough. There is a serious lack of connection with her and her motivations. Alright so if you want to know more about my thoughts on this film you can click to read more, but there will be SPOILERSso I feel it’s fair to warn you as the only way I can articulate my major disappointment with this film is by revealing the ending. I recommend this movie to science fiction fans, but I feel those not familiar with the genre will be lost and won’t care for it very much. Though I could always be wrong.
Hey! That guy looks like Shia!
WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD “Looper” is well directed and for the most part well written by Rian Johnson. But he falls into a trap that even the greatest writer/directors get caught in: falling too in love with your own dialogue. There are conversations and scenes that seem to just slow the movie down too much, they try to add to the characters but they end up taking too much away. The best dialogue comes from the narration of Joseph Gordon-Levitt in true neo-noir style. In particular the conversations between Joseph and Emily Blunt seem stilted. There is no doubt a level of chemistry between the two actors and they milk it for all it’s worth but I can’t really remember much of anything they said to each other, because it rarely ever felt important. I found myself waiting for the next scene a couple of times.
The dialogue works very effectively however between Joseph and Bruce as it should, it’s the soul of the film. You can’t help but feel for Bruce as the older more mature Joe explaining what it’s like to actually fall in love and to become a better man. And you feel sorry for his younger self ignorant and short sighted not understanding the bigger picture. (Until of course the end.)
Good action sequences and pretty engaging cinematography by Steve Yedlin keep the moving going even with it’s rough patches of stalling but it works. I had no major issue with the film until the 3rd act which is telegraphed from the moment you meet the forcefully intelligent kid: Cid (Pierce Gagnon). The telepathy angle seems a bit wedged into the story fabric and dilutes the atmosphere of the movie somewhat. I’m not sure why, I guess because time travel seems plausible while telepathy on such a large scale seems to just be fantastical. I’m not against telepathy in films, I just didn’t like it in this one. But the biggest sin of the film is the solution, Joseph kills himself in order to save Cid and stop the future from becoming bleak. For me that’s just not a satisfying ending, mainly because it’s such an obvious one. Of course young Joe could just kill himself to solve the problem, that was always on the table, it’s treated as such a revelation. Not that committing suicide for the greater good of the planet couldn’t have been presented as a terrific ending but it doesn’t fit here. It’s the solution I didn’t want. I wanted to see the problem solved, not just made to go away.
I’m not saying that “Looper” is a sub-par film I just felt it dropped the ball somewhere because after the opening 30 minutes I felt I was watching a masterpiece like “Inception” or “Blade Runner” and it’s not fair to put so much on a film but what can I say? It started off so well, and the ending isn’t atrocious; I just feel there was a better one laying out there somewhere in the cosmos. And this is a small pet peeve the music by Nathan Johnson for the most part is good but I hate how at the end it fades to white and then is silent. Silence during credits usually indicates that the movie finds itself to be super important and poignant. And I’m sorry that just bugs me, no movie should probably ever do it. But certainly not “Looper”. “Apocalypse Now” got away with it because it’s an American classic. “Looper” is not. Final Grade: 81/100
–Matthew S. Robinson
Red Flag Movie Productions©
“Looper” Film Review: Joseph looks like Bruce
by iconmatthew1
Rian Johnson has worked with Joseph Gordon-Levitt before; with the indie hit “Brick.” Now the duo are working together again in one of the most anticipated sci-fi movies in recent years “Looper.” The movie deals with time travel and any movie dealing with time travel can become complicated but in short: Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe and Bruce Willis plays Joe as well, except 30 year older. The movie takes place in 2047 and 30 years from that date time travel has been invented. Instantly outlawed, the mob now controls it and sends back people they want dead to 2047 so they can be killed off and the crime of murder technically doesn’t exist. A brilliant and equally horrific plan. Joe is one of these hired assassins called “Loopers” and he’s living the life with his job, but there is a catch. Eventually all loopers will end up killing the future versions of themselves it’s called “closing your loop.” So it’s a job with an extreme expiration date. “Looper” takes off when Bruce Willis (Joe older) is zapped back to the past but escapes and now it’s up to Joesph Gordon-Levitt to stop his older self from changing the future and getting the both of them killed.
“Looper” is an effective and well done film, and one that certainly deserves multiple viewings to take everything in. That being said this movie is good, not great. There has been a lot of hype and high praise for the film, so maybe my expectations were too high and I recognized that so I waited a few days to review the film. And while I find is satisfactory it’s missing something. I’m not sure what it is but it’s missing something that would take it to that level from “Entertaining” to “Classic.” Without spoiling anything the 1st and 2nd acts of this movie are outstanding, tense, inventive and the stuff of masterpieces. The third act though causes a lot of issues and the film almost collapses under it’s own weight. And I wouldn’t even say it packed on that many pounds.
Hey! That guy looks like Shia!
WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD “Looper” is well directed and for the most part well written by Rian Johnson. But he falls into a trap that even the greatest writer/directors get caught in: falling too in love with your own dialogue. There are conversations and scenes that seem to just slow the movie down too much, they try to add to the characters but they end up taking too much away. The best dialogue comes from the narration of Joseph Gordon-Levitt in true neo-noir style. In particular the conversations between Joseph and Emily Blunt seem stilted. There is no doubt a level of chemistry between the two actors and they milk it for all it’s worth but I can’t really remember much of anything they said to each other, because it rarely ever felt important. I found myself waiting for the next scene a couple of times.
The dialogue works very effectively however between Joseph and Bruce as it should, it’s the soul of the film. You can’t help but feel for Bruce as the older more mature Joe explaining what it’s like to actually fall in love and to become a better man. And you feel sorry for his younger self ignorant and short sighted not understanding the bigger picture. (Until of course the end.)
Good action sequences and pretty engaging cinematography by Steve Yedlin keep the moving going even with it’s rough patches of stalling but it works. I had no major issue with the film until the 3rd act which is telegraphed from the moment you meet the forcefully intelligent kid: Cid (Pierce Gagnon). The telepathy angle seems a bit wedged into the story fabric and dilutes the atmosphere of the movie somewhat. I’m not sure why, I guess because time travel seems plausible while telepathy on such a large scale seems to just be fantastical. I’m not against telepathy in films, I just didn’t like it in this one. But the biggest sin of the film is the solution, Joseph kills himself in order to save Cid and stop the future from becoming bleak. For me that’s just not a satisfying ending, mainly because it’s such an obvious one. Of course young Joe could just kill himself to solve the problem, that was always on the table, it’s treated as such a revelation. Not that committing suicide for the greater good of the planet couldn’t have been presented as a terrific ending but it doesn’t fit here. It’s the solution I didn’t want. I wanted to see the problem solved, not just made to go away.
I’m not saying that “Looper” is a sub-par film I just felt it dropped the ball somewhere because after the opening 30 minutes I felt I was watching a masterpiece like “Inception” or “Blade Runner” and it’s not fair to put so much on a film but what can I say? It started off so well, and the ending isn’t atrocious; I just feel there was a better one laying out there somewhere in the cosmos. And this is a small pet peeve the music by Nathan Johnson for the most part is good but I hate how at the end it fades to white and then is silent. Silence during credits usually indicates that the movie finds itself to be super important and poignant. And I’m sorry that just bugs me, no movie should probably ever do it. But certainly not “Looper”. “Apocalypse Now” got away with it because it’s an American classic. “Looper” is not. Final Grade: 81/100
–Matthew S. Robinson
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