Looper (2012) Review

Time-travel is a risky subject to include in films and a subject that can easily lead to disaster. This new Sci-fi action flick tries to use time-travel, but has some self-awareness of how messy it really is. The plot of the film goes like this; in the year 2074, getting away with murder is so difficult that the mob use time machines (which were instantly outlawed when it was invented) to send people they want to get rid of back in time 30 years to get killed. A so-called “Looper” does the killing and disposing of the body. We are introduced to Joe, one of these “Loopers”, who like most of the people in his profession, is a junkie and egotistical bastard. However all of a sudden his future-self is sent back for him to kill (which is their way of saying you are fired), however Joe is in such shock that he doesn’t manage to kill his older-self and he gets away. Now Joe has to escape the mob while trying to track down himself to clear things up.

It has some great exposition and it does a good job of bringing us into the year 2044. I have heard some people complain that it doesn’t look a lot like it is the future, but I mean the world probably won´t look drastically different in 30 years and so I like the fact that there isn’t a massive noticeable difference other then in for example cell phones, cars and culture. It is a pretty realistic vision of what the world could look like in 30 years. The worst part about the future they give us that apparently about 10% of the worlds population have developed a telekinesis mutation and I found that to be a bit silly and made it harder to buy into the world. As for the time-travel, though it obviously can´t be very realistic, I definitely bought into it. It isn’t exactly explained in great depth and the movie really avoids getting into detail about it, however I prefer it this way. Rather then trying to find a plausible explanation for how it works, it just requires you to accept that it exists and I bought it, which allowed the film to focus on other things instead, and kept it from being unnecessarily complex. The film does a good job of avoiding big plot holes, as though there are probably plot holes, they are mostly there for people who despise the film to nit-pick about. Discussing the film with friends or people on the Internet, most suggested plot holes eventually turn into theorizing about the film and in most cases we found it to not be a plot holes, so the filmmakers have been pretty thorough.

 The film stars both Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Joe, Willis as the older version and JGL (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as the younger. This is probably where my biggest issues with the film start to appear. JGL and Willis are playing the same character, but why? There is truly no resemblance between them and though I think the make-up used on JGL to make him look like Willis was actually pretty cool, it didn’t make him look anymore like Willis and so it became pointless. I´m also curious why they didn’t choose to put make up on Willis´ face instead considering it we know what young Bruce Willis looks like, but not what old JGL looks like so I think it would have been more believable that way. It really felt like they kept Bruce Willis as Bruce Willis purely for financial purposes. That being said JGL is great in his role and it´s nice to see him in a role that is not likable, I mean Joe is quite an asshole and he is a drug addict, a killer and seems to only care for himself, though he has occasional moments where you see there is more to him. JGL also does a great job at being Bruce Willis and brilliantly uses Willis´ facial expressions and body language. Right there however there is a problem, he is Bruce Willis and so is Bruce Willis. Willis is just Bruce Willis and it completely ruins the character. He acts the exact same way he has always been doing and it really baffles me that Willis didn’t work more with JGL to create a unique character, with his own body language and facial expressions, rather then just being Bruce Willis. I also feel Bruce Willis in general was horribly miscast. When he was on screen, his character instantly seemed like John McClane, but the character he is supposed to be is really dark, instead we got some awkward laughs at moments where we really shouldn’t be laughing. Instead of becoming the darkly complex character he should have been and was clearly intended to be, he just became a one-dimensional badass. I think the ideal casting for the character would have been someone unknown as that would be much more believable when it comes to them being the same person.

Writer/Director Rian Johnson has to get some well-deserved credit here. The film is very stylishly directed which works well for the film. The film manages to be very fresh and original in look, tone and mood. The film is full of shots that are just incredibly well done and that you really cannot help but admire. However for a guy who seems so original there was some occasional lazy directing. To use a spoiler-free example, Joe is learning French and is talking about moving to France, old Joe say he never regretted learning French, but when they show a montage of his life, he doesn’t move to France, but to China. Later I researched this and saw that they didn’t have budget to move production to France, but one of the Production companies were Chinese so they would finance a shoot in China. However there is only about 30 seconds or so of exterior shots in China, so was there really no creative way to make something look like it was France for 30 seconds? I thought this was a lazy choice by the director, as a good director should find ways to creatively work around budget limitations, especially for such a small scene. As for the story it is also quite original, though not as original as certain people claim it to be. The set-up of the film is very unlike anything you have seen before; however the way certain aspects of the film unfold is not as original as I hoped for. Outside its very fresh and original exposition, the story eventually borrows heavily from sci-fi classics such as Terminator or 12 Monkeys (also starring Willis) and it quickly looses its originality and borrows some of the greatest ideas from other time-travel films. That being said it does a good job of telling its story and it never becomes predicable. What was one of the most impressive things is that the second half of the film took me by surprise and really went in a direction I wasn´t expecting. This is where I have heard many people have issues with the film is it somewhat shifts focus and becomes much more character focused then the action filled first half. Personally I enjoyed this sudden shift of pace and I enjoyed taking time with Emily Blunts character and her kid. As for the romance people are complaining about, I really never saw it as thee was any romance between them so I don’t really understand where all that comes from. I will however agree the sex scene was very forced, however the scene it led into was a great scene so I thought it paid off. Another scene that felt forced in the second half was a action scene between Bruce Willis and the mob which felt ridiculous and kind of like a pimped-out version of Die Hard.

Ending a film like this is very hard to end and I´m not sure I thought it was a good way to end it. I thought the final scene went against the characters and when you think about it, what happen in that scene didn’t really have a massive impact on the future and became somewhat pointless in my opinion. I have to watch it again to be sure of myself about this, but as of now I really thought the ending didn’t feel right.

Overall the film doesn’t really live up to the hype for me (93% on Rottentomatoes is rare for these kinds of films), but it is still a very good film. The best way to describe the film is that it has all the ingredients of an instant classic, however small aspects of the film, that I believe could have been avoided, did drag the film down a bit. I don’t have anything against Bruce Willis, but I really wish he wasn’t cast in the film, because in my eyes he is the major factor keeping this film from being a masterpiece. However the film has a great original feel to it and a pretty original story. The directing and cinematography is top notch and the action is very exciting while still having good focus on story and character. It is a film I can easily recommend to see.

3.5/5