Rian Johnson loves movies. He also likes the smart, unique and entertaining ones which is why he puts so much effort into making sure you get an exceptional cinematic experience with his features. While The Brothers Bloom may have divided audiences, Brick, for those that saw it, sure as hell didn’t and neither will his upcoming sci-fi action thriller, Looper, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Jeff Daniels and Emily Blunt.
In 2072, time travel has finally been invented but has been officially outlawed; only the mob uses it to illegally kill people since it’s nearly impossible to do so in their time period. They transport them back to 2042 where guys like Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a looper, wait with a gun to assassinate their hooded targets. While things are going well for Joe he starts to notice that a lot of people are getting their loops closed, meaning that their future self has returned and they have killed them, giving the looper only 30 years left to live. As expected, Joe’s future self (Bruce Willis) shows up, but things go horribly wrong and he lets his older self get away. From then on, both Joe’s are being pursued by a gang of loopers who aim to kill them so that the loop is closed while younger Joe tries to close the loop on his own. I’ll stop there so as not to spoil anything.
You know that feeling when you patiently wait for something you’re excited for and then your high expectations are actually met? That’s the feeling I experienced this week when I sat down to take in Looper. What’s great about the film is that the trailer spoils nothing and manages to keep the main story out of it. Full of twists and turns but none that would greatly confuse an average audience, Looper managed to exceed my expectations through its dark tone, strong story and unexpected incorporation of moral drama and personal sacrifice.
Looking at the performances, it’s no wonder why Joseph Gordon-Levitt is such a hot commodity. He nails his role and his transformation into Bruce Willis was stunning. Thanks to great prosthetics he had the look down and thanks to his careful preparation he had his speech and mannerisms down as well. Through all of this and his talent as an actor, he was able to carry the bulk of the film through both an action and dramatic oriented performance.
Mr. Willis made sure to hold his end of the bargain up and it was nice to see him in a role that didn’t require him to go through the motions. You could tell he was excited about the movie and the seemingly-villainous role that he played. As for the supporting roles, it was weird hearing Emily Blu
nt with a southern accent but she pulled it off pretty well, too bad Pierce Gangnon, the actor who plays her son Cid, put her performance to shame with the intelligence and scary intensity he brought to the screen.
The little touch that I really appreciated about Looper was that Rian Johnson got Shane Carruth, the director of the mind-blowing time-travel film Primer, to work on the visual effects for the time-travel sequences and help make sure that everything made sense in that realm, something that’s very important to sci-fi fans.
Overall, Looper is the best sci-fi film I’ve seen since Children of Men and that’s probably because neither holds anything back. They present the world in its true darkness, full of chaos and despair, offering only a shred of light that allows the leads a chance to reach the end of the tunnel even if they may not make it. As a result, Rian Johnson is able to craft the film exactly the way he wanted to, allowing for maximum character development, drama, nail-biting suspense and hardcore action, creating one of the most well rounded R-rated movies you’ll see all year and maybe this decade. Looper is more than just a breath of fresh air, it’s a film that will stick with you, that you’ll think about, and a film that I, and I know many of you, will end up seeing multiple times and will appreciate more and more upon subsequent viewings.
Rating: A kick-ass and exciting sci-fi actioner that’s sure to be the best all-around film that you’ll see this year (8.5/10)
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