Movie Review: Looper

Looper (2012)

In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent 30 years into the past, where a hired gun awaits. Someone like Joe, who one day learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by transporting back Joe's future self.  Short synopsis of Looper from IMDb.com 

I liked Looper, for the most part.  The idea of not instantly teaming up with your future self is interesting.  Our hero actually is consistently trying to kill his future self throughout the movie, which was rather unique to see.  But both of their motivations were well spelled out.  The younger version especially - though he doesn't know it at the time - has his reasons.  The crime boss grabs the guy's friend who fails to "close his loop," and starts carving him up.  Just enough so that his older self is debilitated bit by bit, and still isn't killed, so all the work he's done won't be undone.  This doesn't make sense, as killing the kid would kill the older version, since all the post loop-close work was done when this guy (Seth) meets his own self and fails to kill him.  But the idea is interesting, i.e.: what happens to your past self affects your future self instantly, by changing the linear flow of the space-time continuum.  Speaking of the space-time continuum, now I feel like watching Star Trek TNG.  And if I haven't confused you already by my remarks, then please, by all means, continue to read the review.

Then there is the whole part about the big super crime boss who Bruce Willis's older version is trying to hunt down.  The movie pulls no punches with the idea of killing children, which is both repellent and yet honest.  It's the same philosophical parlor debate anyone could have: if you could go back in time and kill the horrible dictator, even if it meant shooting him when he was just a little innocent boy, would you do it?  And the whole "he can grow up to be good"-thing.  Interesting.

I have a sincere question.  Is there any Bruce Willis movie in existence that doesn't feature him at least holding a gun?  For the life of me, I can't think of one. / Source: aceshowbiz.com

Unfortunately, the movie does drag a bit in the middle.  And it doesn't seem to know what it wants to do sometimes.  Looper gets real violent, and yet it’s got this moral-tale thing going on and... it feels a bit rough in places to me. 

Oh, and there is one scene I thought was not only dis-comfortingly violent, but also just plain dumb.  The "gat man" who people keep joking about shooting his other foot off (the one who had the rather funny scene where things are very tense after Gordon-Levitt makes that foot crack and the guy pulls his gun and then gets whacked in the back of the head by the big boss from the future when he opens the door... yeah, you know which scene I mean) finds everybody dead after Bruce Willis does his Die Hard thing, and then goes to hunt down Young Joe/Old Joe.  I'd be like, "hey, I'm in charge now."  Just picked up a major crime syndicate at a fire sale price.  Oh, and the scene where he does the jet bike thing seemed tacked on and unnecessary.

And wasn't it Einstein who postulated that time travel might indeed be possible, but only to the past.  Then again, using astrophysics as a model, we could theoretically travel to the future simply by using the theory of relativity to our advantage by going close to the speed of light.  Or we could get a modified Delorean up to 88 miles per hour.  I'm just saying. / Source: memecenter.com

Of course, all this ties into the original problem.  Why would crime bosses need to send people back in time to be killed by hired guns?  It is a silly premise.  But I've seen sillier.  Just the same, Looper's crutch is a bit weak from a logic point of view, but it takes itself seriously (oft times too seriously) and does deliver an interesting take on the whole Terminator premise.  But without Arnold Swartzenager, that is.

But do I recommend it?  Sure.  For those who like temporal paradox films that don't always work, but have lots of action, and the interesting twist that maybe if I was from the future, I wouldn't necessarily have my past self's best interest at heart.  Yup, if you are that person who is looking for that film, and doesn't mind the violence and language of Looper, then by all means, go hunt it up and check it out.  Might be on Netflix now, by the time my notes finally are on the 'net.

The parting comment:

I'd imagine the Disney version would be a whole lot less gritty.