Monthly Monday: Looper Film Review

I went into Looper having seen the trailers and TV spots, of course, that presented a new futuristic, science fiction film staring the well known Die Hard star Bruce Willis and 500 Days of Summer's Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Gordon-Levitt plays the young Joe who is known as a looper, which is an assassin who is hired to kill people sent back in time from the future. One of the costs of playing this high paying role is that a looper will one day have his older self sent back in time to "close the loop." When Joe's older self, played by Willis, is sent back in time, he is caught off guard when his older self is sent back with no bag over his head to hide who he is. With this hesitation, the ball is set rolling as older Joe escapes and young Joe pursues him for the fear of disrupting the order of a present and future crime syndicate.

Having seen the previews and media revolving around the film, I was aware of the future setting, the time travel, and any other sci-fi element. What I was not prepared for, however, was the fantasy twist interwoven throughout. We can already say that sci-fi is fantasy, but with connection to technology and logic; whereas fantasy has no boundries that cannot be crossed. Looper sets up a well thought out plot, regardless of the mind boggling time travel conundrum. The fantasy element is lost at first, as it does not integrate well, but overall casts a whole new piece of the painting to observe.

Looper does well not to overwhelm you with all of the sci-fi aspects, including time travel. There are hovering jet bikes and glass computers and cell phones. What was most appealing was that in the year 2044, people are still using modern day vehicles, altered slightly by solar panels. Dystopian American cities are crime ridden with an every-man-for-himself mindset. The upper class of this future world is organized crime.

The film starts out fast paced and curious. The characters are not static whatsoever, which keeps you thinking and asking yourself, "Who should I be rooting for?" Somewhere in the middle, the move slows down to where not much is happening and everything is sort of calm, but the wonderful thing that Looper does is it never stops telling the story. In the action packed scenes, in the slow moving scenes, Looper does not pause to take a break. This constant story telling is what makes a great film, and what makes Looper a brilliantly told story, despite the easily forgettable errors of execution.

7/10