Thursday, September 27, 2012

Looper

"Looper" reunites Rian Johnson, writer/director, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt who previously worked together on "Brick" (2005), which continues in the pseudo film noir style that Rian Johnson is known for with a sci-fi element.  "Looper" is a part of the resurgence of the sci-fi following films such as "the Adjustment Bureau", "Limitless", "Another Earth", and "Source Code".  These are films that challenge the audience to think about the possibilities and thrust the viewer into a scenario asking what would you do in the same situation. 

Time travel has not yet been invented. But thirty years from now, it will have been.  "Looper" is set in the year 2042, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is one of several specialized assassins known as 'loopers' who are tasked with 'taking out the future's garbage'.  The targets are delivered from 30 years in the future to a waiting looper, who puts a bullet in their head, burns the body and collects their silver.  Loopers are well paid, but when the bosses decide it's time to 'close the loop' and they send back your own future self back for assassination, leaving you with only 30 years to live, they are given the golden pay day. 

Somewhere over the years 10% of humans had a mutation where they have the ability of telekinesis.  While some thought this would mean that there would be super heroes with special powers, in reality all it meant was a bunch of assholes could levitate a quarter.  Are you confused by the films concept yet? 

Joe's loop is set to be closed, but his older self (Bruce Willis) escapes.  Old Joe meets up with young Joe and explains the situation in the future involving the mysterious Rainmaker who is closing the loop on all Loopers.  In doing so, old Joe's wife is shot in 2072 and to gain vengeance seeks out to identify who the Rainmaker is in 2042.  As old Joe sets off to murder the child aged Rainmaker his map is torn and young Joe goes to protect the family of the possible target in turn looking to close his loop and move on with his life.  Young Joe meets Sara (Emily Blunt) and her son Cid (Pierce Gagnon), which is where the film delivers the amazing twists and turns that separates it from any of the other sci-fi films. 


Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis both provide amazing acting performances.  However, the make-up for Joseph Gordon-Levitt to make him look like Bruce Willis is slightly distracting.  The most impressive performance probably comes from Pierce Gagnon who has an amazing ability to frighten an audience with his facial expressions. 

The film contains a balance of both intelligence and action, too much of either and the film risks failing, the is a perfect example of a science-fiction thriller movie.  The movies narrative is very original and leaves you not knowing what could happen next as both of the Joe's battle for different situations.  With most sci-fi films you need to check your disbelief at the door, but the world that Rian Johnson has created is very believable without being over the top with flying cars.  I hope to see the screenplay nominated for an award and recommend this film to all of my friends as a solid 4 Quack film.


1 comment:

  1. Gabe, glad you liked this one. I don't think it's Academy Award worthy per your rating scale, but it's definitely in my top 5 of the year so far. I thought that the a few scenes with the Cid character went a bit too far and ventured into the ridiculous territory, but overall an excellent movie. I hope to see it again in the next week or two.

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