Director: Rian Johnson
Writer: Rian Johnson (Screenplay)
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo, Jeff Daniels, Garret Dillahunt
Plot: In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent into the past, where a hired gun awaits – someone like Joe – who one day learns the mob wants to ‘close the loop’ by sending back Joe’s future self for assassination.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Best Modern Time Travel Thriller
Story: Looper starts with Joe (Gordon-Levitt) giving us the world he is living in, in the year 2044. Joe is known as a Looper a man who is assigned to kill people sent back in time by the bosses in the future where time travel now exists. Joe along with his other Loopers including Seth (Dano) enjoy the life of parties, drinks, drugs and girls but they also know that when their time is up they will kill their future selves gaining a payday.
When Seth’s time comes to close his Loop he freezes and learns that a man known as the rainmaker is in the future closing all of the loops, but worse for Seth he lets his future self-escape and turns to Joe for help. Joe gets summoned to the crime boss Ade (Daniels) who is from the future to answer questions on Seth but this does leave Joe one of the remaining Loopers left.
Joe’s life is turned upside down when it is his turn to clean up his loop only for older Joe (Willis) to be ready for him and ready to escape, but he is hell bent on revenge for the criminals who killed his wife in the future and sent him back, cutting it all out at source as he looks for the child who would become the Rainmaker. Younger Joe has to hunt down his older self in order to fix everything only to himself hiding out with Sara (Blunt) and her child Cid (Gagnon) who happens to be one of the names on the list.
With all the angles set up we get to see how both Joe’s go about their plans with Ade and his hungry to impress hitman Kid Blue (Segan) trying to track them down.
Looper is a time travel film that manages to skip over all the techno talk giving us a personal story. We get a revenge story that pushes boundaries that you will have never seen before with the person out for revenge needing to kill a child. We also get a story about stepping out of the party life to grow up and see where the world is going. We also show how one mother will do anything to save her son along with a crime boss trying to keep everything covered up. Mixing these story elements together keep everything fresh from start to finish for the genre.
Actor Review
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Joe is our leading looper, the youngest ever hired and the last to have his loop closed in the future. When he fails to kill his older self he is forced to track him down and help him discover who this Rainmaker really is while escaping from his criminal life. Joseph gives us a great performance in the leading role.
Bruce Willis: Old Joe is the man Joe doesn’t kill who has come back in time to kill the child version of the man who killed his wife in the future. He has to teach Joe how to stay alive while he completes his mission of revenge which is one of the darkest for a hero in film. Bruce gives us one of his best performance in recent years which is saying something.
Emily Blunt: Sara is the mother of Cid, one of the children Older Joe has come back to kill, but this is the one that young Joe has come to protect. The two strike up an unlikely friendship to protect Cid. Emily shows here she is ready to become one of the strongest actresses in the action/sci-fi genre.
Jeff Daniels: Abe is the crime boss in the city that controls the Loopers, he will never hold back when it comes to dealing with mistakes and has all his men out looking for both versions of Joe. Jeff does give us a good performance in this supporting role, being dark when needed and friendly when the character requires it.
Noah Segan: Kid Blue is the wannabe hot shot working for Abe, he always makes a fool of himself but it determined to prove himself to Abe in the search for Joe. Noah gives us the funniest performance where his character just always seems to do something wrong.
Support Cast: Looper has a good supporting cast that all give us good performances with Paul Dano shinning in his role.
Director Review: Rian Johnson – Rian continues to show he is a great director capable of creating his own style on each genre.
Action: Looper has great action when needed that is all built up well.
Crime: Looper puts us in a crime world where we see a new way of dealing with the problems they are having.
Sci-Fi: Looper enters the time travel genre which never gets over complicated which is a big plus in time travel genre.
Thriller: Looper keeps us guessing to what will happen next throughout.
Settings: Looper creates a future world that isn’t too farfetched which helps us see how things could change slowly.
Special Effects: Looper uses great special effects when needed, with the highlight being the Seth chasing.
Suggestion: Looper is one of the must watch films for time travel fans. (Watch)
Best Part: Cid shows his powers.
Worst Part: Time Travel films always have slight plot hole problems.
Action Scene Of The Film: Older Joe meets Abe.
Oh My God Moment: Old Seth running out of time.
Favourite Quote: Older Joe ‘I don’t want to talk about time travel because if we start talking about it then we’re going to be here all day talking about it, making diagrams with straws.’
Believability: No
Chances of Tears: No
Chances of Sequel: No
Post Credits Scene: No
Oscar Chances: No
Budget: $30 Million
Runtime: 1 Hour 59 Minutes
Tagline: Face your future. Fight your past.
Overall: Time Travel film with a slick style that will keep us wanting more
Rating
