Year: 2012
Director: Rian Johnston
Country: U.S
Language: English
Time Travel films are a curious bunch. They're either incredibly well made like Back To The Future, or horribly conceived like Black Knight. Every time travel film has a paradox or two, but the great films usually are very minimum and avoid great stress on the viewer's brain. 2012's great time travel film was Safety Not Guaranteed, though I have heard Looper was a close second so I decided to watch it tonight and...boy, there were a LOT of paradoxes.
Looper is set in the year 2044, where a man named Joe (Joseph Gordon Levitt), who is working for a group of killers called "Loopers" (they work for the mob and kill people who are sent blindfolded back in time from the year 2074 by their bosses,) recognizes a victim as himself. He hesitates resulting in the escape of his older self (Bruce Willis).
It's very hard to comprehend why such a film is getting so much praise. It's not a very intelligent film, infact in many ways this film completely steals the plot of The Terminator. While the film starts with young Joe attempting to capture old Joe, the plot soon changes to young Joe and his desire to protect a child that old Joe is trying to kill (because in the future the kid kills his wife). There's also some X-Men 3 thrown in there. The plot holes are tremendous, to explain them all would take a few hours and the film just isn't worth the time.
Looper is also morally irresponsible in the way it glorifies violence. While I suppose it should get credit for the remorse scenes after Bruce Willis murders a few children, there is still a shocking amount of pointless violence that does nothing but make the character look "manly". The film's view regarding the nature of evil is incredibly shallow. (SPOILER) The ending is reliant on the child having a good mother, the writer's of this film actually think that a good mother will stop somebody from being evil. What the hell? It's the most contrived ending in the history of cinema!
In conclusion, while Looper was entertaining for the first twenty minutes, it soon became an all too familiar Terminator-esque film, though even The Terminator contained more depth than this! Paul Dano and Jeff Daniels were a treat to see as their acting is always impeccable. Unfortunately even they couldn't save Looper. Piss on it! 1.5/5
I pretty much agree with your review. Time Travel movies suck. So many plot holes. 2/5.
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