Skip to main content

Looper - Movie Review

Looper brings together two of my favorite things, Bruce Willis and Time Travel. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also creeping onto my list of favorite actors too. That aside one of Bruce's best performances was many years ago in another time travel movie, Twelve Monkeys,  alongside Brad Pitt (another of my favorite actors). Another great film for people who like smart, time travel films.

Looper's basic plot out line is thus (from its IMDB page):

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.

The above mentioned Joe is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whilst the older Joe sent back in time is played by Bruce Willis.

There's no need to tell you to go see Looper, you should just see it. Pretty much everyone says it's a great, intelligent sci-fi movie that, at its heart is about relationships more than time travel. I bought the Blue Ray disc version having not had chance to see this in theaters and wasn't disappointed at all with my purchase. I'll definitely be watching this one a few times.

The plot, like just about every time travel film, raises more questions than it answers simply because we don't really know what happens when you mess with people's past history by travelling back from the future. But that's what makes time travel movies interesting to think about and discuss afterward.

For example there's a confusing point in Looper where we see Joe successfully kill his older self even though the whole movie revolves around the fact that Joe didn't successfully kill his older self at that moment. However, if you try to follow the logic, Joe has to have successfully killed his older self first in order for his older self to loop back in time to try and change the past and not get shot by his younger self.

From there you can go on and have whole discussions about whether time is linear or can be looped back on its self etc. Well if you like those kind of discussions.

If not then Joe's whole purpose for changing the past is intriguing in its self and revolves around the fate of his future girlfriend and a future Mob boss. If I said too much more it would start to really spoil the story so I'll move on to other things I liked about the film.

The film is set in 2044 and follows a timeline 30 years into the future from that year. What's great about it is that the future doesn't look a whole lot different to today's world even though there are some nice pieces of future technology woven into the mix of familiar. 

One of the characters owns a fairly cool jet bike that looks, literally like a jet engine with a bike seat and handle bars on top of it (no wheels).

This technique of designing the future in a retro fitted kind of way gives just enough hints that we're not in the present day whilst still keeping everything grounded in what feels like a very real and credible future world filled with the familiar.

In fact the design of the film almost pays homage to the set design of the movie Blade Runner but in a much lighter and open world.

The only thing I struggled a little with in this film was Joseph's facial prosthetics to make him look more like a younger Bruce Willis. I guess he does but for those of us who actually remember what Bruce looked like early on in his career, it doesn't quite match the memory.

It's not a big issue though. The story is so strong they could have done nothing to Joseph's face and I still probably would have had no trouble accepting him as younger Joe.

Overall this film is as good as most people say it is. Well worth seeing and definitely a great addition to any sci fi buff's movie collection.

Comments

  1. I really liked the movie...there were a few moments when you look back at the end of the movie and analyse and some things dont add up to the story line...but take it for what it is. And in no way did Joseph Gordon-Levitt look like a younger Bruce Willis

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think, with any time travel movie, there's always a few things that don't add up. That's why I think they're good movies for discussion afterward.

      I was listening to an interview with Looper's director and he said Bruce has quite a distinctive nose and chin which prompted the makeup on Joseph. Can't say I've really noticed Bruce's distinctive features, which is why I probably would've been fine if Joseph had gone without all the make up.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated by an actual human (me, TET) and may not publish right away. I do read all comments and only reject those not directly related to the post or are spam/scams (I'm looking at you Illuminati recruiters... I mean scammers. Stop commenting on my Illuminati post!).

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

Movie Review: Superman (2025) *No Spoilers*

T he one thing I like about James Gunn as a comic book movie director is that he leans into the comic book nature of the world and the characters.  He's not trying to do a realistic take on any of the characters. He's simply bringing the comics to life. It's still his take on the characters, but he doesn't shy away from their comic book origins. James Gunn's  Superman  is very much a comic book movie in every sense. Nothing is off the table because it's too 'comic-booky' and might look silly in a live action film.  To me that's incredibly liberating. It lets James actually tell a proper Superman story that isn't hamstrung by reality, or tip toeing into the fantastical just enough to allow Superman to exist in the real world. Superman begins in the middle of a battle. Metropolis is under attack by a super powered being known as 'Hammer of Boravia', however everything is not as it seems, and Superman (David Corenswet) must work with other s...

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls.  The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices.  My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe?  Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

Movie Review: A Complete Unknown (2024) *No Spoilers*

Y ou would think the Bob Dylan story would be 'wind-swept and interesting,' to quote Billy Connelly, however, despite  A Complete Unknown  being quite an engaging film, it feels like it missed the years that really shaped him as a song writer/performer. The film starts in 1961, with a then unknown, 19-year-old Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arriving in New York City with his guitar.  From there he forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world. The problem being, according to this film, Dylan arrived in New York, for the most part, fully formed as a folk singer/song writer. In virtually no time he makes a very important connection that puts him on the trajectory of doing the work and becoming a name, before making his world changing performance. While there is some drama behind the scenes with his various relationships, none of it is particularly unique to any number of up and com...

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood  Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch...

Australian Federal Election 2025 - World's Most Boring Government Re-elected by Landside - We're Even More Fine!

Anthony Albanese Victory by ChatGPT and TET. W hen I started writing about the 2025 Federal election the polls were suggesting the world's most boring government was crusing to a defeat . As it turns out, boring is good, and Australia wants more of it, handing the current government a landslide win with a majority vote. Anthony Albanese became the first PM since John Howard to win a consecutive term, and the first Labor PM since Bob Hawke to do so. Some of that comes down to the leadership revolving door both major parties had through the mid 2000s. Although Anthony is my preferred PM over Dutton the irony is Dutton sounds more like a leader with a fairly commanding voice and an ability to speak well, without sounding like he's waffling and dodging questions, even if he is. Anthony, on the other hand, does have the ability (and speech writer) to say a lot of inspiring things but it gets lost in the delivery. He doesn't seem to know when to emphasise a point for effect. In h...

Second Sunday Skateboard Session Episode 9, and 10 - Shuv-it Revelation and Did I Improve?

T he final two episodes of my ten part YouTube series documenting my process of learning the first seven basic skateboard tricks from Braille Skateboarding's, Skateboarding Made Simple. These are the links to  Episode One ,  Episode Two ,  Three to Five , and Six to Eight , should you feel the need to see where I started or you want a bit more background on my personal skateboarding journey that began in 1988. I won't ramble on in this final introduction to my last two sessions, other that to say, episode ten is the highlight in terms of getting a direct comparison from episode 1 with side by side footage. Episode 9 - Frontside Pop Shuv-it Revelation The only episode not filmed on the second Sunday, thankfully due to the weather raining Sunday out and not my lack of willingness to continue. Monday was also very rainy but I managed to fit my session in during a small window of no rain late in the day. It was a little bit of a difficult session in that I could only uti...