Looper

Photo from iTunes Movie Trailers 

 

“Looper” is a sci-fi movie that was written and directed by Rian Johnson. It stars Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, one of my favorites. It was released Sept. 28, and I saw it in theaters on Sept. 29.

Most of the movie takes place in the year 2044. Time travel is invented in the future, but it’s illegal. Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a looper, who works for the mob. His job to kill people sent back in time to him from the year 2074 and dispose of the bodies. The people are normally sent back in time with a bag over their heads. One day, Joe is sent a man whose head isn’t covered, and he comes face-to-face with his future self (Bruce Willis). Joe hesitates and his older self gets away. He needs to find and kill his future self before he gets killed.

To make it seem like Gordon-Levitt could grow up to be Willis, he wears prosthetics to make his face look more like Willis’ face. I understand the reasoning for it, and it does look like Willis, but I think it was distracting. I knew Gordon-Levitt from several other things before, so seeing him mixed with Willis was weird to me, especially since the prosthetics mostly covered just the lower half of his face.

The movie uses some special effects in some of the scenes. I think they were done really well. They were used for some of the futuristic aspects, but they weren’t overdone. Some movies use special effects to such an extreme that it doesn’t even seem the slightest bit possible that those things would ever happen. “Looper” isn’t like that.

I also think the plot was very good. Time travel is a hard subject to deal with because any slight changes have effects. There are usually plot holes with time travel movies. I think the time travel aspect was dealt with pretty well in this movie though.

Also, it’s easy to guess some of the things that happen, but this isn’t as bad as in some movies. I was surprised at a couple of parts. The solution at the end happens so fast that I didn’t have time to expect it.

Another great part of this movie is the acting. Gordon-Levitt learned many of Willis’ mannerisms really well. From the beginning of the movie, Gordon-Levitt moved just like Willis. I could tell instantly that he had studied him. This was so good that it made the prosthetics seem a little less awkward.

I’m really happy with the way the movie turned out because I had high expectations of Johnson and Gordon-Levitt. Johnson previously wrote and directed two other movies that I love called “Brick” and “The Brothers Bloom.” I’ve also seen Gordon-Levitt in “Angels in the Outfield,” “10 Things I Hate About You,” “Brick,” “(500) Days of Summer,” “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” “Inception” and “50/50.” I can honestly say I enjoyed every single one of these.

“Looper” is a really good movie made by a really good director and really good actors. The storyline is so interesting and fun. Make sure to put this one on your list of movies to watch.