A fine addition to the sci-fi genre

Rating: 8/10 (30 September 2012)

What would you do if an older version of yourself appeared from the future one day and told you to follow his orders?! Well that's one scenario posed in Looper, a wonderful science fiction film about time- travel and gangsters, starring Bruce Willis, who clearly did not get enough of travelling through time in 12 Monkeys. Trying to summarise the plot into mere words is actually quite a challenge, but here goes:
Our main character Joseph Simmons (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a Looper, that is, somebody who kills people sent to him from the future by a gang, and disposes of the body in his present time, meaning they cannot be traced, as technically, they have not been born yet (kind of like the story in Terminator) . One thing leads to another and soon Joseph finds himself being told to execute himself, i.e an older version of himself from the future (Willis). Willis tries to convince his younger self to follow destiny and do what he says, but will his younger self listen or end up killing his older self? Confusion pretty much sums it up. Add in a few gangsters and mass gun fights, and you end up with a pretty good film.
Nevertheless, the film actually presents the time quantum physics plot in a clear manner, and after seeing some intelligent/absurd ideas being depicted (cut a message on yourself, and your older version will see the message on their subsequent body!), the film is ultimately about destiny and regret, would you change your own destiny if you had the chance? Would you kill somebody to make your own future better? A pretty deep film that slightly lost it's way in the second half of the film, when the action switches to a massive farm (featuring Emily Blunt) and loses its pace, but does actually feature the greatest acting performance by a 10 year old I have ever seen. Amazing.
Good, good film that you won't regret watching, or if you do, you can just travel back in time and avoid it. I think.
8/10