Gripping time-travel story

Rating: 8/10 (25 November 2012)

This is a gripping thriller based on a future time-travel scenario. This complicated and intelligent movie was written and directed by Rian Johnson. Kudos to him, because he's really created a movie that has movie goers sitting on the edge of their seats.
Gorden-Levitt and Willis were well cast and played their roles believably like the good actors they are.
I enjoyed Johnson's vision of the future in 2044 and 2074. It seemed realistic to me (although why is the future always so bleak?) OK, maybe the movie was too violent at times. The hero of the movie is a hired killer and essentially we're shown one murder after the next. Lots of shootouts too. I can't say the violence was gratuitous since killing was what this movie was all about. If this kind of thing upsets you, I wouldn't see it.
There was one horrible scene in particular. However, it wasn't that this particular scene was gory, it was just that the implication of what was happening was horrific. Admittedly, it fit right into the plot.
I had no problem following the story, although it is a little complicated. There were a few minor plot problems. I think the movie might have been stronger by showing us in more detail what evil the Rainmaker causes in the future. It's still not clear to me why the Rainmaker was trying to close the loops. I think Joe could have used more character development.
Of course, very few time-travel stories are able to deal adequately with the inherent paradoxes and butterfly effects that make time travel logically impossible. This one barely tries. Indeed, it makes changing the past part of the story, as if the paradoxes don't exist.
But none of this ruined the movie for me.