Sci-Fi With a Brain

Rating: Null/10 (14 January 2013)

Looper (2012)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
I think to fully enjoy LOOPER it's best that you go in with very limited knowledge as to the story and the events that happen. If you've seen the trailer then you know all you need to know. The film takes place in the future where "loopers" kill people being sent back from the future. A loopers job is over when they send his older self back to be killed. LOOPER is a very rare type of science-fiction film meaning that it has a brain, which is something missing from most of these types of movies. I'm not typically a big fan of the genre but there's no question that when someone takes the time to come up with a great story then the result can be something special. Writer-director Rian Johnson deserves a lot of credit for not only making a smart film but he also deserves credit for keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat and not knowing what's going to happen next. I said it's best to view this film knowing very little about what happens and that's because there are so many twists and turns that it would be a real shame for someone to know what happens before actually seeing the film. Even a smart film will often times go off the rails because the twists become confusing and make no sense but that never happens here. The film flows beautifully in and out of every plot twist and in the end the viewer feels rewarded. The performances are another major plus with both Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt doing good work on their own and especially when they're together. Emily Blunt and Paul Dano are also good in their supporting bits. LOOPER is certainly a film that manages to take a familiar plot (time travel) and do something originalwith it.