It's not perfect, but by God is it good.

Rating: 10/10 (9 April 2013)

Director Rian Johnson has a habit of being brave with this film. Not just because he delivers a fair amount of gore, blood and at least one scene early on, so distressing that it had me in bits. Or because there are very few, if any characters that are either fully good or bad; Johnson is like a cat with a ball of string when he's playing with ideas of morality. No the bravest thing Johnson does in this film by far is setting up his world and his (rather brilliant) concept and just over ten minutes it seems after Old Joe (Bruce Willis) arrives from the future, the story decides to take an unexpected, and for many, unwelcome left turn into a very different genre. what was set up to be a chase movie between Young Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Old Joe is thrown nearly completely out of the window, when any Hollywood science-fiction film of recent years would not only turn it into a possibly exciting but unlikely (as) satisfying series of chases and captures between "hero" and "villain" but also would have done so with considerably less blood or tension. These examples of bravery are actions that in my opinion work to Johnson's great advantage, distinguishing his film from everything else, and allowing it to be mentioned in the same breath as say, Blade Runner, The Terminator and Inception. None of those films are bad, all are very exciting, and crucially, find ample time to have not only compelling stories and characters, but to toy with ideas of Philosophy; Blade Runner with what it means to be human, Inception with ideas of loss and death, while The Terminator, if not quite as intellectually compelling, remains a hell of a lot of fun. And that's the biggest asset Looper has really; it's that standing in front of all of the themes and "directorial bravery" is an absolute belter of a thriller. The action is often low-key, and comparatively small, but the bigger set-pieces are completely thrilling, whilst the script is absolutely excellent; crafting a world all on its own and creating the concept of time travel in this universe is dealt with in early narration from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and excellent production design. It is completely lived-in and scarily, feels like it could be a reality in the next 30 years. Finally, the performances are all-round brilliant. Gordon-Levitt always delivers, and here he is served well by a character quite different from anything he's done before (it's also worth noting that the make-up to give him that "Willis feel" is very convincing, as long as you get over the fact quickly enough). Emily Blunt has an equally different role to her standard fare here, and does even better than Gordon-Levitt for my money. All the while, Bruce Willis returns in a film that helps remind us exactly why he's cool and a great actor, just like the original Die Hard and Pulp Fiction did; it's a shame then that shortly after this, Die Hard 5 was released. Clearly I enjoyed Looper very much, and personally, the shift in tone that most people have criticised it for, I applaud it for. Just don't question the logic of its time travel; it fries your brain like an egg after all.