Time Travel For Dummies!

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2012)

Directed by Rian Johnson, Looper, stars Joseph Gordon Levitt & Bruce Willis in the lead along with Emily Blunt. It is without doubt one of the best sci-fi movies this year. The one thing I loved about Looper is the unconventional attention to the plot. Unlike other sci-fi movies you are not welcome to JUST beefy visuals and eye-candy which diverts your attention away from the plot. There's not much 'sci-fi bling' in Looper, instead you are greeted to brilliant writing and awesome dialogues. From the very first scene the plot manages to cling on to you and immerses you.
Don't be alarmed when I say its all story and less action, there's plenty of action sequences and rather meaty ones at that. Once again though these sequences invests more emotionally in you than just being set-piece moments and adrenaline rushes that you forget once you leave the movies. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's constant narration of the things he end up doing kept things slick like noir-pulp. His makeup to resemble Bruce Willis was totally uncalled for. It's not the Joseph we've seen in his recent flicks, literally! But you end up buying it anyway. And even with those layers of prosthetics and cosmetics you have to give it to Joseph to portray a believable young Bruce Willis. And about Bruce Willis, he had some good scenes as well as some mediocre ones which felt like he'd warped from his Die Hard days. Emily Blunt kinda stole some limelight from the male leads, her character was well written and arrayed with an abundance of emotions.
Another thing I loved is the comprehensible accounting of time travel and events linked to it. Usually when time travel is involved you need to rack up your brains (*cough* LOST *cough*) but here in Looper everything is explained as simple and pleasantly plausible. There are plot holes of course but none that's too tangible and never the ones breaking your discernment of the over-all plot. The loopholes in Looper have been covered up subtly and to some extent giving justifications to each and every time-travel jargon. It could be just lame and just some words strung together but that actually saves the causalities that arises from time travel.
Apart from all this Looper has some pacing issues towards the 3rd act. One moment I felt I was thrown in a time-jumping mob war and the next I was thrown amidst a supernatural-family-drama. An absence of an enjoyable soundtrack also takes away some brownie points.
Rian Johnson's signature style has been smeared all over Looper. A bit of 'Brothers Bloom' and 'Brick' could be seen throughout the movie. I found it stylish, cool and totally plot-oriented. Rian proves that a time-travel movie need not be convoluted nor ambiguous, or laid with brain-teasers that keeps you thinking after you leave the movie theater. Looper is quite an entertainer and one of the better made time-travel movies ever made, something you could watch and drive home without burdening your brain asking 'how come', 'why this' and 'why that.'