So much potential. So much.

Rating: 7/10 (7 August 2013)

There will be some spoilers. I assume the reader already knows what the movie is about.
That one scene. In the diner, where present and future Joe are talking to each other. Great scene, and I felt the amazing potential right there. Older Joe who has changed his ways, mourning a love that changed his life. Younger Joe, not caring about anything. The importance and fragility of memories, and what it means in their situation. That alone would make an amazing story, and it is the best scene in the movie. Imagine the possibilities.
Instead, the older Joe suddenly loses his charm and "warmth", turns out to be an almost sociopathic asshole who really doesn't care about anything else than getting his woman back. This development is too sudden, weak and does not follow the themes so strongly present in the diner scene, and I have to blame the writing. At some point, they decided that meaningful themes have now been taken care of, so let's get to some crime lord/X-men stuff - all things I didn't care about AT ALL at that point, and not much more even later on. Big mistake. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad movie, but I weep for the lost potential. "Looper" sets itself up to be a little gem and then...hngh.
Younger Joe becomes the "good guy", not at all from his older self's influence, but just because. In the end, the "memories can be altered"-thing doesn't apparently even matter (younger Joe loving Emily Blunt's character, realizing the situation they are in is screwed) because hey, there has to be a sacrifice so that viewers can get emotional and pretend to cry. It was cutting the corners short, and forced. So forced. I can even forgive some of the Phoenix-kid plot straight from the X-men universe. Mainly because the child actor is pretty good.
There's one significant thing about the characters. Both Joes, Emily Blunt's character, the kid...I didn't care about them. I thought both Joes were ultimately shallow and very, very unlikable. I didn't root for either one of them. Blunt was of course pretty and doesn't suck, but again suffers from bad character development and writing. There's some forced dialogue that tries to get you feel for her and deepen the character, but it's done in a very "let's get this out of the way" - manner. It is possible to do much with very little, but this is not the right attitude. Still, I had more sympathy for her than the main characters. Funny, right? No.
How about the "bad guys"? They're treated the same way, maybe even worse. Charismatic Jeff Daniels along with Noah Segan are set up - much like this movie itself - pretty well. You get interested. Then, nothing. Writer/director Rian Johnson throws them out like garbage without any kind of payoff or satisfaction.
The deep, wonderful themes where real emotions, interest and curiosity lie are wasted and instead the movie gives us something much cheaper. Not terrible or awful, but cheap and unambitious. It's as if the writer/director Johnson took someone's half-finished story and then wrote the rest himself.
This isn't a bad movie, but it could've been very good. "12 Monkeys" - good if done right. It was on the right track for about 30 minutes. That's why I'm frustrated and right now it makes the bad things and shortcomings seem so unbearable, although in reality I've forgiven a lot worse things with other movies.
I probably won't watch this again any time soon. Nevertheless, "Looper" at least tries to be original and takes itself seriously enough to a point. In a time of remakes, movies like "Grown ups" and...whatever stinking pile of crap you might run into, that's something to like and for that I give it a 7 instead of 6.