A wonder-filled train wreck

Rating: 2/10 (30 September 2012)

Looper is a hell of a ride, but in the end it unfortunately feels like it. It is the prime example of bad marketing: it talks like it will be a sci-fi action movie. In reality it is more of a slow burning romance story with elements of The Omen and Terminator. The real problem with the movie is that things are not thought out well; no one has "feelings". There is an obligatory sex scene that will make your skin crawl (it also fades out before the sex part). There is a character (Kid Joe or something like that) that has no real use in the story, but is hard to kill and just kinda drifts around, culminating in a new movie high for being a bad shot with a gun! The acting, direction, and cinematography are top notch..but the story is all over the place! Why does the movie shift to the farm? Why don't i feel like the idea of killing children is ever justified? Why is there a big shoot out with Bruce Willis for no reason??? Why does that poor kid have so many scenes of awful screaming? Looper means well and is plenty ambitious, but that makes its failure all the more painful. Rian Johnson should have had someone with experience help him write the script. A bad script really ruins a great idea for a movie.