Lots of hype - very disappointing!

Rating: 3/10 (10 October 2012)

We were really looking forward to this movie - most of Bruce Willis' movies are fun, exciting and tongue-in-cheek humor scattered throughout to make for great re-watching. There have not been many good sci-fi movies about time-travel and after reading the glowing reviews here (on IMDb), I even dragged my husband to this movie. He enjoys Bruce Willis movies but not scifi. This movie is at least 60 minutes too long. Bruce's role is well-played. His 'past' self is also well acted. It's all the stuff between that is an unbelievable, awkward time-travel/scifi story. For those of you who liked the 'Terminator' plot where it starts in the future, with Kyle looking at a picture of Sarah Conner that's taken in the past, at the end of the movie - closing the 'time' travel circle - Looper does nothing even close. Changing the future by altering the past is the typical time-travel story, done well in many movies, and unfortunately - done very badly in others. Looper is in the middle. While the stories being told in the past and future are interesting and well-acted/directed, the story linking the past-future is an 'eye roll' moment. In 'Looper', Bruce is not a good person, though he becomes one through the love of a woman. That should be the first clue to - oh brother - not one of those! So he tries to convince his 'past' self to change without figuring out what really needs to be changed to alter the future. It's so hokey in some parts that it's embarrassing. Like watching Bruce in 'Color of Night' or 'Hudson Hawk' - it's like - geez. Nothing about how the world is in the future is described except that a very bad guy is in charge and that's what needs to be changed in the past. Things keep happening at this diner in the middle of nowhere with no customers, black-and-white - and all the bad guys continue to meet up there. The people in the cities are living in the usual dark, cramped and lots of crime - future. How does this woman get a huge house, with electricity, out in the middle of a corn field - that theoretically - she is maintaining by herself? And why is she out there? None of that is explained. Maybe these are all metaphors - which are lost on me - I go to see an action movie not to try to figure out why the director shot a scene in black-and-white or why Bruce is running through a corn maze that's actually dead in the past. So - be fore-warned. This is not a 'Die Hard', not a 'Terminator', nor even 'Vanilla Sky'. It's OK if you go in not expecting much. It's got really hokey moments ala 'Knowing' and 'War of the Worlds remake'. And it's too long so you'll keep looking at your watching wondering how much longer can this movie drag on ...