A disappointing cinema experience.

Rating: 3/10 (25 November 2012)

Looper presented itself as a promising movie before coming out without generating too much hype. I realize now that maybe that was the whole trick.
All I knew was, Joseph Gordon-Lewitt turned down a role in Tarantino's upcoming feature 'Django Unchained' to play the younger version of Bruce Willis in this action-packed time- travel flick that has them facing each other. It's an interesting premise and at times, it leaves the audience to decide for themselves who the protagonist and antagonist is, though they're both the same person. It also deserves credit for its unprecedented take on Time-travel, which poses an interesting question: What would happen if you had to face your future-self? But that's where the cool ideas run out and the movie gradually abandons its premise altogether, branching off in several equally un-suspenseful sub-plots, none integral to the story.
It's hard to discuss the plot without giving too much away. The events take place in the 2070s but you wouldn't know it if you weren't told so, as it doesn't look so different from 2012. The movie tries to account for that by explaining that America has fell into bankruptcy, yet it seems far-fetched that while Time-Travel is supposedly a mere couple of decades away, the cars still look the same as they did 50 years ago. It comes off as lazy and quickly puts you off. Meanwhile, the budget was apparently spent on building a diner set from scratch for our stars to shoot holes through, in what you later realize was the climax of the whole movie. After that, begins a slow and uneventful chapter, one that says goodbye to most of the cast and shifts focus from Time-travel, to romance. 30 long minutes and several clichés later, we arrive at final face-off, but it never comes. The movie takes a detour from answering any of the few questions that you may have had, and offers nothing in their place. There are no twists, no shocking revelations or any suspense. I can't say I saw the ending coming, but I can't say I was blown away by it either.
To cut a long rant short, this movies offers so little you haven't been offered before, and fails to deliver on any of it. Its multiple sub-plots contribute nothing to the story and rob the movie of what little pace it starts with. It even seems pointless not to spoil anything, since I wouldn't recommend you waste time with it anyway.