Looper blows holes in the Sci-fi action genre
By Morgan P Salvo
Right off the bat you
can tell Looper is going to be
different. Its edgy approach reinvents and, for the most part, rejects standard
Hollywood formula. From director Rian Johnson,
the guy who brought us new lingo and changed the face of noir with Brick, followed up with con-man tale The Brothers Bloom which was only mildly
entertaining. Third time’s a charm as Looper delivers on all possible
levels while its gaffes are few and forgivable. It's an exciting science
fiction action fantasy with a dose of hard-hitting drama, an engaging script
and just a wacky idea overall. The story of Looper
takes place in the near future where the majority of the action unfolds in Kansas, circa 2044,
setting up the more distant future (the early 2070s) where time travel is
outlawed and only used by bad guys in the future to send back other really bad
guys for a team of guys called Loopers to kill. Basically Loopers wait in a
corn field and when the dude from the future shows up, bam! they blow him away
and dispose of the body, collecting the silver bars strapped to the victim’s
back in form of payment. It’s a time travel garbage elimination waste management
kind of deal. The Looper’s code and only rule is “never let your target escape”
even if that target happens to be your future self. When the decision is made
to terminate a Looper's contract, he is sent a future version of himself to
eliminate. This is called “closing the loop” Once he has completed that task, he’s
got 30 years to lives of life. Plus a criminal Czar sent from the future (Jeff
Daniels) is there to make sure everything runs smoothly. So a Looper’s lifespan
is pretty limited. Oh and the fact that a lot of people have acquired TK
(telekinesis) is a sub plot that rears its telepathic head every once in a
while and has major pivot point near the end of the flick
Gordon-Levitt plays
Joe, a Looper waiting out his contract, cashing in and biding his time, hanging
out with other drugged out assassins, cruising in expensive vehicles and going
clubbing. So when Joe eventually finds himself at the trigger end and the
barrel end of the shotgun things don’t go as planned. When his older self
(Bruce Willis) turns up he fails to carry out the hit. Both versions of Joe go
on the run and try to affect their future which involves Sara (Emily Blunt),
who owns the farm where the young Joe hides out with Sara’s telekinetic son Cid
(Pierce Gagnon). Johnson has effectively designed a nice gritty realism to the
future where rich versus poor and while hoards of ruined people walk the
streets the devil-may-care Loopers threaten them and taunt them at every turn.
Looper restores
the thinking man’s action movie and once you get the hang of it all it’s about
the next surprise and what happens next. Bullets fly, blood spurts and people
say smart things and heave real painful emotions amidst this hugely underlying
dark humor.
Jeff Daniels has such a great natural style as a villain he
is one of those actors that can seriously go just about anything and when he
says “Take it from me I’m from the future go to China” it smacks of the humor
he invokes in HBO’s the newsroom. Pierce Gagnon needs to be recognized not only
does he play a force to be reckoned with, his acting chops will follow suit The
little kid reign of terror is excellent and he’s a boy and he doesn’t suck
great actor since the shining taking a page from the Omen in demonic evil.. Noah Segan who was great in Dead Girl plays the biggest
worthless crybaby character why the fuck
didn’t they just kill him immediately is beyond me and why was his villain
wimp-dom even necessary Paul Dano shows
up to overact. Willis gets all emotional and Die Hard and even Fifth Element
for a while. Johnson really knows how to cash in on Willis’ actions star status
by overdoing a hilarious gun blazing battle. But clearly this is
Gordon-Levitt’s movie all the way. With prosthetic help Levitt is altered to
resemble a young Willis but even though he is doing his own character, he
scrunches up his eyebrows, gravels his voice a little and seems to always be
almost on the brink of a smirk… in other words a damn fine Willis impersonation.
At times we are following Willis and Gordon-Levitt’s path simultaneously and
they are just as effective together. Their diner scene was reminiscent of Heat that is if Pacino and DeNiro had
started punching each other.
Time travel movies are tricky. There are questionable choices
as it’s hard to convince us that time travelling and playing with our past and
future doesn’t alter the events of things to come. The main question is handled
with some finesse: If the loop is closed on you, did you ever exist? Or did you
live your younger life up until the point you kill your older self? This is
what traps the story and the viewer. But Looper
tells a compelling story. It gets pretty convoluted but played with such
integrity that it pays off. Still I kept wondering when someone was just going
to disappear because the past had changed
Thanks to the original screenplay and wild ideas conveyed
through ingenious s camera work we remain riveted and want to known how will
this all end. Sadly the end is a little too easy and kind of a let down but due
to the overall style and tone of this flick it fits right in. This kind of
flick requires acceptance and even though Looper
has a ton of loopholes you forgive them because you’ve already suspended so
much believe and invested time just to travel with these characters on their
path.
I think why a lot of this movie works is the genius mind of
Johnson and what he thinks is cool. His vision transfers to screen and not so
coincidentally we think it’s cool too. It’s like a thinking man’s action packed
art flick. Go figure. I never knew there was one of those in my future.
LOOPER
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, Pierce Gagnon
Written and directed
by Rian Johnson
Rated R
3 ½ stars
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