“Looper” is one of the best sci-fi films of the past few
years and easily stands as not only one the best films of the year, but yet
another outstanding career move for Joseph Gordon-Levitt who constantly appears
the top films of their respective years. It’s part action thriller, part
neo-film noir, and part crime saga all wrapped up neatly in a fascinating time
travel tale. The film takes place far in the future. Time travel has been
invented but has quickly been made illegal. However, mob guys have harnessed
its power: whenever they wanna “dispose of” somebody, they send him back in
time and have a hit man known a “looper” kill him in the past where their identity
doesn’t quite exist yet. Once these loopers are done with their hit man ways,
they’re forced to kill their future self to rid their mob boss’ connection with
these loopers. It all sort of sounds confusing and rather convoluted, but for a
time travel sci-fi tale it all makes surprising sense. Oh, and it’s extremely
rewarding and entertaining on top of it.
“Looper”
can easily stand with such modern sci-fi classics as Minority Report and
Inception and even the likes of Blade Runner and The Terminator. What makes the
film so successful are strong performances from its cast, a solid well-written
script, and a simply fascinating futuristic and original world conceived by
writer/director Rian Johnson (“Brick”). Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives an uncannily
good performance as Joe. Joe is a twenty-something guy who makes his living as
a looper in the year 2044. People are sent to him from the year 2074 for him to
kill and dispose of. And he gets paid handsomely in silver. He also spends a
lot of time getting high from some type of eye-drop drug. You’ll notice that
Gordon-Levitt doesn’t quite look like himself – that’s because an older version
of himself is played by Bruce Willis. Willis, as the older Joe, is sent back in
time to be killed by his younger self – a process known as “closing the loop” –
but complications arise when Willis decides he doesn’t want to die, overtakes
his younger self, and escapes determined to stop his younger self from killing
him.
It’s such a
wild and original idea and yet the story never gets bogged down in boring
exposition or disappointing plot holes. For a movie that uses time travel, everything
seems rather airtight. Gordon-Levitt and Willis are strangely good and even
Emily Blunt, as one of this society’s 10% who have telekinesis powers, who’s
introduced in the film’s second half gives a rather splendid performance as
well. Johnston
is constantly aware of what he’s doing from every frame and manages to keep the
audience guessing until the very end. And for a lower budgeted film, the
effects are rather impressive. The entire production seems effortlessly
well-produced and well-conceived. There’s no gimmicky futuristic stuff that
doesn’t seem relatively possible.
“Looper” is
easily the instant sci-fi classic it strives to be. It creates a remarkably
well-conceived world, a story with a tight script, and great performances. And
best of all, it never gets bogged down with confusing story elements or having
to deal with the ultimately implausible paradoxes of time travel but flows
nicely and features some great character development, without ever once being
the slightest bit boring. Sci-fi nerds take note, this one’s a keeper. GRADE: A
