Looper Review

Movie: Looper
By: Maniac E
Date: March 12, 2013

Face your future. Fight your past.

If you could go back in time and kill baby Hitler, would you? Like "The Terminator" with a touch of "Firestarter", "Looper" is the newest attempt at creating the next revolutionary Sci-Fi film (because everybody wants to make the next "Blade Runner"). Written and directed by Rian Johnson, the writer/director of the under-appreciated "Brick", and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt, how is that for a cast! But will this be on par with other great Sci-Fi movies?

"Looper" tells the story of a dystopian year 2044, where 10 percent of the population has developed laughable "super powers" that don't seem to go beyond levitating quarters and time travel has not yet been invented. But in thirty year's time (in an even more flawed future) time travel will have been invented and quickly outlawed, only to be used by mobsters and the very rich, to send people back to 2044 that they want killed (because in the more distant future it is nearly impossible to get rid of a dead body) and that's where Loopers come in. A Looper is a hired gun of sorts from 2044, who is paid a substantial amount of money (silver) to kill those who are sent back in time by the mob and said very rich. Joe (Levitt) is one of these Loopers. One day he hears a rumor about a man called The Rainmaker, who, from thirty years in the future, is attempting to rid the world of Loopers by sending each Looper's future self back in time for the Looper to in turn, kill. OK, I'll stop here only because I have undoubtedly confused you all by this point, even though there is so much more to this story I could get into, such as the aspect of futuristic drug use, important terminology such as "closing your loop" and how much makeup one would have to apply if their future self came back in time and looked like Bruce Willis.

"Looper" shows us that there can be some good stuff from the creators of Hollywood… BUT of course they had to freaking slap you in the face in the second part of the movie! The first hour was perfect and had some great stuff to tell but once Levitt' s character is at a farm and meeting a boy and his mother the everything is thrown away what was build up! For the next 30+ minutes you will just see a farm a child that has problems controlling itself and a mother that is afraid of her child… Well fun drama ala the mutant series "Heroes" from a few years back. All I can say what a shame.

Biggest problem this movie has is that it is full of plot holes everything just isn' t falling into place. I won' t tell too much about it since it will ruin the plot otherwise but let me be clear it is not a real sci-fi movie! In the end it is just a story with some time traveling and nothing more. Aside from the logic and plot points, there are other aspects of Looper which I was disappointed by. The vision of the future presented seems inconsistent and in some cases poorly realized. Clearly some effort has gone into the detail of certain aspects of the future presented (the idiosyncratic weapons, drugs, hover bikes), but since the rest of what is on show is attempted in a fairly half-baked manner (like a straight- to-DVD version of Children of Men) these things tend to draw unnecessary attention to themselves, and stand out as fairly impractical additions. The film also relied on exposition voice over for large parts of the setup which is a classic sign of lazy writing, and I always thought was practically outlawed by movie critics (who bizarrely all seem to love this film)!

The reason for my mediocre rating of the movie is pure and simple; because of the telekinetic child. That totally blew the movie to pieces for me and left me laughing at what the movie turned into. The movie could have been so much more had director, Rian Johnson, not opted for that approach on the storyline. It could have been so much more but it ended up being nothing like they want you to believe.

BLURAY REVIEW

Image quality

Looper's 1080p high definition presentation will withstand the test of time. Facial textures are faultless, clothing lines splendid, and even minute qualities on close-ups of vegetation are often striking. Colors are equally satisfying, displaying nuanced precision and seamless balance across the entire spectrum. Bright green leaves, country tans, worn down urban grays, and splashes of neon all look fantastic throughout the film and under any lighting condition. Black levels can go a bit pale, but generally there's no perceptible problem with shadow detail. Skin textures, however, appear true throughout.

Sound

Looper wastes no time demonstrating its startling audio proficiency. DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is a dazzling achievement of sound engineering. The track plays with a big, aggressive stature. It offers a very convincing and sonically colorful and robust sound effects, presenting a wide array of elements maneuvering through the stage with high proficiency. Future vehicles and aircraft zip and whir from one speaker to the next.

Extras

Looper contains a commentary track, tons of deleted scenes, and a few featurettes. The deleted scenes are nice to watch but you also get to see why they left them out.

Overall

While the movie itself isn't the best but the disc is very nice on the audio and visual department. E1 finally includes the extras Sony also released, which in this case is a nice plus! Don't get me wrong the movie is one you should watch just to give it a shot. E1 did nicely with this release.

E1 Entertainment