Looper

Ratings: 7.4/10

Film Class: B+

Genre: Sci-Fi Action Thriller

Set in a futuristic world where time travel exists, a dangerous mob sends future enemies back to the past where they would be killed by executioners called loopers. Looper is the name of the so-called employed executioners or killers, but there's more to the title than meets the eye. Time travel in itself is like a loop, and these loopers are supposed to close the loop. Things get interesting when Joe, the lead star in this film closes a loop that he never had coming... 

As with other time travelling movies, there's always loop-holes in them. The "best" time travelling movie I know till date that was the most logical was probably The Time Traveller's Wife. The first dialogue scene between Jeff Daniels (the mafia boss, alias "Rainmaker") and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Joe) featured an uncanny young Bruce Willis. Not sure if it was CG-ed but Joseph Gordon's side-view of his face was long and "line-ny", similar to that of Bruce Willis. 

As for Emily Blunt, she kinda reminded me of Charlize Theron in the movie Monster, ie. unflattering. As for Jeff Daniels, he sure didn't have the menacing look as the ultimate villain. There's sort of a cameo by Piper Perabo (best known for her role in Coyote Ugly) which was rather refreshing. 

*spoilers ahead* There wasn't much chemistry between the 2, and it was quite puzzling to me how Joe couldn't even bother about his future self. Who in the right mind would want to kill his/her future self? Even so, Joe didn't even bother to ask about his future self about his.. future! 

The younger Joe was portrayed as a self-centered, reckless, irrational young chap, and the older Joe, only kept the "irrational" quality of his younger self. In a way, there was some consistency in the subtle depiction of the 2 leads. 

*major major spoilers ahead* Before I end off, it's important to revisit the blaring "loophole" in the film. There's not many occasions that I've warned audience to stop reading unless they've caught the movie and this is one of those times because I'm about to disclose the twist in the ending. Please DO NOT read on if you haven't caught the movie. 

---start of major spoilers---

The twist was indeed unexpected till the very last few seconds of it - when Joe had some "flash-future" about what would have happened if old Joe managed to kill the Rainmaker's mother. That was when I knew what was coming. However, after he finally manages to close the loop, the whole scene at the cornfield should have ceased to exist, or at least the existence of Joe since in the first place, his older self couldn't even have come back to hunt down young Rainmaker. It was a difficult call, even I didn't know how it should turned. Perhaps fade out the entire cornfield setting into a setting showing the Rainmaker and his mum happily having their breakfast in their house? 

However, there was some mention about "alternate" outcomes. Which was possibly why the director allowed such a blaring loophole to remain. Either that, or he ran out of ideas to "close the loopholes" that he conveniently added a few lines about alternate outcomes. So this means what we saw at the last scene, was possibly just a one-sided view of one timeline. 

Either way, the loophole didn't take away the impact of the ending scene. For young Joe to take a bullet to himself, was almost similar to him falling in love with his supposed Chinese wife-to-be... the defining moment which he was "saved". Since young Joe was a self-centered, reckless, irrational young chap, remember? 

----end of major spoilers---

I didn't think it was thhhaatttt gooodddd. But Looper still makes a decent addition to my list of favourite sci-fi movies.