Starring: Bruce
Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Piper Perabo, and Jeff Daniels
Genre: Science
Fiction, Action/Adventure, Thriller
Rated: R
By the year 2072, time travel will have been invented and
the use of it banned. Only the biggest criminals will use it as a way of
killing off their targets and disposing of the bodies. Enter Joe
(Gordon-Levitt) a looper, who lives in the year 2042 and kills these people as
they appear before him. However, his life of casually killing comes to an end
when he encounters his future self (Willis). When his loop escapes, Joe realizes he has to find his
older self and kill him in order to get his own life back.
I didn’t know what to think of this film going into it. I
had seen minimal promotion for it and only had a basic grasp of the plot, which
seemed interesting. Plus, I enjoy both Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as
actors, so I figured it was worth a watch. I came out of it satisfied with my
choice.
One of the things that struck me about this film is how even
though none of the characters are really that likable, I still managed to care
for them. Joe is a selfish person, driven by anger from his past, and greed. He
takes drugs and kills people for a living and only slowly begins to grow a
conscience as the movie progresses. Old Joe isn’t much better, as his focus on
preventing something from happening in the future takes him back to the ways he’d
long given up for love. Sara (Blunt) is a recovering addict trying to raise a
son that resents her, which would be attractive if she wasn’t such a dishonest
person. Yet somehow, Johnson has written these characters so that despite their
flaws, the audience still wants things to work out in their favor. He was also
able to create enough suspense that I tensed up, worried for them and wanting
them to make it out of bad situations.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt was an amazing lead for this film. He
was able to capture Bruce Willis’s mannerisms and make me believe they were the
same person. He made a believable assassin, which I never would have pictured
him playing prior to this. He carried the film with ease and truly has that
leading man charisma. British actress Emily Blunt was able to pull off a
believable American accent. She also did very well as the troubled young mother
looking to protect her child from the nastiness in the world. While Bruce
Willis did a great job with the action sequences, I would have liked to see him
express more emotion, such as during the scenes with his wife. (Though, in all
fairness, a trained assassin probably has a very hard time doing such a thing.)
Still, it would have made his character a little more sympathetic.
While this is an action movie, I wouldn’t call it a typical
film of the genre. There is a lot more going on than scenes of violence and
explosions. Our characters do develop and relationships are formed. Despite the
fact that Joe originally comes off as heartless, there’s no denying that he
cares for Sara and her son, Cid, even if he acts like his only motivation is to
kill his loop and get his life back.
The action sequences themselves were very well done. I
thought the filmmakers did a good job spacing them out so the viewer didn’t get
an action overload. This gives the audience a chance to get involved with the
characters and the aforementioned relationships between them, without
constantly being distracted by violence or explosions.
The one scene I found jarring was the sex scene between Joe
and Sara. It felt very out of place. I know it was probably there to show she
has gained a trust for him and demonstrate their budding relationship, but I
feel that could have been done another way. His scenes with Cid were enough to
establish the connection, as well as the conversations between him and Sara. I think the movie
would have been just as good without it.
Overall, aside from the unnecessary sex scene, the film was
very entertaining. The acting, pacing, and writing were great and the concept
was original. I hope to see more films like this in the future.
7/10
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