Movie review: Survival of the good enough in ‘Looper’

“Back to the Future” set the bar for time-travel movies. Since then, there have been many movies that have tried to emulate the magic of time-travel that “Back to the Future” gave audiences.

“Looper” is one of those films that tries hard, but doesn’t quite reach that bar.

“Looper” stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as “looper” Joe Simmons. In the movie, time travel has not been created yet, but the future has it. Crime bosses from the future send targets back in time to secretly get rid of their bodies. Once the bodies are sent back, loopers immediately kill them and claim a reward of silver that is tied to the targets back. Sometimes, the crime bosses want to end the contract of a looper, thus sending a man back in time to get killed by his younger self. The looper is presented with a great amount of gold that he can live the rest of his life on.

Simmons is on duty when he realizes that the man sent to him was an older version of himself (Bruce Willis). The older Simmons explains that there is a man in the future named the Rainmaker who is killing all of the loopers. Simmons wants to kill the Rainmaker while he is still a child. Young Simmons runs into Sara (Emily Blunt) and her son who he forms a close relationship with. It turns out that her son is actually the young Rainmaker and he must stop his older self from killing the boy.

One problem that “Looper” has is its pace. Because of its complex plot, the movie begins with Gordon-Levitt’s character giving a very long and detailed explanation of loopers and time travel within the opening minutes.  Having the main character explain the entire plot is a very sloppy way of getting the audience on board. Aside from that, the first act is very interesting with a quick pace. The second act is overlong and slows down the movie quite a bit. The final act has an ending that should be a payoff, but after 118 minutes, it has lost the attention of many audience members.

One aspect that was hard to accept was Gordon-Levitt playing a young Bruce Willis. In order to get the look, he wore a good amount of make-up and his eyes were completely changed. Gordon-Levitt has had high exposure this year from big budget action movies such as “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Premium Rush” to hosting Saturday Night Live. Having him look like a totally different person really took away from the story and dialogue, though he did do a great job with the accent and mannerisms

Blunt goes against type as Sara, a farmer who is trying to protect her son. She puts on a hard southern accent, which is way different than her natural English accent she uses in the majority of her movies. It is strange at first, but she does do a good job showing her range.

“Looper” presents the time travel idea in a unique way — it creates an original plot. It is also well directed with great effects and beautifully crafted cinematic scenes. Unfortunately, everything else about the film was very ordinary, which doesn’t help “Looper” stand out among other films that were released this year.

This year has had a good amount of sci-fi movies so far. Some, like “Prometheus,” were captivating and stayed true to the genre. Others, like “Total Recall,” were disappointing and forgettable. “Looper” falls right in the middle of that spectrum by doing a decent job of keeping audience interest, but lacking with the story telling.

 

Grade: C+