Film Review : Looper

, in Films, Science Fiction

Organised crime in the year 2072 has a big problem - how to best dispose of people it doesn't like. The only logical solution is to send the victims 30 years into the past to be killed by a waiting hired gun. One such assassin makes a good living doing this until one day the target appears and looks at him with his own eyes - they have sent his older self back to be killed...

Looper PosterSometimes a film turns out to be much better than it has any right to be. Looper's complicated premise should result in a complete mess of a movie, but a matter-of-fact handling of time-travel consequences, and a plot that veers in interesting directions keeps the audience on board. The direction is great, with some very neat and simple sequences conveying some quite complex ideas.

Of course, not everything is perfect. The premise relies on a particular brand of causality that strikes me as improbable. In fact, at one point in the film one character tells another (and the audience) that it doesn't matter and to just accept that time travel works a certain way. Good advice, but the plot is logical enough once you swallow the setup. Also, if we are being picky, Bruce Willis looks nothing like Joseph Gorden-Levitt, even allowing for a 30 year gap.

But Looper is a well-made sci-fi film, it has a really groovy 70s sci-fi novel feel to it, relying on plot and dialog instead of padding things out with mindless action.

Highly Recommended (IMDB)