[02/14/2013]
If you did not know, I did
not watch a lot of movies in theaters last year due to budget
restrictions. 2012 had a lot of potential good movies, and want to
watch them either rental or
through Netflix. Because of this situation, I thought that I should start
reviewing those movies that I have now the opportunity
to watch. The first one
to review is Looper.
IMDB Information
Trailer
Looper: 119
min - Action | Crime | Sci-Fi - 28
September 2012
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 93%
In 2074, when the mob wants
to get rid of someone, the target is sent 30 years into the past, where a hired
gun awaits.
Someone like Joe, who one day
learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by transporting back Joe's future
self.
Director: Rian Johnson
Writer: Rian Johnson
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily
Blunt
Unfortunately mainstream
trailers are not very innovative. Most of them are made by a third party
or studio department. The great ones are usually made by the directors themselves,
who has some clout and enough Hollywood power to do so. Rian Johnson is
not one of those power directors. Just going by the trailer of Looper, I got
the feeling – “Oh! Another mindless sci-fi film with a Hollywood hook”
(i.e. Battleship or “In Time”). Boy, was I wrong.
This is a great great great
sci-fi film. It is thought provoking without a lot of bombastic action
and complete “video game” CGI. It reminds me of the old Fashion, striped down, and
intellectually interesting sci-fi films of the seventies and early eighties (“A
Boy and His Dog”, “The Andromeda Strain”, “Brainstorm”, “Scanners”, etc.). The only films recently that
I can think of with this type of sci-fi would be “Moon” (2009) and District 9
(2009).
It takes one possible concept
(i.e. Time Travel) and makes a good and interesting story with it.
It didn’t take 80 + million dollars to make it, and you don’t need a Star
Trek writer to get his scientific manual to figure it out. It makes you
think.
Looper takes this
premise. What if some time in the future, time travel has been
discovered. However, it can only take you back in the past.
The government surmises that
this discovery is so wrong that it makes it illegal immediately. But the
only ones you actually utilizes it are organized crime.
Instead of doing the
traditional Godfather like hit, where the CSI department is so advanced, they
just take their victims back in time and let these hit men called Loopers do the dirty
work. Now, what happens if one of Loopers (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was just
about to knock off his older self (Bruce Willis)?
What would you do?
The story writing, the
characters performances, and the plot itself is so good. Joseph
Gordon-Levitt is definitely the growing star. (“Inception”, “The Dark
Knight Rises”)
And, in my opinion, this has
been one of Bruce Willis’ better performances in some time. He has been
making a lot of junk films (i.e. “Cop Out” and now his 5th Die Hard)
That he’s getting back to one
genre that he excels at besides action films – thought provoking sci-fi.
(“Twelve Monkeys”, “Unbreakable”, “Surrogates”, and the surreal cult “The Fifth
Element”). In fact – not trying to do
too much spoilers here – but Bruce’s character is not really a good guy.
The movie is set in 2044 (I
think). The futuristic settings is not too dramatic – like this looks
like a possible look at our future. There’s still slums, farms, cafes,
etc. The changes are subtle, which is great. And I love the premise - A
sci-fi thriller concerning the mob.
The soundtrack is minimalist
and not bombastic with a big orchestra. According to the special
features, the composer basically made the score using Ben Burtt techniques by
Recording every day and
organic sounds. None of the soundtrack used a traditional
instrument.
This is a great film. I
wish I saw it in the theater. If I rank it with the other films, it would
be up there with “The Avengers” and “The Dark Knight Rises”. Sorry,
“Skyfall” is the king of the mountain for 2012.
This is a definite one to
rent and enjoy, and it would not be a waste of money to buy this on video.
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