“Time travel has not yet been invented. But thirty years from now, it will have been” says Joe, who is himself living in the year 2044 it is worth noting. Joe is a ‘looper’ which means he works for a mafia in Kansas City and the man running the city is from the future. Loopers are people who are hired by the mafia of the future to kill targets sent back in time and dispose of the bodies. There is but one rule: never let your target get away, even if your target is you. So only bad things can come from Joe’s newest target being the future version of himself.
If you get that then you have the very basic knowledge needed to sit down and watch what is most certainly a thinker of a movie. As two of the characters mention throughout the film ‘time travel fries your brain like an egg’ so it is probably best that with already so much going on Looper doesn’t give us a whole definition of time travel for us to get our heads around in one go; instead, information is sort of dripped out to the audience as we go along and it all starts to make sense (providing you don’t go into this with rules about time travel already set in stone in your mind because of other films as time travel does not exist). The way time travel is handled here is very clever.
Anyway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Joe from 2044 and playing Old Joe is Bruce Willis. It is clear that Joseph Gordon-Levitt put a lot of effort into his performance and did a lot of research on previous Bruce Willis films to be able to act more like his on screen future self. This research combined with the remarkable prosthetics placed on his face make it very easy for the audience to see how the young Joe becomes Old Joe. Joseph Gordon-Levitt doesn’t disappoint and puts in one of his best performances to date, once again showing his versatility while Bruce Willis certainly looks and feels at home once he gets a hand on a machine gun. Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Jeff Daniels and Noah Segen all provide excellent back up to the main stars. But Looper is stolen by one actor in particular: Pierce Gagnon. At just ten years old Gagnon is absolutely terrific and shows that without a doubt he is one for the future. It is so incredible to see such a young boy put in such an emotional performance; at times harrowing and so often adorable. It is not a performance you will forget any time soon.
The world of Looper is a very different one to the world we live in at the minute and we are given a brilliant introduction to the world via narration provided by Joe. This is a very simple and easy way to place the audience in the centre of the action and be able to comprehend what is happening. Looper is full of thrills, the action is great to watch, the character development is obvious, the character’s themselves are incredibly well created, the special effects are outstanding… everything about Looper is just stand out perfection of the highest order.
Looper, if there is any justice, will become a staple in film history. It is without a doubt one of the greatest science fiction films I have ever seen, the best time travel movie ever made and one of the best films of this year!
My Rating: 10/10.
Over the past week there has been a flurry of pointless sequels being announced. Is it any coincidence that the announcements have come at the same time as the cinema release of Wrath of the Titans, a pointless sequel in itself? I don’t think so. First, it was announced that Twins would be getting a sequel called Triplets, where Eddie Murphy plays long lost brother of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito, seriously. The news of Dumb and Dumber 2 followed starring Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels. And now The Woman in Black is getting a sequel and I could not be more furious.
The Movie Universe 