{"id":29638,"date":"2012-10-01T11:33:34","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T10:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=29638"},"modified":"2012-10-01T14:05:58","modified_gmt":"2012-10-01T13:05:58","slug":"looper-film-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/looper-film-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Looper film review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid a year of superhero-starring blockbusters and the reinvigoration of much-loved franchises, Rian Johnson\u2019s Looper<\/em> will have slipped through the net for some. Yet, for those who perhaps felt let down by the likes of Prometheus<\/em> and The Dark Knight Rises<\/em>, this could be the supplier of what the former two arguably lacked.<\/p>\n

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has to be fast approaching go-to leading man material, plays Joe, a member of an elite band of assassins called Loopers who specialise in offing people sent back in time by the mob and then discretely disposing of the evidence. The catch? Sooner or later the Looper will come across their future selves \u00ad\u2013 effectively certifying their status as the engineers of their own fate, and with it their ultimate doom.<\/p>\n

The myopic nature of their career choice is alleviated somewhat by the wealth it affords, giving them time to indulge in fast cars, top-of-the-range (albeit still imperfect) hovercars and extensive drug use, with hallucinogenics via the eyes being the order of the day here, all the while the rest of the populace struggles in abject poverty, reduced to a state of semi-lawlessness as they subsist in shanty towns and tent cities amid a world that has taken two steps backward to reflect any tentative forward strides. This is the world the 99 percenters feared.<\/p>\n

Despite the stark portrayal of the world in the opening minutes, Johnson avoids posing any kind of political agenda, instead positing the bulk of the focus on Joe as a series of events (including one particularly grisly, time-bending-induced death scene) throws his world off kilter, before it finally all comes crashing down when, during a routine assignment, his future self (Bruce Willis) evades capture, bringing the not inconsiderable force of his employers down on his head (led by Jeff Daniels, essentially playing a bearded, crankier version of The Newsroom<\/em>\u2019s Will McAvoy).<\/p>\n

Aided by a remarkably natural-looking mixture of CGI and prosphetics (take note, Prometheus<\/em> and Guy Pearce), Gordon-Levitt is eerily uncanny as the younger Willis, a point hammered home in the best coffee-shop-meeting scene since Al Pacino and Robert De Niro locked horns in Heat<\/em>. However, Willis\u2019 part cannot be understated; drawing the audience\u2019s sympathy as he reveals the extent of his trials one moment, and throwing it back in viewers\u2019 faces the next by virtue of his \u2013 at times unexpectedly horrific \u2013 actions.<\/p>\n

For all its glossy sheen, however, Looper<\/em> seems more intent on drawing on action flicks of yore; Terry Gilliam\u2019s 12 Monkeys<\/em> and James Cameron\u2019s The Terminator<\/em> are clear sources of inspiration for Johnson as he interrogates time-travel based conundrums, most clearly via the older Joe, appearing to ask whether by attempting to change the future, how far would you go? Moreover, by doing so, do you risk becoming the embodiment of that you are seeking to destroy? Transposed against the ideas of choice and fate, both of which played such prominent roles in Johnson\u2019s previous features Brick<\/em> and The Brothers Bloom<\/em>, Looper gives the grey matter plenty to work with.<\/p>\n

Yet, by the final third, this house of cards looks in danger of crumbling under the weight of its own ambition. Having shown its hand, it appears at times uncertain of where to go next, settling for a half-hour of thumb-twiddling punctuated by telekinetic evisceration and one of the most randomly inserted sex scenes (involving Emily Blunt, who makes up for her late introduction with seldom-until-now-seen gusto) you\u2019ll see this millennia, before a finale that functions as a fitting if not wholly satisfying resolution.<\/p>\n

Like all the best works of sci-fi, Looper<\/em> feels like a story set in a wider, living and bustling world, and as such stands a better chance of weathering the test of time than, say, Inception. It doesn\u2019t quite reach the heights of the lofty ideals that it so ardently seeks to expound, but makes up for this with the sheer thrill of the journey Rian Johnson takes us on. And we can\u2019t wait to see where it\u2019s heading next\u2026<\/p>\n

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