Looper (2012) Review

Looper (2012), Rian Johnson 

 3/5

***Spoiler Alert***

From the writer and director of Brick (2005) (which also starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt) comes this unfortunately disappointing sci-fi action film. While the premise is somewhat interesting, utilising interesting notions of the dystopian future, it's fusion with gangster elements are underwhelming. The logic of time travel is not really addressed in the film, and is frankly nonsensical. It is disappointing that the film uses the concept of time travel as a jumping off point rather than truly exploring the issues involved in actual time travel. To the point where in a scene in the diner with young Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and old Joe (Bruce Willis), old Joe basically yells at his younger self's questions about how the time travel works, saying "I don't want to talk about time travel" which is basically sending a message clearly to the audience, that there is no point in trying to understand the underlying logic of the plot, which may come off as a joke when Willis' character states "I don't want to talk about time travel, 'cause if we start talking about it, we'll be here all day making diagrams with straws." This can be seen as a comedic nod to past scifi films attempting to explain time travel, but it comes off rather as a clear indication that disrespects the audience's intelligence. 

The choice to use digital affects to alter Joseph Gordon-Levitt's face to look supposedly more like Willis's in order to help convey that they are the same person, was an epic failure. The changes to Gordon-Levitt's face were constantly distracting and detracted from the focus of the plot. It would have been better to leave the actors as they were, as audiences are quite willing to suspend their disbelief. In general the look and style of the film was great, very much influenced by noir and neo noir cinema styles (which were heavily influences on Brick (2005) as well). 

The first act is great, but the story really starts to come apart at the seams during the second act. The pacing is quite slow and staccato with some action elements involved very early on in the first act, then leading in to a longer slower paced middle, which detracted from some of the tension. The performances were good, especially by the leads Willis and Gordon-Levitt, but due to plot and editing the characters lacked some empathic resonance, as allegiance was split as a viewer, and you didn't know who to side with. This might be conceived as a moral dilema, but as was clearly established early on due to the time travel element the story would end in a somewhat circular and predictable manner. This shows the underlying problem of time travel in films and literature. The choice must be made either that nothing can change, or that there are multiple strands of future and change is possible. Unfortunately Looper opted for the less logical, multiple futures "changing the future" is possible. Most of the characters weren't particularly likeable and the allusions made to dysfunctional families of the past, wasn't really explored. By the third act the strongest allegiance to any character was to Sara (Emily Blunt), but it was unfortunate that the story reverted to such strong stereotypes of the man/ woman/ child dynamic, and it felt clunky, especially the turn around between the relationship with young Joe and Sara. Where young Joe was selfish and ambitious and greedy and Sara was strong willed and independent, the film quickly reverted their characters to young Joe as the typical male protector father figure and Sara as the mother, comforter and sexual object. This was disappointing. 

The action lacked any real spontaneity or suspense and the supernatural elements were somewhat ridiculous. The ending was predictable, and therefore lacked any impact of the supposed "self sacrifice". This was also problematic due to the fact that while the two Joes were supposedly the same person, their break in psychological continuity (i.e. the link between conscious memories and narrative of self) was lacking and therefore, the vast distinctions between the two characters lacked any real impact that they were indeed the same person. 

Rather the thinly established plot of time travel was poorly adapted to try to convey a heavy handed message about nature/ nurture and a person's ability to change and defy their own patterns of the past. However the music and visual look of the film were good, as well as solid performances from great actors. What is most disappointing about this film is that it had such potential as a concept and unfortunately failed to meet the potential, failing to be a coherent science fiction film about time travel, failing to be a suspenseful thriller or a riveting action film. Therefore Looper (2012) is overall a muddled film, with many interesting ideas, good style and performances, but really lacking in substance, due to basic script issues. It is reminiscent of Inception (2010) in that is exploits "sci-fi" concepts in order to sell an action/ thriller, both lacking substance, and creating confusion to disguise poor story logic, all under the guise as a serious drama. I fear it is a growing trend of "action" films in the last few years, where it is not enough to sell straight action with dramatic violence and explosions, but now there is this new style of "high" action film which purports to be smart with serious overtones and dark themes, but instead mishandle these concepts merely in order to sell action sequences and CGI effects.