Looper - Written Review

Time travel is always an interesting subject to theorize about.  Being able to go back and fix a stupid decision you once made.  We'd all love the chance to fix those mistakes.  So far the closest we've come to something like that is visualizing the possibilities in film.  The problem with these movies is since there are no clearly defined laws that govern time travel the screenwriter can make up anything he wants.  This often times leads to audience yelling "oh, come on!" when things don't work as expected.  Is that how it worked in Looper?

How does it feel to be inside you?

First off this movie didn't have a lot setting it up.  The trailer only spoke of a future where people are sent back in time to be executed by people in the present.  And our main character encounters his older self when he is sent back in time to be killed by himself.  That's an idea.  An interesting idea, but it's not a story.  So right off the bat I'm going into this movie pretty much blind.  The reason why he encounters himself: Loopers, as they're called, are contracted by the future mob to be at a place and time to receive and execute these people for money.  Part of the contract entails that their last "job" is to execute their future selves.  Right away I ask: why?  I can think of a dozen ways to "end" a contract that doesn't entail you killing yourself.  Because with foreknowledge that you're going to eventually be caught and sent back in time to be killed, you'd think people would try to change history to avoid this.  And that's what some people do, which causes problems in the present.

La, la, la.  I hear nothing.

In terms of story, Looper has quite a few plot holes, like the one pointed out above.  Most of the plot holes are time paradoxes...which Film Crazy Adam does not approve of.  This movie runs on the "changes don't happen in the future until the second it happens in the present."  It's very...well, bull sh*t.  Example: a guy from the future loses both his feet and forearms when they are removed from the same person in the present.  Right there he shouldn't've been able to run away from himself when he was sent back in time because technically he hasn't had the necessary appendages to escape himself in the first place for the past 30 years.  But instead of that, he's on the run and only looses one body part at a time as his present self looses them.  It doesn't make any sense.  In fact, the whole movie culminates in a deus ex machina paradox.  It's really convoluted and contrived.  Also for the first half of this movie I have no idea what the point is.  Where is the goal?  The quest?  What is the main character working towards?  Where are we going in this story?

I should stop talking to myself.  People will think I'm crazy.

In conclusion, while Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are ALWAYS awesome, this movie really suffered from ginormous plot holes.  Things don't make sense in this movie and, I don't know about most of you, but it bugged the sh*t out of me.  Screw creative license when you're just going to pull bullsh*t out of your ass.  There actually is a plot in here.  But ultimately it makes about as much sense as a screen door on a submarine.

Film Crazy Adam doesn't recommend this movie...unless you just want to see the same person argue with himself for a couple short scenes.  It is humorous.  But hardly worth watching a whole movie for.