Movie: Looper, Time-Travelling Never Gets Old

The rave reviews and high ratings given to Looper on Rotten Tomatoes caught my interest yesterday, so I set out last night to catch the midnight show with my wife, of course.

I was not disappointed.

I find Looper to be a very engaging movie with very interesting backstory. It would certainly appeal to anyone who is even remotely fascinated by the idea of time travelling. Looper is set in a time where a group of contract-killers called Loopers kill people sent to them from the future by highly organized criminal organisations. However, since the activity was highly illegal, the future mobs would ultimately tie all loose ends and the Loopers would eventually have to kill their future selves the same way they kill their catch.

But of course, somebody always didn't.

To really appreciate Looper you need to get some common time-travelling theories and concepts especially the grandfather paradox, and how the future is not set in stone ala Marvel's Days of Future Past or Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future trilogy. The ideas behind Looper are hardly original; think of it as a cross between 12 Monkeys and Terminator series (oh, by the way, Bruce Willis was in 12 Monkeys too, and remembering that made me feel really ancient), even the storyline sometimes were predictable. However Looper provided just the right dose of mystery, drama, action, violence and some pretty unexpected turns ala M. Night Shyamalan's signature this-is-why-THAT-happened-earlier moments to deserve the high ratings and rave reviews.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt played a very convincing young Bruce Willis. He even pulled off Bruce Willis' trademark smirk rather successfully. Emily Blunt reminded me of a younger, sweeter, prettier Uma Thurman.

Bruce Willis was... well, Bruce Willis.

If I have to judge the movie based on my wife's reaction then I would give it a 3/5 since she did fell asleep at some points. My own rating would be a solid 4.5/5. Watch it to believe it.

But seriously, time travelling never gets old (haha get it? Never gets old... I'm so freaking funny I should kill my future self Looper-style).