'Looper' Review Thread (Use Spoiler Tags)

[jvince]

Just saw Looper, and damn was it amazing. It definitely lives up to the hype. One of the very best of the year along with Moonrise Kingdom, imo (two Bruce Willis movies!). Best sci-fi movie since Inception. I don't see how anybody could give this less than 4.5/5.

[22soultaker]

Ending seemed like it was stolen from a Skrillex video... Other then that it was an ok movie.. Like alot are saying i found myself saying "when is this going to end" to many long scenes where really nothing is happening. Wish there was a lil bit more action as well.

[ivanb06]

Originally Posted by 22soultaker

Ending seemed like it was stolen from a Skrillex video... Other then that it was an ok movie.. Like alot are saying i found myself saying "when is this going to end" to many long scenes where really nothing is happening. Wish there was a lil bit more action as well.

maybe thats what got me a little bit.

with the "best action movie of the year" tag.

i kinda kept waiting for it...

[toddly6666]

I guess this will be the "Drive" of 2012.

Excellent movie - totally original and unpredictable.

I loved the hint of 12 Monkeys, The Boys from Braziil, and Akira as well.

[ace112096]

Originally Posted by jvince

Just saw Looper, and damn was it amazing. It definitely lives up to the hype. One of the very best of the year along with Moonrise Kingdom, imo (two Bruce Willis movies!). Best sci-fi movie since Inception. I don't see how anybody could give this less than 4.5/5.

i agree with you that it is the best sci-fi movie since inception

[Pounder]

Can't wait to watch this tonight. Is it JGL best movie like he said?

[Batjoke100]

I really liked the movie overall, but the whole Time Travel logic was pretty crappy, if they can send people anywhere through time and space why not just send them into complete Dead Space or send them so far back that the earth was just a ball of heat. Like let's say that it takes to much power too do that, still why not just drop them into like a volcano or the middle of the ocean or something. Why not kill them before they send them to the past? Why not send them right into the body chute that JGL's character uses?

[nolfoc]

Originally Posted by pgestradasp1

Can't wait to watch this tonight. Is it JGL best movie like he said?

no, he still considers Angels in the Outfield his best

[Walts Ghost]

Originally Posted by ivanb06

says the "best action movie of the year" qoute thrown around everywhere.

it wasnt.

Those quotes are misleading. It's hardly an all out action film. It's a sci-fi thriller with action, a small bit of comedy, and lots of suspense and tension. But it isn't a straight action film, it was never meant to be.

Saw it last night and haven't quit thinking about it. I absolutely loved it, and thought Rian Johnson was on the top of his game. Joseph Gordon Levitt was incredible, and he really did Bruce Willis' mannerisms and voice fluctuation down incredibly well. Willis gave the best performance he has give in years, truly memorable for me. It dragged a bit, but not enough to spoil the movie. Kept me on the edge of the seat until the vet end. Haven't felt this way towards a sci-fi movie In a long time. I honestly think the last time I really was this wowed and was really left to think by a sci-fi film was 'The Matrix'. This one just really worked for me.

9/10

[Walts Ghost]

Originally Posted by lemonski

So what you're telling me is Bruce Willis, who has

[Show spoiler] singlehandedly mown down a complete army of goons 10 minutes earlier is somehow not going to be able to chase down a 10 year old boy and kill him?

But

[Show spoiler] JGL knows he doesn't go on to better stuff - in fact he literally says this to the mother 5 minutes earlier. So in the face of all hard evidence to the contrary - like his future self explicitly telling him how Cid turns out - he decides to let "fate" take its course, and *kill himself*. Despite throughout the rest of the film he is all about self-preservation (he even rats out his best friend) and selfishness, yet in the last 5 minutes the farm girl shags him and his character does a complete, illogical 180, just to service the ending. I hate that kind of fraudulent screenwriting.

You're looking for reasons to complain. It's blatantly spelled out for us why what happens does. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's illogical.

[Show spoiler]The kid was already running, and we see that there's no way he hit the kid, because the mother is standing right in the path for the bullet. That means the kid runs, Willis never catches him, and the kid slowly descends into his hellish and overlord ruling as "The Rainmaker". But Young Joe, who's actions have been purely selfish, realizes that because of his future selfs selfish desires, that this is why this all happens. If he kills himself before any of this happens, then the future is a better place and Cid never becomes the Rainmaker. He realizes everything he is doing isn't right. Not to mention, the blatant mother issues he has, where he's talking about missing her. He's not going to take another kid's mother away from him. Joe just realized what the best outcome for the future was, and that was one without himself. He ends the loop, and everything turns out better. It makes plenty of sense.

[lemonski]

Originally Posted by Walts Ghost

You're looking for reasons to complain.

Why, should this film be above complaint?

Originally Posted by Walts Ghost

[Show spoiler]The kid was already running, and we see that there's no way he hit the kid, because the mother is standing right in the path for the bullet. That means the kid runs, Willis never catches him,

Oh, so Willis just goes

[Show spoiler]"That 10 year old kid is running too fast for me to catch him, I'll just give up now, forget about my dead wife 'n all" - despite that for the rest of the movie he acts like The Terminator? And if you suppose that Willis dies - through the kid's scream - clearly JGL does not die (because his future self 30 years older visits him). So with the mother dead, the kid is now definitely on the path to becoming the Rain Maker...where does that leave JGL? Exactly where Willis was! He knows he is going to die in 30 years, his wife is going to die, a lot of people will die - unless he kills the kid!

Originally Posted by Walts Ghost

...(he) realizes that because of

[Show spoiler]his future selfs selfish desires, that this is why this all happens. If he kills himself before any of this happens, then the future is a better place and Cid never becomes the Rainmaker.

No it doesn't, bollocks.

[Show spoiler] He imagines what will happen...he hasn't suddenly become clairvoyant. And yet he stupidly decides to ignore the one person who *IS* effectively clairvoyant (Willis) and leaves Cid's future to the chance of upbringing. The one *guaranteed, risk free* way to make sure there is no Rain Maker is to kill him first.

Originally Posted by Walts Ghost

He

[Show spoiler]ends the loop, and everything turns out better.

We know that it doesn't

[Show spoiler]because Willis tells us so. Ending the loop and JGL not existing anymore has no bearing on whether the boy grows up to be evil. You're saying because he has a mother everything will be hunky dory and he'll have the chance to be normal - yet we know this turns out not to be so.

[Walts Ghost]

Originally Posted by lemonski

Why, should this film be above complaint?



Oh, so Willis just goes

[Show spoiler]"That 10 year old kid is running too fast for me to catch him, I'll just give up now, forget about my dead wife 'n all" - despite that for the rest of the movie he acts like The Terminator? And if you suppose that Willis dies - through the kid's scream - clearly JGL does not die (because his future self 30 years older visits him). So with the mother dead, the kid is now definitely on the path to becoming the Rain Maker...where does that leave JGL? Exactly where Willis was! He knows he is going to die in 30 years, his wife is going to die, a lot of people will die - unless he kills the kid!

No it doesn't, bollocks.

[Show spoiler] He imagines what will happen...he hasn't suddenly become clairvoyant. And yet he stupidly decides to ignore the one person who *IS* effectively clairvoyant (Willis) and leaves Cid's future to the chance of upbringing. The one *guaranteed, risk free* way to make sure there is no Rain Maker is to kill him first.

We know that it doesn't

[Show spoiler]because Willis tells us so. Ending the loop and JGL not existing anymore has no bearing on whether the boy grows up to be evil. You're saying because he has a mother everything will be hunky dory and he'll have the chance to be normal - yet we know this turns out not to be so.

I never said it was above complaint, but you're missing the whole point of what happened and why.

[Show spoiler]He wants to believe that being raised the correct way will make Cid turn out better. He had already lost one parent, and we see what happens in the future if he loses another. I never said he became clairvoyant either. He was just able to piece together an idea of the future, where Cid gets away, the mother dies, and it ends up becoming the exact same loop over and over again, to continually play out the same way. The way to end it is to make sure his future self never even has the chance to go back and time to try and kill Cid. If Cid is left alone and has a normal upbringing, controlling his powers, he won't become the rainmaker. Joe sees that, due to his selfish nature, present and future, that it causes the rainmaker to exist. So Joe thinks that if he ends his life, closing the loop and changing the future to one that hasn't happened yet, will make it so that Cid won't grow up to be the rainmaker. That's the whole point. He sacrifices his life for a future that hasn't happened yet. The only future we've seen is the one where Cid does become rainmaker, not the one where he doesn't. That's the one Joe is trying to create. He doesn't want to make the same selfish mistake his future self did. He realized it was wrong and stopped it.

[lemonski]

Originally Posted by Walts Ghost

[Show spoiler]He wants to believe that being raised the correct way will make Cid turn out better.

Which is

[Show spoiler]idiotic. Willis knows before the two have even met the mother and the boy that the Rain Maker exists in the future, and we also know this because all the other loopers are being closed....so we know that even *with* his mother having raised him "the correct way" he becomes the Rain Maker (or at the very least, he can possibly become the Rain Maker). Killing him is the only sure fire way to make sure that he can't.

I see what you are saying, and that's what the director wants the audience to believe of JGL's character, but it's Pollyanna thinking that flies in the face of everything that has gone before it in the movie.

Originally Posted by Walts Ghost

If Cid

[Show spoiler]is left alone and has a normal upbringing, controlling his powers, he won't become the rainmaker.

This is clearly not true, because

[Show spoiler]JGL/Willis has already been closed by the Rain Maker before they have even met the boy - and his mother (the farm girl) is still alive and bringing him up "normally". So this is not any kind of guarantee.

Originally Posted by Walts Ghost

Joe sees that,

[Show spoiler]due to his selfish nature, present and future, that it causes the rainmaker to exist. So Joe thinks that if he ends his life, closing the loop and changing the future to one that hasn't happened yet, will make it so that Cid won't grow up to be the rainmaker. That's the whole point. He sacrifices his life for a future that hasn't happened yet. The only future we've seen is the one where Cid does become rainmaker, not the one where he doesn't. That's the one Joe is trying to create.

The operative word is

[Show spoiler]"trying". There is no guarantee. The future may be the one where we see the Rain Maker. It may be the one where we do not. If he kills Cid, it will definitely be the one where we do not. And if he kills himself - sure, he prevents his future self from trying to kill Cid. But that has no direct bearing on whether Cid becomes good Cid or evil Cid; he is still with his mother. So a) he kills himself in vain and b) by preventing his future self coming back and attempting to assassinate Cid, he actually makes it less likely that he prevents evil Cid from coming into being!

Despite what it sounds like, I quite enjoyed Looper, to a point (I gave it 4 out of 5 in the poll). I know it's easy to pick holes in time travel films, but I found the ending frustratingly stupid and the more I think about it the more ludicrous it becomes.

[Walts Ghost]

Originally Posted by lemonski

Which is

[Show spoiler]idiotic. Willis knows before the two have even met the mother and the boy that the Rain Maker exists in the future, and we also know this because all the other loopers are being closed....so we know that even *with* his mother having raised him "the correct way" he becomes the Rain Maker (or at the very least, he can possibly become the Rain Maker). Killing him is the only sure fire way to make sure that he can't.

I see what you are saying, and that's what the director wants the audience to believe of JGL's character, but it's Pollyanna thinking that flies in the face of everything that has gone before it in the movie.

This is clearly not true, because

[Show spoiler]JGL/Willis has already been closed by the Rain Maker before they have even met the boy - and his mother (the farm girl) is still alive and bringing him up "normally". So this is not any kind of guarantee.

The operative word is

[Show spoiler]"trying". There is no guarantee. The future may be the one where we see the Rain Maker. It may be the one where we do not. If he kills Cid, it will definitely be the one where we do not. And if he kills himself - sure, he prevents his future self from trying to kill Cid. But that has no direct bearing on whether Cid becomes good Cid or evil Cid; he is still with his mother. So a) he kills himself in vain and b) by preventing his future self coming back and attempting to assassinate Cid, he actually makes it less likely that he prevents evil Cid from coming into being!

Despite what it sounds like, I quite enjoyed Looper, to a point (I gave it 4 out of 5 in the poll). I know it's easy to pick holes in time travel films, but I found the ending frustratingly stupid and the more I think about it the more ludicrous it becomes.

Fair enough. We'll just have to agree to disagree and see it different ways. At least the movie is even leaving to debates, which is a good thing. People are taking it different ways, which I think is a good thing.

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by lemonski

Why, should this film be above complaint?



Oh, so Willis just goes

[Show spoiler]"That 10 year old kid is running too fast for me to catch him, I'll just give up now, forget about my dead wife 'n all" - despite that for the rest of the movie he acts like The Terminator? And if you suppose that Willis dies - through the kid's scream - clearly JGL does not die (because his future self 30 years older visits him). So with the mother dead, the kid is now definitely on the path to becoming the Rain Maker...where does that leave JGL? Exactly where Willis was! He knows he is going to die in 30 years, his wife is going to die, a lot of people will die - unless he kills the kid!

No it doesn't, bollocks.

[Show spoiler] He imagines what will happen...he hasn't suddenly become clairvoyant. And yet he stupidly decides to ignore the one person who *IS* effectively clairvoyant (Willis) and leaves Cid's future to the chance of upbringing. The one *guaranteed, risk free* way to make sure there is no Rain Maker is to kill him first.

We know that it doesn't

[Show spoiler]because Willis tells us so. Ending the loop and JGL not existing anymore has no bearing on whether the boy grows up to be evil. You're saying because he has a mother everything will be hunky dory and he'll have the chance to be normal - yet we know this turns out not to be so.

Point 1:

[Show spoiler] it's not that the kid is running too fast, he runs into a corn field never to be seen again. And JGL clearly dies since the rule of time travel in the film is that nothing happens to the future self until it's happened in present time, hence why earlier the best friend slowly has his limbs disappearing

.

Point 2:

[Show spoiler]Maybe not, but the theme of the film is fate and hope, if the boy grows up in a natural relationship, he might not use his powers for evil. JGL kills himself not because he banged the girl, or that he hopes the kid will have a good life. It's that his future self is a right bastard who kills kids for selfish reasons. The violence is the loop, and JGL closes it.

There are problems with the ending, it's rushed but it makes sense theatrical wise.

[pittpanthersfan]

Why did

[Show spoiler]Young Joe have to kill himself? Once he realized that he could prevent the development of the Rainmaker by the preservation of Sara, wouldn't Old Joe immediately come to the same realization and abort the assassination?

[Walts Ghost]

Originally Posted by pittpanthersfan

Why did

[Show spoiler]Young Joe have to kill himself? Once he realized that he could prevent the development of the Rainmaker by the preservation of Sara, wouldn't Old Joe immediately come to the same realization and abort the assassination?

[Show spoiler]No. Because Older Joe was on a selfish rampage and only wanted to see things his way. He was so set on having his life with his wife in the future that nothing else mattered. So much so he was willing to let this same loop happen over and over and over again.

[lemonski]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Point 1:

[Show spoiler] it's not that the kid is running too fast, he runs into a corn field never to be seen again.

So after we have seen

[Show spoiler]Bruce Willis track down this boy like the Terminator for half the movie we are supposed to believe he just gives up because he ran into a cornfield?

Originally Posted by Foggy

And JGL

[Show spoiler]clearly dies since the rule of time travel in the film is that nothing happens to the future self until it's happened in present time, hence why earlier the best friend slowly has his limbs disappearing

From

[Show spoiler]Cid's scream JGL cannot die. If JGL dies in 2044, Bruce Willis cannot travel back from 2074 to be standing next to him in the cornfield, because young JGL does not get to be 30 years older. And the only way he can be in the cornfield in the first place is if Bruce Willis gives him a piece of the map.

Originally Posted by Foggy

Point 2:

[Show spoiler]Maybe not, but the theme of the film is fate and hope, if the boy grows up in a natural relationship, he might not use his powers for evil. JGL kills himself not because he banged the girl, or that he hopes the kid will have a good life. It's that his future self is a right bastard who kills kids for selfish reasons.

I would say he's perhaps doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.

[Show spoiler]Remember that from Bruce Willis' time perspective, the Rain Maker is this evil guy who's going around killing people, whereas from JGL's time perspective he is an innocent boy. If I travelled back in time to kill Hitler as a young boy, from my time period I look like a hero and from his I look like a monster.

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by lemonski

So after we have seen

[Show spoiler]Bruce Willis track down this boy like the Terminator for half the movie we are supposed to believe he just gives up because he ran into a cornfield?

From

[Show spoiler]Cid's scream JGL cannot die. If JGL dies in 2044, Bruce Willis cannot travel back from 2074 to be standing next to him in the cornfield, because young JGL does not get to be 30 years older. And the only way he can be in the cornfield in the first place is if Bruce Willis gives him a piece of the map.

I would say he's perhaps doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.

[Show spoiler]Remember that from Bruce Willis' time perspective, the Rain Maker is this evil guy who's going around killing people, whereas from JGL's time perspective he is an innocent boy. If I travelled back in time to kill Hitler as a young boy, from my time period I look like a hero and from his I look like a monster.

Ok, did you watch the film,

[Show spoiler]Willis was only able to track the kids via their date of birth and hospital number, he wasn't an expert tracker, and yeah, that would be the logic in The Butterfly Effect or Back to the Future, but here the logic is that anything that happens can be changed, but the link is through the person, so if something happens to past self, then it's on you as we'll because you caused it in present time, but anything that happens to future self becomes instantly null and void because it hasn't happened yet, creating a sort of parallel universe.

[Show spoiler]And maybe, but JGL believed Willis was the cause, if you failed to kill Hitler but instead killed one of his parents and he decided to hold it against you via all the horrible shit he did, I doubt you'd look a hero in either timeline

You can dislike the ending, but plotholes aren't the issue, it's a rushed final concept that doesn't wrap up the ending neatly.

[silversnake]

Just came back from it. Solid 4/5. The entire cast was brilliant, especially the little kid. Wow.