Film Review - Looper (2012)

Looper is written and directed by Rian Johnson and concerns a guy named Joe who lives in the future though in the present he's played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and is called a "Looper" who deal with people sent from the future who are then killed by the mob, but Joe's future self played by Bruce Willis escapes and is determined to change the future.

It's fair to say that I went into Looper with very high expectations as the current film marketplace has lacked a good Sci-Fi film for a long time, when I heard of this one I was very keen to see it but sadly my chances of seeing it in the cinemas were diminished due to bad scheduling and session times so alas the wait began for the film's DVD release and as I mentioned in my look back at last year's cinema going, it was the one film I regretted missing the most out of all.

But now the day had come at last, the time where I would finally, Finally get my chance to see this highly talked about Sci-Fi cult classic, could this do the impossible and match my high hopes or was all the long wait going to do was leave me feeling nothing but disappointment?

Well happily, so very happily even I can say that this was well and truly worth the wait, this was easily one of the finest Sci-Fi films I've ever seen and a lot of that credit goes to Johnson in both writing and directing, it's clear that at the writing stage he thought everything through in an exquisite level of detail and in terms of directing the film he makes good use of the 2.35:1 aspect ratio as well as delivering some very sharp editing that makes sure that the film has a sense of pace and structure to it as well as not making sure the audience get lost in all that time travelly paradoxy sci-fiyyy smeg.

But what also really stuck out for me were its three key influences, all of them cult movies from the 1980's, the films in question are Blade Runner, the first Terminator and Witness, all three clearly permeate throughout the film in terms of the character relationships, the visuals of the future, the bond between mother and son and a man risking it all for the one he loves most.

But my praise doesn't end with Johnson, it extends to the cast as well, JGL is fantastic as the young Joe and he really convinces your seeing a young Bruce Willis from around the time he made the first Die Hard film, Willis himself is the best he's been in a very long time and gets a few key moments of his own that remind us why we fell for him as a star 25 years ago and I did think to myself "Yippie Ki-Yay Motherfucker"

But there are other actors that also deserve mention, one is Emily Blunt who I have found to be very hit and miss over the years but really delivers the goods here, Jeff Daniels has a small role as well and he's very good as is Pierce Gagnon who plays the young boy.

But lastly I have to mention the music score composed by Nathan Johnson which plays a key part in the film and takes centre stage at times during it but is not your typical film score that's mainly there to be background fodder or sound as though its grating a chalkboard or being flushed down the toilet, this is a terrific score and I was reminded of Basil Poledouris's score for Robocop when it was over.

So all in all Looper is a terrific piece of Sci-Fi filmmaking and I really wish I had been able to catch in cinemas during its theatrical release but alas the film did not disappoint as I had dreaded it would and any Sci-Fi fan out there should seek it out for a watch when they can, it's really great, 4 and a half out of 5.