Looper (2012)

Looper (2012)
It has been over a year since I saw Looper. I liked it quite a bit but took very few notes at the time and have seen a lot of movies since. In the interests of getting caught up, this write-up is a beefed up version of what I wrote about Looper in my 2012 movie round-up post.
Looper was basically the Source Code of 2012 since both are original sci-fi movies featuring time travel made by up-and-coming directors that came out of nowhere to be surprise commercial and critical successes. When it comes to story the films are quite different though.
Looper borrows from other time travel movies such as The Terminator, 12 Monkeys (also starring Bruce Willis), Donnie Darko, and Primer but manages to put a new spin on things. The Rainmaker gave us more to think about than just time travel and the "cut up" scene was particularly inventive. I also liked seeing time travel back into a past that is still our future (2044). Looper still has the seemingly unavoidable plot problems typical of time travel movies, which is especially evident in the ending.
I didn't need Joseph Gordon-Levitt to be made up to look like Bruce Willis. The make-up was fine, I just found it distracting and necessary. If I'm going to buy time travel, than I can certainly accept that JGL will age into Bruce Willis! Unlike many recent trailers, I appreciated that the trailer for Looper didn't give much of the film away. Rian Johnson did a nice job as the director and he had a solid cast as Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, and Emily Blunt who all put in nice performances.
8/10