Looper Review: By Gabriel Kovacs
Looper
“Looper” is a futuristic action thriller film starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levit. In the film ‘Loopers’ are hired guns contracted to kill for the mob of the future, and when Joe’s target, his future self, gets away, he must track him down and finish the job before the mob that hired him does them both in.
From the very beginning, this film does a great job with creating a world of the near future. Just enough is radically different and just enough is similar with our world to make the viewer really believe it. Cars and culture have changed some to express a collapsing society, but not so much as to portray a “post apocalyptic” setting. The plot line feels very fresh and new, and because of this, at times, it can be quite unpredictable. It holds a wonderful mix of action, thrill, mystery, suspense, and romance, and in case you couldn’t tell, that is quite a lot for one movie to undertake.
However, writer and director Rian Johnson could not have put them together in a better way; the film is heartfelt, action-packed, and just plain mind bending in a very beautiful way.
On a more technical level, the camera directing and editing was phenomenal. The cuts and edits throughout the film kept your eyes interested and on track with all the action; this is especially nice compared to the usual action-movie camera work of today that causes audiences to leave theaters begging for some aspirin. Johnson uses wide shots quite often in scenes where the action is much more dramatic, and strangely this
puts the viewer into the frame even more than placing them right in the middle of the action. By moving the camera back, Johnson causes you to feel like someone over looking the action from across the street or on the other side of the field, and when such dramatic action occurs you feel your attention isolated on that.
Overall, the film was magnificent. Even if you are not a fan of science fiction, I recommend this as a must see. It is a refreshing and delightful spin on the ever redundant films of the day, and to see a director/writer take such a path with a story is something all fans, not just those of movies but storytelling itself, should witness first hand.
