Film about time-travel perhaps is not a brand new thing. This topic has been succesfully blended with many other genres like action (“Inception”), drama (“Primer”), or even romance (“The Time Traveller’s Wife”). “Looper”, seen from its trailer, is of course a mix of time-travel sci-fi and action. Then, what makes it suddenly score 84 out of 100 in Metacritic?

This Saturday, I and a friend of mine named Muhammad Pranasa Aranta made a chance to watch it. I myself, after watching it, was not that surprised or wowed with the film. Well, if many reviews around the internet said that it’s the freshness of the story idea behind “Looper” that makes it highly appreciated, I must agree with that. The point is, “Looper” talks a lot about a new job in year 2074. This job is called Looper. The task of a looper is to kill an enemy sent by the criminal syndicate boss from the future. Joe (portrayed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt with so many makeup and a prosthetic nose that makes him looked so different) was a young Looper who eventually found an ugly truth that he must kill his future self. Old Joe (played by Bruce Willis), instead, escape himself from being killed by the Young Joe. A rush between the two Joe happened, involving a single mother named Sara (played by Emily Blunt) and her son, Cid (played by Pierce Gagnon).

Honestly, at first I was thinking that it will be a copy of “Inception”, although lately I found that they were totally different. In “Looper”, the time-travel topic was described so easily that viewers will focus more to the rush and action between these two Joe or between the criminal syndicate and the two Joe. Sure, viewers will be taken back-and-forth between year 2074 (the future) and year 2044 (the present time, when Looper did his job). I, somehow, just curious about the characterization of Young Joe and Old Joe. Both were characterized so differently and it’s just ... funny. I mean, how come the mindsets between the two same persons could be that distinguished, then finally makes them become so protagonist-antagonist? Thinking the answer of this question makes me lost some excitements in watching the movie.

"Time travel has not yet been invented. But thirty years from now, it will have been." -- Joe 

And it’s interesting to tell you how the overall story, which at first centered only on the time-travel topic, could develop into other topics like pseudoscience or even drama-romance. Many people around the web argue that this story development makes the middle part of the duration, until the ending, went cheesy and plain, and to be honest I must stand with these people. Somehow the story was just too ... ‘performing’, instead of being brief and ‘humble’. But, forget that aforementioned silly question and you’ll find a mesmerizing action film in a solid time-travel storyframe. I like how the details of nonlinear timing were perfectly pictured by the director-and-screenwriter, Rian Johnson, and it’s a good point for “Looper”.

Let me add one more paragraph to talk about a boy who stole my attention by his acting (talking about how Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis acted was ridiculously so-so, and how Emily Blunt tried to speak in a more Western-ish style was just annoying). It’s Pierce Gagnon! This kid played Cid. I like the way he performs: he was total, cool, but natural. Not so many young actors could act so outstandingly on screen, besides Haley Joel Osment in “The Sixth Sense” or Hunter McCracken in “The Tree of Life”. The way he played his emotion, I just like that!

Finally, I have to agree that “Looper” was just overrated. No, I didn’t mean that it’s a trash: “Looper” was fresh, mesmerizing, and brand-new. However, I just didn’t find my mind-blowing moment in this movie, I didn’t find myself amazed. Continuing a long list of sci-fi-action blockbuster films that Hollywood produced, “Looper” still could be one that you can’t miss when you’re on the cinema these days.

 ACCEPTABLE 

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DETAILS & CREDITS

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LOOPER | COUNTRY USA YEAR 2012 RATING Rated R for strong violence, language, some sexuality/nudity and drug content GENRE Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller RUNTIME 118 min CAST Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Pierce Gagnon, Jeff Daniels WRITER Rian Johnson DIRECTOR Rian Johnson BUDGET/GROSS $30,000,000 (est.) / $40,216,652 (USA per 7 Oct 2012) IMDB RATING 8,1/10 (to date) METACRITIC 84/100 (Universal Acclaim) (to date) TOMATOMETER 93% (Certified Fresh) (to date) MORE INFO