Looper

          When it comes to time travel movies, Looper was one of best. The film had a fantastic plot with solid writing. Overall, it was an entertaining film that I would watch again. 
          Like most movies, I have a few problems and critiques. The concept of Loopers was extraordinary, but I felt that this main aspect of the movie dropped off within the second act. Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) went from being an active character to a reactive character. In the first act, he failed to “close the loop” by killing his future self and began to hunt his future self down. When the second act rolls around, Joe sits around at a farmhouse and waits for Old Joe (Bruce Willis) to come to him. While it made sense for Joe to do this, it wasn’t entertaining to watch.
          I have got to say, the first act was phenomenal. There was so much information given and the movie was done so well that I believed all of it. This can be really hard to do with science fiction, things happening in the future, or using time travel.
          In the second act, a lot of the focus is taken away from Old Joe and directed toward Sara and Cid. While these characters are important, Old Joe holds a higher rank in important characters and deserves more screen time. Because Bruce Willis’ character was not focused on enough, I began to not care what happened to him. Not caring about the characters is the biggest mistake a writer can make. 
          One thing that I found to be incredibly fascinating was the use of telekinesis. So many dots connected in my head when we found out that Cid could kill people with his telekinesis while the other 10% of the population could only lift quarters. I then realized how Cid became the one man army that the Rainman was said to be. 
          The fact that Joseph Gordon-Levitt figured out that letting Old Joe kill Sara would result in the eventual “closed loop,” was brilliant. It was so eloquently written and it made perfect sense that Joe had to kill himself. My first thought was, “couldn’t he just blow his (and Old Joe’s) gun holding arm off? That way he would survive and be able to live a happy life. 
          The ending was satisfying because Old Joe kept Cid from becoming the Rainmaker, Joe kept Old Joe from killing Cid, and Sara was able to teach Cid to use his powers for good. However, killing off the 2 main characters was kind of unsatisfying. I at least wanted to see one of them end up happy.
          Also, I realized that all of the sex, drugs, and nudity was absolutely unnecessary. The story could have functioned efficiently without any of those aspects. Also, if the blood and gore were edited out, Looper could have achieved a PG-13 rating, making it higher grossing and more viewable.

          Overall, Looper was entertaining, but I expected more character development and action. The acting, makeup, story, and dialogue were all great, but I expected there to be more interaction between Joe and Old Joe. Turning Looper into a ‘buddy movie’ probably wouldn’t have worked out too well, but I felt like they at least deserved more screen time together. I was so interested to see what they could talk about with each other. I would definitely recommend Looper to people and am interested in discussing similar or different opinions regarding the movie.