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.

Movie Trailers: To Watch Or Not To Watch

          As an aspiring filmmaker, I tend to notice certain aspects of movies and TV shows relating to the production of the show or movie that the general public may disregard. I happen to pay particular attention to movie trailers. As we all know, trailers parade beautiful women, cars, and action scenes in front of the audience to make the film that it advertises more desirable. While this effort is a noble one, some trailers tend to ruin some of the intensity and adventure of a movie. Much of the time, the most thrilling action scenes occur toward the climax of the film, and these scenes are often placed in trailers to attract attention. I see this as a bad thing because, in my opinion, it takes a lot of the "wow factor" out of the film.

          Let me give you an example. A few months ago, I was eagerly awaiting the film Prometheus to come out. I watched all of the trailers, making me even more excited. By watching all of the trailers (multiple times I must admit), however, I ruined some of the movie for myself. WARNING PROMETHEUS SPOILERS AHEAD. I knew that the film was going to have some correlation with the Alien franchise (no spoiler there). Also, the trailer shows that an alien ship would take off and end up crashing back into the planet nearly killing two characters. We witness an Engineer standing above Shaw's death,  and even see Fifield's death. As I watched Prometheus, I kept mentally checking off scenes that I had seen in the trailer, and waiting for others to come. Knowing certain scenes, like the Engineer standing above Shaw, ruined some of the climactic experience for me because, as the film progressed, I knew that this scene would be at the end.
           I recently saw a trailer for Paranormal Activity 4, which was quite scary. However, having seen the clip beforehand, I realized that when I watched the actual movie I wasn't as shocked or scared because I had already seen it. The same theory applies to other trailers. Mind-blowing action scenes are fun to watch in trailers, but would be more captivating to see for the first time on the big screen. It is for these reasons that I try to refrain from over watching movie trailers for films that I am very excited about.  Hopefully this method will help maintain some level of innocence and make the film even more exciting to watch in the theaters.