Looper packs a punch...

Heading in to see Looper, I had made an effort to not look further than the theatrical trailers for information about what was in store for me.  Undoubtedly there was not much more to find out at that point, but I had a good feeling about Looper being something special, so I didn't want to take any chances.

One thing I was aware of, was the talk surrounding Joseph Gordon Levitt's prosthetics and attempt to mimic Bruce Willis.  The talk seemed to turn to ridicule in some instances.  I fully believe it enhances JGL's performance, and really adds that 'younger Bruce Willis' element.  JGL does a great job of his expressions and speech patterns as well.

Whilst they have great material to go on with the story, Bruce, JGL, and Emily play brilliant parts (Emily's character Sara has a fabulously dirty mouth).  But the performance that had me on the edge of my seat was that of Pierce Gagnon, the child playing Cid, Son of Emily's character Sara.  He has great comedy timing, is freakishly natural in front of the camera, and really nails some emotionally charged scenes.

The film starts, sets the scene, introducing the Loopers in a near future world, who act on behalf of those in a future 30 years further on.  There are some great touches to this not so distant future, solar powered cars (where cars are used and battered with solar panels crudely attached to them), and over crowding from increased population to name a few.  But the best thing it does here is not dwell on, or over think, time travel.  You know the bare minimum, even during dialogue between the 2 Joes (JGL and Bruce), this way it doesn't become a thread to pick at, distracting you from the main story.  It's illegal, and used only by criminals for the purposes of getting rid of people, this is then where the Loopers come in.

Then, once the stage is set, and the film gets in to it's rhythm, I thought for a brief moment that it was going to end by the numbers and predictable.  All this Twitter hype for the few days previous would have been just that...hype.

Then something quite remarkable happened, and it was like being punched in the face by the fist of awesomeness.

To start with, I thought the film had come to a rather abrupt and premature end.  Then, I realised that I'd been hit with the twist.  But even after that, after the credits, walking out of the cinema, and even on the drive home, the sheer brilliance of what I'd just seen was still sinking in.  So many different aspects of the relationships between people are examined during the course of the film, not least between the different incarnations of Joe, and it's only with the final twist that it all gets brought together.

A great tonic to the fast paced, explosion fest, blockbusters of the summer, Looper is a film that I will enjoy watching the second time just as much as I did the first.