Blog: Looper

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The other night The Reels In My Motion Picture and I went to see the film "LOOPER". We'd both read AMAZING reviews of it, saying it was The Great Science Fiction Movie That Comes Round Once A Generation (e.g. like Blade Runner or something) and Other Grand Remarks, so thought we'd give it a go.

It was Quite Good. I mean, it WAS a pretty original story, and it DID do the whole future thing very convincingly, and DID have some good bits. I especially liked the bloke from even FURTHER in the future complaining about how everything looked really 20th Century, and that people could at least TRY wearing silver or flashing lights, and when (NOT REALLY SPOILERS) Bruce Willis complains about trying to explain time travel ("we'll be here for hours making diagrams out of straws") i did LARF, but I could really have done with a LOT more of that sort of thing. Everything was so STERN and taking itself SO seriously that, to be honest, we both found ourselves not caring that much about any of the characters, so the ending wasn't THAT affecting.

Also the ending DIDN'T ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE! SPOILER ALERT! All through the film they go to ENORMOUS lengths to establish PRECISELY The Rules Of Time Travelling i.e. if you go back in time and something happens to the younger version of yourself THEN, your timeline ONLY gets changed as far as it's changed in the present e.g. if somebody scratches one letter into their arm you see it AT THAT MOMENT as one letter. If they scratch another letter a minute later, it appears on YOUR arm a minute later. You don't get the whole word "before" they've written it.

This is reinforced several times, and has some BRILLIANT, also SUPER GORY results. It's a very good way of doing it, and totally works... except at the end where they go "EXCEPT if you're the love interest, then it all works retrospectively as well" which is MEGA ANNOYING! Come on, Film Makers, if you're going to go to ALL that effort, at least carry it through to the end!

So yes, it was Quite Good and did loads of things really well, but was mostly let down by being A Bit Ponderous - if there'd been LAUGHS and TEARS etc etc I wouldn't have minded the ending AT ALL (c.f. the fact I usually enjoy Dr Who every week!).

Having said that, it did lead to much THORT and DISCUSSION when The Arc Of My Character and I popped to Tap East for our traditional Quick Pint Oh Go On Let's Have Another afterwards re: time travel, TROPES, and Alternate Realities. By the end of it all my head was SWIMMiNG, and not just because of the American Pale Ale!

posted 29/10/2012 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Great: I'll look forward to seeing it "on BBC2".
posted 29/10/2012 by

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