I love movies about time travel. As far as Looper goes… Primer, this is not. It’s not even Millennium, or Donnie Darko, or 12 Monkeys. For it to be any of those, it would have to make sense within the logic of the rules the movie establishes for itself.
I’ll file Looper under the same category I do Deja Vu, and Source Code, and The Lake House… for most people, it’s overall a decent story, that is engaging and a good way to kill 90 minutes… but Looper is not remotely satisfying as a time travel movie.
Looper was well made… but if you’re going in expecting hard sci-fi… forget about it. You, like me, will be disappointed. As far as the mechanics, logic, and causality of Looper’s particular portrayal of time travel are concerned, this is just bad.
That being said, it does have some interesting things to say about how the you of now is a different person of the you of tomorrow. Different wants, dreams, goals, but same life. The you of now, and the you of tomorrow, are essentially at war over the resource that is your finite life.
I liken it to the reason that I decided to get a Vasectomy as soon as I could find a doctor who would let me: It benefits the me of now, my current quality of life, at the expense of my future self’s potential desires to breed, have a family, that will care for me in my old age. My vasectomy works for me now, but is really, in the long view, a big fuck you to myself in the future. Same goes for that student loan I got 10 years ago. That guy who got the loan, certainly enjoyed it… but man, the me of now really wants to punch that fucker in the face.
tl;dr > Looper satisfies on a thematic level…. not on a level of being good science fiction.
Wait for a DVD rip. Go see Dredd in theatres instead.
