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Looper (dir. Rian Johnson; Gordon-Levitt, Willis)
- Thread starter Expendable.
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yeah, saw it last night - was good but i wasn't overly impressed considering how well it has been reviewed. wished there were more scenes in china/bruce and his wife. also, haven't people learnt anything re: the future? no fucking way (sadly) are we going to have hoverbikes all over the place in 30 years. 7.5/10.
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
The mom's name was Sarah, I figured it was deliberate.
He's seriously gotten better and better with age.
For god's sake, catch him in Moonrise Kingdom. His might be the best performance in that movie.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
The effects for them looked terrible and they had no bearing on the plot. Totally awful addition that should have been cut.
I saw them more as a fashion statement than a practical means of transport. Like a Segway or something. It's sort of reinforcing the message of just because the tech is there, and we can, doesn't mean it makes sense.
Expendable.
Member
This is cool. A trailer Rian Johnson made for Looper before he starting casting, using footage from other films: http://loopermovie.tumblr.com/post/33431721560/this-is-a-strange-curiosity-i-thought-might-be
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
That's a great reminder of how incredible the visuals of Se7en are.
Fucking loved the movie! I don't even know where to begin praising it, since it delivered on so many fronts...
The ending is perfect, I don't know why some people are complaining.
The ending is perfect, I don't know why some people are complaining.
Closes the main character story perfectly, while at the same time being ambiguous enough for discussion to occur: will Cid grow up to be a good guy or a bad guy?
Elaborating on The Bad:
1. "Oh btw, we have telekenesis now. See that billboard for more info."
During the beginning of the movie, JGL is narrating and randomly brings up the fact that alongside time travel, humans have also developed telekinesis for some reason. This concept is shoved aside for the rest of the movie until the last fifteen minutes or so.
2. Joseph Gordon-Levitt looks like a clown with all that makeup.
Distracting as hell.
3. Complete cop-out on explaining the movie’s time travel.
"Tell me how time travel works in this movie because from what you're showing me it doesn't make any sense."
"No let's not talk about it. This movie is totally about the characters."
"I thought I was watching Looper, not Lost. Also, the characters and events in this movie aren't really that great or interesting."
"Shrug."
"No let's not talk about it. This movie is totally about the characters."
"I thought I was watching Looper, not Lost. Also, the characters and events in this movie aren't really that great or interesting."
"Shrug."
4. Randomly turns to horror movie in last act, complete with creepy kid.
In the last 40 minutes, the movie suddenly turns into a cliche horror movie complete with the token creepy evil kid that has supernatural powers and scared parent. I think one of the trailers that came before the movie had the exact same plot and tone.
5. Metal bars currency purely an excuse for Bruce Willis bullet shield.
Someone should put this in the IMDB FAQ:
Q: Why were Loopers paid in silver/gold bars?
A: For a 5 second scene in the movie so that Bruce Willis could do a cool move where he turns around, deflects a bullet, and buys time to throw one of them at JGL.
Q: Why were Loopers paid in silver/gold bars?
A: For a 5 second scene in the movie so that Bruce Willis could do a cool move where he turns around, deflects a bullet, and buys time to throw one of them at JGL.
6. The injury “passing through time” concept doesn’t make sense.
Someone cutting off your limbs in the past doesn't mean that you start to lose your legs as you're walking down a street. Maybe whoever wrote the ending/climax should consult with whoever came up with the injury idea.
7. Btw, remember that telekinesis? The whole movie is about that now.
Oh yea, remember how we told you about telekinesis at the beginning of the movie? The movie's about to end so now's a good time to bring it up again. The villain has TK powers. Surprise! That's why he's so scary in the future. You probably weren't expecting that since you thought this movie was about time travel and not people having the ability to move objects around with their minds.
8. Bad guys only use time travel for disposing bodies, for some reason.
We're bad guys. We have access to time travel. Anyone got any ideas on how we can exploit this goldmine (other than getting rid of people)? No? Ok. Meeting adjourned.
9. The climax and ending made zero sense.
So, Cid would have become the Rainmaker because Old Joe killed him, while Young Joe was watching several feet away. Wouldn't Old Joe...remember this moment the entire time from his youth? Did this not happen in the original timeline? Did Cid become the Rainmaker some other way? How does time travel work in this movie? Oh right, you didn't want to explain it. Yea, the story doesn't make any sense. Oh well!
Previous reviews:
The Dark Knight Rises (7/10)
The Amazing Spider-Man (7/10)
The Avengers (9/10)
That post is full of spoilers and should be spoiler tagged.
Regarding the main complaint about the ending:
Regarding the main complaint about the ending:
-the writer and director already hinted at what happened in the original timeline, when Old Joe was killed. Notice that the kid has a poor relationship with is mother, and it's only after Young Joe arrives that they start to talk and bond. In fact, the kid thought she wasn't his mother at all, and that his real mother was killed when he was younger. Note that the future rumors about the rain maker mention that he became like that after an incident with his mother. The second timeline would not solve that issue, just add a second traumatic event to the kid's childhood. The way it ended, the kid and the mother are safe and support each other, and the kid has a chance to become a good man. We don't know if he ever becomes the rain maker, but we know he has a chance. Beautiful shit.
I do agree that Old Joe disappearing didn't make sense. He should have dropped dead. It's a minor complaint, though.
I do agree that Old Joe disappearing didn't make sense. He should have dropped dead. It's a minor complaint, though.
I'm pretty sure you didn't understand the movie. Everything you explained was not "hinted at", it was completely spelled out and exactly what happened.
The rumors in the future were that Cid became evil after witnessing his mother die - which turns out to be the scene at the end of the movie (with Sara being the mother). Cid's "previous mother" was misdirection for the audience and to set up JGL's revelation at the end, when he killed himself after realizing that the event he was witnessing was exactly what the future rumors were referencing.
Also, are we still doing spoiler tags? Isn't the spoiler thing lifted shortly after the movie comes out for most movie threads?
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
In the future I'm going to make a graphic that takes 20x as long to scroll past as Korey's. It will say either 'Good' or 'Bad' on it.
BE PREPARED.
BE PREPARED.
Discotheque
Banned
breh makes the most obnoxious review posts ever. Even if I sometimes agree with them.
When I say he hinted at, I meant in interviews (for example the /filmcast episode with him).
In the first timeline Cid never met Joe, so that wasn't the reason he became the rain maker. I think the movie fully supports that vision, but feel free to disagree.
Re spoiler tagas: the movie premiered yesterday in my country, hence my surprise. I don't usually go to film gaf, so I don't know the proper etiquette.
ChackanKun
Member
Just watched it yesterday. Wasn't expecting something....different lol
More Joe vs Old Joe and less farm house romance!
Was nice, but not amazing! I recommend at least one watch of it, but I doubt I'll be watching it again!
More Joe vs Old Joe and less farm house romance!
Was nice, but not amazing! I recommend at least one watch of it, but I doubt I'll be watching it again!
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
It is kind of an easy movie to find 15 cons for though.
Phoenician_Viking
Banned
I found that hilarious. But i am used to him by now.
No doubt, but his schtick is so predictable at this point. Go look at any of his reviews he did this year, and you'll see the same. Faint praise, lots of trashing, then he pulls a 7/10 out of his ass at the end. I guess 7 is the lowest possible score on the Korey Scale.
MrOogieBoogie
BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
One of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Loved nearly everything about it.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
If you are born and raised in the IGN era, that's just how reviews work lol.
legacyzero
Banned
Why the make-up?? I just dont understand it... Gordon-Levitt looks just fine without it..
But I'm just now gaining interest for the movie, so I know little about it. I remember seeing the OP and thinking "ummmm, that's not Gordon-Levitt..."
But I'm just now gaining interest for the movie, so I know little about it. I remember seeing the OP and thinking "ummmm, that's not Gordon-Levitt..."
Discotheque
Banned
It is but I'm assuming that the Rainmaker is a crazy power-hungry fascist in the future. Tbh I'd pop a few kids today if it meant saving the world from Hitler. Call me evil.
All they really said is that he's "taking over territories by himself" and that he's killing Loopers. That doesn't equate to Hitler.
Discotheque
Banned
I thought he was the crime overlord though? I'd imagine that means a lot of innocent deaths too.
Thaedolus
Member
I thought the movie succeeded in that it was an effective adaptation of the question "If you could go back in time and kill Hitler as a kid, would you?"
Some of the plot holes may or may not be explainable, but I am in the camp of they don't matter very much. It's possible that there are multiple paths for Cid becoming the Rainmaker, one such path was Bruce Willis blowing away his mom, another such path was his mom getting killed in front of him at the farm house by a vagrant. JGL intervened in both scenarios:
1) He got Cid and his mom out of the house by providing for them the means to do so (tons of silver/gold at the end). I don't think it's stretching the information we were given to think that, had they stayed, his mom may have been killed and he would have been on his own the same way as if Bruce did it.
2) JGL helped the bond between the mother and kid while he was waiting fro Bruce to show up. Maybe all it took was a little paternal affection for Cid, but the relationship between him and his mom develops over the course of the time we see them. That would have all been rendered moot if Bruce were to succeed in killing his mom and Cid got away, however JGL had his premonition and ended it right there.
That was the major plot hole that left me thinking at the end, otherwise it's typcial time travel paradox shit that you can't really work out in a reasonable manner. I know it's been mocked in here, but what made the movie effective, for me at least, are the questions it raises about the morality of what Bruce was trying to do. I know it effectively tries to answer that question in the end by providing a "happy" ending, but what if the kid still turned evil at some point, even growing up with a life of wealth? I think Looper 2: Loop Harder which follows that scenario would be interesting.
Some of the plot holes may or may not be explainable, but I am in the camp of they don't matter very much. It's possible that there are multiple paths for Cid becoming the Rainmaker, one such path was Bruce Willis blowing away his mom, another such path was his mom getting killed in front of him at the farm house by a vagrant. JGL intervened in both scenarios:
1) He got Cid and his mom out of the house by providing for them the means to do so (tons of silver/gold at the end). I don't think it's stretching the information we were given to think that, had they stayed, his mom may have been killed and he would have been on his own the same way as if Bruce did it.
2) JGL helped the bond between the mother and kid while he was waiting fro Bruce to show up. Maybe all it took was a little paternal affection for Cid, but the relationship between him and his mom develops over the course of the time we see them. That would have all been rendered moot if Bruce were to succeed in killing his mom and Cid got away, however JGL had his premonition and ended it right there.
That was the major plot hole that left me thinking at the end, otherwise it's typcial time travel paradox shit that you can't really work out in a reasonable manner. I know it's been mocked in here, but what made the movie effective, for me at least, are the questions it raises about the morality of what Bruce was trying to do. I know it effectively tries to answer that question in the end by providing a "happy" ending, but what if the kid still turned evil at some point, even growing up with a life of wealth? I think Looper 2: Loop Harder which follows that scenario would be interesting.
Spectral Glider
Member
I like how his "elaborations" say exactly the same thing as his bullet points, just with more words. Could be a future in Hollywood or politics for him.
Nappuccino
Member
No. That loop was going to be caused by Old Joe and didn't previously exist. He
became the rainmaker for different reasons (likely because saw the woman he thought was his mother die)
Really, really liked this.
I liked how it changed tempo and focus often. One moment a mobster-execution film, then a clubbing/drug thing. A 30 year summary of a life in another moment, a horror film... Was interesting from start to end. I also liked how some of the action was non-chalant (camera kept filming etc).
I liked how it changed tempo and focus often. One moment a mobster-execution film, then a clubbing/drug thing. A 30 year summary of a life in another moment, a horror film... Was interesting from start to end. I also liked how some of the action was non-chalant (camera kept filming etc).
Good movie, but I don't get the amount of praise it gets here. It was interesting, that's for sure. There was a part almost at the middle, when the movie just stalled, no momentum at all and all the build up to the climax was bland. I didn't like the telekinesis thing that much. The only thing that redeemed the bad was the ending, even if it doesn't makes sense at all for young Joe.
this movie really annoyed me
nice action scenes though
yeah the middle was really slow
the younger selfs body effecting the older one makes no sense whatsoever
yeah the middle was really slow
Uh, if that's true (which it isn't because you just made it up) then that means the movie is even more horrible than previously thought.
The whole point of the ending was that young Joe saw the moment that
Cid became
Young Joe's sacrifice
Yea, the movie's a mess no matter how you try to rationalize it.
Nappuccino
Member
Not really. Young Joe's relationship with Cid begins to change Cid. For instance, he
vows to protect the woman that is actually his mother and she calms him down because she is his mother and he recognizes that. If Cid never met Joe, this wouldn't happen. However, Old Joe comes along and threatens to steal this progress away from Cid. If Old Joe kills Cid's actual mother, he creates a new loop, one with the same future he's trying to avoid. Young Joe stops that.
For evidence of this, you have to remember that in Old Joe's time line, he closed his loop flawlessly. That made it so Cid never encountered either of them. If Cid never encountered either of them but becomes the Rainmaker anyway, that tells us a lot more than you are giving it credit for.
For evidence of this, you have to remember that in Old Joe's time line, he closed his loop flawlessly. That made it so Cid never encountered either of them. If Cid never encountered either of them but becomes the Rainmaker anyway, that tells us a lot more than you are giving it credit for.
There are some issues with the movie and its use of time travel, but I don't think this is one of them.
So if Joe never arrived at the farm,
Sara wouldn't have raised Cid
The movie states EXPLICITLY more than once that the scene on the field at the end with
Cid/Sara/Joe/OldJoe
Cid's
Which is the point: the movie doesn't make any sense. Every concept in the movie is messy because the filmmakers didn't take the time to think any of them through.
So I didn't really like this film, and I can explain precisely why (I'm sure others have voiced similar complaints).
As the film correctly identifies, time travel is already such a convoluted concept that it stretches my ability to suspend disbelief and requires very delicate handling as a film maker. At several points in the film,
Done well, however, this suspension of disbelief can lead to interesting ideas, and I felt the first half of the film provided precisely that.
The problem, for me, was the second half of the film,
. I felt that this addition
only further convoluted a story that was already so convoluted that it required lengthy narrative exposition in the early moments of the film.
In short: time travel is already so complex that I feel adding further big twists like
stretches the story beyond the breaking point. A tighter, more interesting film could have been made just focusing on the mechanism of time travel
.
As the film correctly identifies, time travel is already such a convoluted concept that it stretches my ability to suspend disbelief and requires very delicate handling as a film maker. At several points in the film,
characters comment on how crazy and bizarre the consequences of time travel are, and how they can "fry your brain like an egg." They are correct.
The problem, for me, was the second half of the film,
which required another huge suspension of disbelief when the child turned out to be Damien from the Omen
of telekinetic powers
In short: time travel is already so complex that I feel adding further big twists like
child psychics
and how it affected the life of both young and old Joe, as the meeting between the two was very compelling, as was the vignette showing the life of older Joe
Yep, exactly. The world-building in this movie seems kind of amateurish exactly for this reason.
For example, why are metal bars the preferred currency for Loopers and why are they strapped on the back of the victims? For the sole reason so that in the movie Bruce Willis would have a convenient way to block JGL's bullets by turning around.
Why is there telekinesis in this movie? For the sole reason so that
Cid
Cid
They didn't want to deal with the intricacies of time travel, so they completely brush it off, even though it was marketed as the core of the movie. They even put in a line in the movie about how they don't really wanna talk about it.
In contrast, look at Inception which is a much stronger movie. The main concept of that movie is "dream layering", and EVERY single idea introduced in the movie is related to that. The entire movie is focused on that. For example: totems, "enemies" as a defense mechanism, limbo, kicks and the sensation of falling while sleeping, confusing dreams with reality, syncing with music, passage of time being longer in each layer, etc. They're all related concepts. There's no random "oh by the way, some people also have ice powers."
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Yeah, I said to one of my friends that while Nolan may spend an hour and a half of just explaining his rules for the universe, he at least has a very clear idea of how he wants it to work and he doesn't pull any bullshit in the film after explaining those rules to the viewer (at least that I can remember).
This is a better movie than Inception for many reasons,
or not. Looper never breaks its own rules (even though there might be various holes in the time travel loops), the second half just has a contrived plot and premise.
edit: and why is hard currency such a difficult concept for people to grasp their head around? The economy's in the shitter, so the only thing left of any value that you can take to any country (and any time...) is hard currency. That made perfect sense.
TK shit (which, I completley agree, should not have been in the movie)
edit: and why is hard currency such a difficult concept for people to grasp their head around? The economy's in the shitter, so the only thing left of any value that you can take to any country (and any time...) is hard currency. That made perfect sense.
Just to elaborate,
I think they could have made a whole movie out of ideas like that one, because there certainly is more than enough to explore when you start with an idea as fantastical as someone coming back in time and meeting himself. Instead of exploring the intricacies this time paradox created,
I feel the vignette showing Joe gradually getting older, happening to find a woman who would care for him, showing her help him through the pain and suffering of narcotic withdraw, and then finally show their happy, content life was touching. The discussion of this profound love with his younger self -- his attempt to explain how powerfully affected he was by this woman -- was also very interesting. The image of a person trying to explain the intense, transformative power of a caring and loving partner to a literal younger and more reckless version of himself was compelling.
I think they could have made a whole movie out of ideas like that one, because there certainly is more than enough to explore when you start with an idea as fantastical as someone coming back in time and meeting himself. Instead of exploring the intricacies this time paradox created,
they decided to turn the second half of the film in to the Omen, requiring a whole new set of rules only briefly touched on in the first moment of the film.
MrPink93485
Member
Limbo in Inception is exactly what you just described. The rules are clearly established and Tom Hardy even restates this rule before DiCaprio pulls the curveball explaining why if you die in a dream, you might not wake up.
Still liked Inception a lot though.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Goes to show how well I remember Inception. I don't even remember that part. Damn.
MrPink93485
Member
The amusing part is that it pretty much happens nearly an hour and a half into the movie :lol
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