Cinematic Releases: Looper

In general, time travel movies are hard to pull off. There's always major continuity issues and a constant barrage of people asking the questions "what if ?" and "how come?". In the case of Looper, the elements of time travel are a bit more fluid but still leave the mind to wander. I wouldn't call them plot holes but more or less plot devices that never quite came to fruition.

As a whole, this is a good sci-fi/action film, but don't expect mind melting original Matrix-like greatness. It borders on it but never makes the final jump to a grander piece of cinema. The acting is fantastic while the aging technique applied to Levitt is hands down some of the best virtual makeup ever put to screen. As a post-summer release, it will definitely satisfy your desire for a bigger picture but it's still not enough to quench the desires of a rabid sci-fi fan like myself. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this movie but it falls a little short of what my expectations were.

Where the film excels is in the acting department. Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon Levitt both come out swinging. Willis is better in this than he's been in years as he finally escapes the trappings of standard action fare. And Levitt is on a roll with two good movies within months of each other. The supporting cast does a fine job but I felt that the talents of Jeff Daniels were slightly wasted.

I really wanted to come home and give this movie a 4 out of 5, but feel like I would be misleading in the quality of the movie. It's definitely one to see in the theater but don't be disappointed with some of the standard trappings of time travel movies.

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