Movie Breakdown: Looper

People are doing traditional-style reviews all over the web, so we decided to try something different.  In each “breakdown” we’ll take a look at what a film’s marketing lead us to believe, how the movie actually played, and then what we learned from it all.  Read on!

The Impression:

Rian Johnson (Brick) enters the world of time travel with a prosthetic-enhanced Joseph Gordon-Levitt at his side.  Also, Bruce Willis contributes his trademark tough face.

The Reality:

Looper is a film that’s probably been marketed correctly, but I’ve had a hard time getting over Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s face.  Every single time an image would pop up on my TV, I’d immediately focus on the oddness of his noggin.  Fortunately, the effort to make him look like Bruce Willis is much more acceptable in the actual film.  It is, however, not because it works better in the context of the movie, I just simply didn’t notice because Looper is a great piece of sci-fi, and I spent my time being thoroughly entertained by every part of it.  I loved the world (future and further future), the characters, the story, and the practical approach that was taken with all of it.  Looper is film that could have eaten itself trying to be too clever and/or stylistic, but instead Rian Johnson’s steady hand allows it to be one of the best sci-fi movies of 2012.

The Lesson:

Rian Johnson’s next effort will be more than anticipated.