User blog:Porterfield/Looper - Review Roundup



I don't know who else has been highly anticipating Looper, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, and Emily Blunt, but I can't wait to see it tonight!

As someone who has read pretty much every review of the film from every top critic, allow me to share some points that I have learned:


 * There is a scene that takes place in a diner, where Willis and Gordon-Levitt discuss their unique situation over steak and eggs. This is unanimously the best, most compelling, and well-acted scene in the film. Seriously, every review mentions this scene.
 * Gordon-Levitt's makeup and prosthetics, which are intended to make him look like a younger Bruce Willis, seems to be the only polarizing issue of this film. Some people think the job is subtle, effective, and extraordinarily well done, while others find it a bit rubbish and distracting from the film.
 * A lot of critics, while watching Looper, could feel the influence from Christopher Nolan, The Matrix, and other sleek and successful action films, yet none of them mention that it's a negative thing, or it feels like a rip-off. Most of the critics highlight how original Looper actually is, in a weird form of complimentary contradictions.
 * Nobody hates Looper. Looper is amazing.

'Check out this roundup of reviews and share your thoughts in the comments section below. '

Roger Ebert - Chicago Sun-Times
Score: 3.5 out of 4 stars

Excerpt: Rian Johnson's "Looper," a smart and tricky sci-fi story, sidesteps the paradoxes of time travel by embracing them. Most time travel movies run into trouble in the final scenes, when impossibilities pile up one upon another. This film leads to a startling conclusion that wipes out the story's paradoxes so neatly it's as if it never happened. You have to grin at the ingenuity of Johnson's screenplay.

Kenneth Turan - LA Times
Score: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Excerpt: "Looper" is way inventive but it wears its creativity lightly, like it's no big deal. This is a highflying, super-stylish science-fiction thriller that brings a fresh approach to mind-bending genre material. We're not always sure where this time-travel film is going, but we wouldn't dream of abandoning the ride.

Peter Travers - Rolling Stone
Score: 3.5 out of 4 stars

Excerpt: High praise for the knockout teamwork by the two stars. As he did in Moonrise Kingdom, the underrated Willis expertly blends tough and tender. Gordon-Levitt, at the top of his game, has been fitted with prosthetics, including a putty nose, to better resemble the Die Hard icon. But the effort is unnecessary given the emotional bond the actors form, notably in a superb diner scene that tests Wordsworth's line "The child is father of the man." That's what gives this movie distinction. Lacing tremendously exciting action with touching gravity, Looper hits you like a shot in the heart.

James Berardinelli - Reel Views
Score: 4 out of 4 stars

Excerpt: The screenplay is clever and intelligent; it piqued my interest and kept me involved. The characters are well-rounded and powerfully portrayed. There's plenty of action and suspense, and even a little humor and romance mixed in. There are some profoundly disturbing questions that have no easy answers. The art direction is impressive, suggesting a futuristic world that is familiar yet different. There's a strong emotional element to all of this. Looper accomplishes what top-notch cinema should do: it diverts, entertains, and enriches.

===Claudia Puig - USA Today=== Score: 3.5 out of 4 stars

Excerpt: Looper's heady blend of time travel, gritty action and a jot of romance is such a thrilling and cerebral mind-bender that it will likely have moviegoers gathering outside the theater afterward to hash out details of its intricately constructed universe.

Glen Kenny - MSN Movies
Score: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Excerpt: Good news: Not only is the smart, sexy, sophisticated but still slam-bang sci-fi action-thriller not dead, it's just gotten itself a potent shot in the arm by way of writer-director Rian Johnson. The creator of the formally ambitious indie noir variant "Brick" and the ornate New Wave con-artist sort-of farce "The Brothers Bloom" demonstrated imagination and chops galore with those pictures, but his new picture, "Looper," still feels kind of like an out-of-nowhere head-butt.

Christy Lemire - Associated Press
Score: 3.5 out of 4 stars

Excerpt: The scene in which they meet at a diner and spell out what they want over plates of steak and eggs is both thrilling and darkly funny. This is perhaps the most flawed character Gordon-Levitt has played, but there's always great honesty and humanity in everything he does. And while Willis gets to flex his action-star muscles, it's the vulnerability and world-weariness of his performance that's even more appealing.

Randy Myers - San Jose Mercury News
Score: 4 out of 4 stars

Excerpt: Willis gives one of his best performances since "Pulp Fiction." Bruce Willis often plays Bruce Willis, but here he's really required to act; in one scene in particular, he's such a standout that he's worthy of Oscar consideration for a supporting role. The real star, though, remains Johnson. As both director and writer, he makes all the right moves, keeping aces tucked up his sleeve, then revealing them to stunning effect. "Looper" is a superior genre film, an engrossing thriller that engages not only the senses, but our minds as well, just as good sci-fi should do.

Steven Rea - Philadelphia Inquirer
Score: 3.5 out of 4 stars

Excerpt: Johnson, the talented writer/director (who teamed with Gordon-Levitt in the far-more-modest high school noir Brick), has clearly seen 12 Monkeys, too. Not to mention The Matrix and Inception. The paradoxes and ripple effects of crisscrossing the space-time continuum are daunting, and it's good to have a few reference points. Late in Looper, when a highly telekinetic kid starts levitating things, it really does look like Christopher Nolan had wandered onto the set and taken over.

Manohla Dargis - New York Times
Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Excerpt: “Looper,” an obstreperously entertaining, bullet- and attitude-ridden science-fiction pastiche, opens in a futuristic world that looks and sounds paradoxically out of the past. Set in 2074, in a dystopia with Turner Classic Movies flavor, it puts a spin on the familiar figure of the existentially troubled gun for hire while leaving a layer of dust on many of the other genre fundamentals it plays with.

Hated it
Again, no critics hated Looper. If you find a really negative review, post it in the comments section below.

Wikian Reviews
What did you think of Looper? Loved it Thought it was okay Hated it