User blog comment:Porterfield/Looper - Review Roundup/@comment-5594078-20121007210916

Here are some quick plot points that really bothered me in the movie Looper:

1. Joe 'drops' the ball.

In the beginning, Joe's monologue tells us that mobs or people cannot murder others because of some 'tracking' that takes place. I assume this pinpoints who the killer is? (Isn't explained but not a huge problem)

Fast forward to old Joe 30 years later and the mob kills someone. Joe's Asian wife. So was the mob prosecuted for that? Where did they dump the body if it really was tracked? The list goes on.

2. Blue's Clueless.

Kid Blue had a lot of potential. Really. You as an audience hopes that his recklessness and failures early on pays off later in the film where his anger moulds him into a fitting villain. You are not meant to like him.

However, you give up hope for this "Kid Blue" when he finally seems to have caged the lion (old Joe) but gets a fork put on his back-side and turned around flat on his face (not literally). So the audience's hope gets shunted and a question pops up: 'Why is he even there?' The answer is: because he is. He is just there for the hell of it. I certainly don't want to question the dual-wielding old Joe's marksmanship but why mow down everyone in the mob and let Kid Blue off with a mere scratch? Again, I have the answer (you might know it too). He is just there for the hell of it. To merely aid Joe in the next scene with the hover bike where Kid Blue gets to redeem his acts of mishap? Nope, to die. And he isn't the only useless antagonist of the film, Abe is another anomaly. It is mentioned that he's from the future. So what? That doesn't instantly give him bad ass points (it would have been interesting to see his back story in some fashion). We see him smash Kid Blue's hands with a tiny hammer. The sympathy you feel for Kid Blue clearly overshadows Abe's unnecessary and violent actions.

3. We are all dumb.

A director/writer's job in a film with a complex idea is to make us feel smarter and to give us a high after figuring out the complexities such as time paradoxes and such. But what we are served is a predictable and loathsome ending akin to 'this was all a dream'. Let me explain. The film builds up this mystery of what lil' Rainmaker's fate really is...

(I'm sorry but the list is quite unfortunately long, it would be unfair for my future self)