Looper

⭐ 8.5/10

Funny story I watched this movie when it came out but stopped because the violence in the beginning was too much for me.  Well I'm fully desensitized now and I thought this was great! Time travel can be tricky, but this movie is pretty light on its feet, using it in clever ways that don't have you hung up on causality or butterfly effects or whatever. I think what this movie does best is set a believable atmosphere on what appears to be a small budget. The weapons they use, the way the vehicles look, everything is intentional in a way all great sci-fi movies nail.

Speaking of budget, why waste so much of it on whatever they did to JGL's face to make him look like Bruce Willis.  Completely unnecessary, just tell me he's his younger version, I'll believe it.

I was surprised with the direction this movie took, kind of becomes a drama around whether or not you would kill baby-Hitler if you could time travel.  There is a super effective scene with Bruce Willis around these decisions that landed pretty hard for a goofy movie like this. Also, Emily Blunt!  I had no idea she was in this and I think she's great.

The ending was probably predictable but I wasn't really thinking about it, so when it happens I thought it was nice. A creative movie with a lot of heart, and I think some long-lasting images. Really cool that Rian Johnson got tapped to make a Star Wars movie, and I wish visionary people like him could be unleashed to make big-budget IP movies more. Obviously his entry there wasn't well-received so that will probably never happen again.  Instead he gets to make Knives Out movies for Netflix for the rest of his life!

Cool movie, glad I revisited it.  The looper idea is flimsy when you start to poke holes in it but I love the idea and wish there were more original high-concept movies like this.