Geek Girl Features

“Looper” raced into the box office for the Sept.28 weekend among high expectations, bringing a new take on the sci fi, tie travel genre.

The movie stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Joe, whose job is to kill those sent back from the future. In 2044, time travel has not been invented, but it has been 30 years in the future. It has also become impossible to hide a body in the future, so a business venture is set up for hired killers, or loopers, in 2044 to kill victims sent back from the future. The one catch is that when their contract is up, they must close the loop by killing their future self, and is then is released for 30 years.

Bruce Willis plays future Joe, 30 years later, where all the loops are being closed by a mysterious threat. He is sent back but escapes from his younger self, putting both their lives at risk as older Joe attempts to prevent the threat from reaching the future.

As well as loopers, in society there are those who have developed telekinetic (TK) abilities, in small amounts. When younger Joe is on the run, he encounters the future threat and faces the strongest TK in the world.

The film starts off slow, as the complicated plot line is established and all the characters are brought to their appropriate place. When this happens, the pace picks up dramatically as the stakes increase between the younger and older Joe.

The time travel plot is well thought out, with small details lending it credibility, such as when younger Joe carves a message into his arm, and we see it appear as a scar on older Joe.

The film is bloody at its worst. The most astounding scene of the movie is when the TK threat causes the blood to bloom out of a man as he is suspended in mid-air.

They did a decent job on JGL’s makeup and prosthetics to widen his jaw, to lend more reality to the idea of him being a younger Bruce Willis.

At the end of the movie, when younger Joe sees the loop that creates the threat, he takes measures to stop it. The ending was shocking and not one particularly seen coming.

In all, “Looper” is a film well worth the wait and hype that preceded it.

Upcoming box office

Sony Pictures managed to hold the one and two spot for the Sept. 28 weekend, but faces competition in the Oct. 2 releases. “Taken 2” and “Frankenweenie” make their wide release debut, and the awaited “Perks of Being a Wallflower” adaptation expands to wide release after positive results in its limited release run. October is looking to be a redeeming month for Hollywood after a sad end to the summer season.