Looper

[intothevoid]

Well that would have negated the whole point of the film

If old joe killed the kid he would have caused the death of someone else instead (I.e Emily Blunts character) - so the only way to fix things was to close Joe's loop

 

[CelticPredator]

Very cool with the commentary, and I like that it's more technical than average commentaries. He even goes into focus pulling a couple of times. Good stuff.

I love focus pulling.

It makes a boring shot look interesting, if you use it correctly.

 

[Adolfo]

Chronicle, 21 Jump Street,Dredd and this film were truly great surprises this year...good stuff

 

[KneelBeforrSmallville]

The movie was good i just expected a stronger final arc, considering the first half of the movie was some of the best sci fi storytelling i have scene in a long time.

 

[Vaako]

went to see it today and i did enjoy it but it's not the kind of movie that i would buy to rewatch it a couple of times at home

 

[Snadinator]

Sorry if this was discussed but the ending was poorly thought out. It is a complete paradox. If younger joe kills himself, older joe would never have existed, therefore younger joe would never have been in the position of needing to kill himself in the first place. Therefore older joe would still exist.

This is why time travel in film fails more often than not.

 

[Michael Crawford]

Sorry, but that same paradox exists in all single time line time travel movies, such as BTTF and the Terminators. If by changing the future Marty no longer exists, how can he come back and change the future?

It's a time loop - hence the title of the movie. You can't change the past, it's already happened. Only events from that moment forward can be altered. Young Joe kills himself, old Joe ceases to exist from that moment forward. yes, it means that when the time comes in the future where he would have traveled back, he doesn't...but that's the point.

They actually did an excellent job explaining this point by showing you the two very different returns of old Joe - the second time (or is it the millionth time) he comes back, the outcome is different. The future is not set went the timeline is altered, only the events before the alteration.

 

[Snadinator]

Sorry, but that same paradox exists in all single time line time travel movies, such as BTTF and the Terminators. If by changing the future Marty no longer exists, how can he come back and change the future?

It's a time loop - hence the title of the movie. You can't change the past, it's already happened. Only events from that moment forward can be altered. Young Joe kills himself, old Joe ceases to exist from that moment forward. yes, it means that when the time comes in the future where he would have traveled back, he doesn't...but that's the point.

They actually did an excellent job explaining this point by showing you the two very different returns of old Joe - the second time (or is it the millionth time) he comes back, the outcome is different. The future is not set went the timeline is altered, only the events before the alteration.

Hence why I said it fails in most films. The fact that it has before doesn't excuse it here. Abrams Star Trek did a wonderful job using a parralel universe to prevent the paradox. The paradox in looper is not explained at all. By having young joe kill himself, he has essentially not killed himself. It defeats the purpose of the entire film as it has all been for naught. By young joe killing himself, his future self never materializes to harrass the past. If he never goes in the past, young joe never kills himself. If he never kills himself, his older self does exist. Had the film focused on this very paradox, it would have been more interesting. Does the looper agency suddenly all come back to life if old joe never existed to kill them all?

To me it is just a film pretending to be more clever than it truly is. It was entertaining but nothing noteworthy or thought provoking.

 

[rushmore223]

Hence why I said it fails in most films. The fact that it has before doesn't excuse it here. Abrams Star Trek did a wonderful job using a parralel universe to prevent the paradox. The paradox in looper is not explained at all. By having young joe kill himself, he has essentially not killed himself. It defeats the purpose of the entire film as it has all been for naught. By young joe killing himself, his future self never materializes to harrass the past. If he never goes in the past, young joe never kills himself. If he never kills himself, his older self does exist. Had the film focused on this very paradox, it would have been more interesting. Does the looper agency suddenly all come back to life if old joe never existed to kill them all?

To me it is just a film pretending to be more clever than it truly is. It was entertaining but nothing noteworthy or thought provoking.

That's the fun of time travel movies, wrapping your head around the possibilities. Just about every time travel film I can think of falls prey to at least one paradox. Since it is Impossible (in my opinion) science, It is really hard to argue what would and would not work, especially since a common theme is that these events create multiple timelines/universes.

My favorite time travel movie would have to be 12 Monkeys, the film avoids so many of the normal pitfalls due to nearly every human being dying from the plague.

 

[krec9]

Saw this last Saturday loved the beginning of the film then it want down hill when they introduced the kid.

 

[Snadinator]

That's the fun of time travel movies, wrapping your head around the possibilities. Just about every time travel film I can think of falls prey to at least one paradox. Since it is Impossible (in my opinion) science, It is really hard to argue what would and would not work, especially since a common theme is that these events create multiple timelines/universes.

My favorite time travel movie would have to be 12 Monkeys, the film avoids so many of the normal pitfalls due to nearly every human being dying from the plague.

12 Monkeys is definitely a very good movie.... damn now I want to watch it again

 

[Michael Crawford]

All single time line time travel movies are a paradox - complaining this film is, that's sort of like complaining a comedy is funny. Yep, Trek removes the problem with parellel universes - the other way to do it is with multiple time lines, like Primer. But that doesn't make those movies creative, those are simply standard theories of time travel. Looper did a good job with the theme of the movie - a single time line. It wouldn't have had the same point, or same impact, if they had been exploring one of the other time travel theories.

And just because we think the paradox doesn't make 'sense', doesn't mean it isn't possible. Much of quantum mechanix doesn't make sense, viewed through the lens of or normal perception.

 

[Darth Snoopy]

I just saw this movie the other day...I liked it and I think it's good science fiction.

 

[Vivek]

Is "Looper" an indirect sequel to "Primer"?
Seems like a stretch, still fascinating.

 

[CelticPredator]

Rian had the director of that movie help him with the script.

 

[Vivek]

Cool short film set in the Looper universe, good music too. Rian Johnson posted the following.

Looper, A beautifully made, compelling and tremendously...
"A beautifully made, compelling and tremendously cool fan short set in the Looper universe: “DAWN” by @OlafBlomerus. Great stuff."

DAWN Part One - The Beginning - Vimeo

 

[SNIKT1950]

Can't believe its been 5 years since I saw this masterpiece in theaters.

Some thoughts about Johnson's third and best film [so far]:

-I went into Looper expecting something fascinating for a number of reasons. 1) I'm an enormous fan of Johnson's and was already back in 2012. Brick was such a ****ing fantastic film. And The Brothers Bloom was the perfect sophomoric entry for Johnson. 2) The trailer wreaked of Heavy Metal comics. This was highly stylized yet utterly serious and brilliantly understated. The best recipe for superb Sci-Fi.

-Time travel movies are always fun but what Johnson did here was craft a time travel movie that was truly personal and existential. I felt for all the parties involved. The man who wants to save his wife. The man who wants to save himself. The boy who wants to save his mother. A beautiful trifecta of basic human necessity and emotional investment.

-JGL achieves early Mickey Rourke status in this film. Its a shame he hasn't been able to delve deeper into that afterwards. There are moments in this film where he is the KING of cool.

-While its a time travel movie on the surface, the real protagonist is one's concept of legacy and self. Who are we and what do we really hope to achieve over our time in this world? Because time is absolute. The notion that we can correct our missteps in time is a thing of dreams. Johnson takes that and gives it a stellar catalyst via this paradoxical concept of youth and maturity going on a mission together to maintain their respective identities.

-How ****ing good is Jeff Daniels in this? The guy's a legend.

*Looper should have been the resurrection of Bruce Willis. It pains me that this did not bring him back to good form. I still think there's a way to save Willis from his straight-to-video-on-demand career of late though.

 

[The Ween]

awwww.......this is one of Batty's threads. I miss him.

 

[YoNoSe]

It's too bad you have to overlook the distractingly-awful time-travel-injury logic in this flick. Otherwise it's pretty great.

 

[Sachiel]

Time travel is highly illogical.