Looper

Clearly, the time travel issue is one of the most attractive that can be explored by fiction, to bring characters from different periods together, to witness to the life of someone or simply to address the perennial debate over whether changing something in the past creates a different timeline (something reflected brilliantly in an episode of the Simpsons by the way). However, in "Looper", time travel is a catalyst for the real story and not the backbone of it.

The first part of the film is devoted almost exclusively to explain the world in which the characters are living:  the loopers are agents hired by mob of the future in order to eliminate in the past those people who  represent a problem for them.

Director Rian Johnson was not willing to turn his creation into an action thriller, so he decided to emphasize and focus on the emotions of the characters, counting on good arguments to defend their position, but also very questionable moral aspects. This dichotomy is what keeps the viewer hooked up to this thriller till its conclusion.

Bruce Willis has a secondary presence in "Looper", but that is not a limitation for him and, infact, his boundless charisma takes control of  the show, also demonstrating his skills in several dramatic moments. The most prominent of them is centered on how Joe Gordon Levitt ends up turning into what he is and eventually the reasons and the way he came back to the past.

In short, "Looper" is a great movie and a world-class entertainment show. It costed far less than usual productions meant to be big blockbusters, something that will prevent it from getting its full potential and becoming the masterpiece that could have been.

However, it has what it takes to be one of the best films from 2012 and one of the latest most exciting science fiction films of the last years.

Director: Rian Johnson

Writer: Rian Johnson

Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt