Looper, 2012.
Directed by Rian Johnson.
Starring Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo, and Jeff Daniels.
SYNOPSIS:
Looper arrives on 4K for its tenth anniversary. The film looks stunning in that format, of course, and the included Blu-ray is no slouch either. All the bonus features from the original Blu-ray were ported over, and a code for a digital copy is included too.
Sometimes I watch a science-fiction or fantasy high-concept film and think, “Boy, I wish they had done more with that core idea.” That’s the overarching theme of my reaction to Looper, which I admit I hadn’t seen until receiving this new 4K Ultra HD edition from Sony. That’s not to say it’s a bad film. I’d say it’s a pretty good movie, but it’s one that shoves two high-concept ideas into one story and doesn’t do full service to either of them.
Set in the year 2044, Looper is the story of Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a hired gun, known as a “looper,” who eliminates people sent back in time by the mob. In the year 2074, time travel has been invented but immediately outlawed, which means only the bad guys use it. However, they only seem to want to employ it as a high-tech substitute for the old “send ‘im to sleep with the fishes” method of disposing of undesirables.
If you were in the mob, couldn’t you think of a lot of additional ways to use time travel to your advantage? And wouldn’t the police probably use it – in a controlled way, of course – to counteract the bad guys? Those two questions open a world of story possibilities in my mind, but in the hands of writer/director Rian Johnson, we’re supposed to accept this one use of it.
However, there is a question brought about by Johnson’s premise that he does explore, which is: What if the mob in the future wants to get rid of a looper? In that scenario, they have the younger looper kill the older one, which results in a big payday for the guy in 2044 and 30 years to enjoy life before dying. I suppose if you work for the mob and have killed a lot of people, that’s not such a bad way to go out.
You can probably guess where Looper takes that premise: Joe’s older self, played by Bruce Willis, is sent back in time to be killed but manages to get away. Oops. Now Joe has drawn the ire of mob boss Abe (Jeff Daniels) and must eliminate his future self, who is determined to kill a future warlord known as “Rainmaker” when he was just a child. Young Joe befriends one of older Joe’s targets, along with the boy’s mother (Emily Blunt), and attempts to protect them from the mobsters looking for him and his older self.
This is where that other high-concept idea comes into play: It turns out that in the year 2044, a small percentage of the population is telekinetic, although most of them can just float quarters in the air. They’re known as TKs, and young Joe encounters a very powerful TK while he’s on the run. I won’t say who it is, so the surprise isn’t spoiled, but that part of the story feels shoe-horned in. Johnson could have done so much more with the time travel part of the film and forgotten about the TK part. It doesn’t wreck the movie, but, in my opinion, it does hold it back from being a great film.
Sony rescanned the film’s original camera negative for this 4K release, which is theatrical quality, like most 4K discs these days. Looper is a movie meant to have a more subdued look, so don’t expect colors to pop off the screen, but I have to assume this is the way Johnson wants it to be seen. There’s a light amount of grain in the image.
The movie is also included on a Blu-ray disc. I’m not sure if it’s the same platter Sony previously issued or if the copy of the film there is based on the same rescan as the 4K disc, but either way, it still looks very good too. You also get a code for a digital copy.
Moving on to the bonus features, nothing new was created for this edition. Everything from the original Blu-ray was ported over, though, so nothing is missing. Here’s what you’ll find on the Blu-ray disc (the 4K disc is movie-only):
- Audio commentary: Johnson is joined by Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt for a wide-ranging discussion of the film. It’s a solid track, and it does a good job of mostly avoiding the trap of just describing what’s on screen.
- Deleted scenes: There’s nearly 37 minutes of excised footage here, which is a ton compared to most home video releases these days. It’s understandable why it was all cut, but fans will still want to check it all out. There’s an optional commentary on them by Johnson and actor Noah Segan, who plays mobster Kid Blue.
- The Future From the Beginning (8 minutes): This is a very short featurette that covers the film’s production, with an emphasis on the practical effects as well as Gordon-Levitt’s make-up designed to have him more closely resemble a young Bruce Willis.
- The Science of Time Travel (8.5 minutes): Brian Clegg, who wrote How to Build a Time Machine, talks about not only the science of time travel but also its literary history. In addition, he lays out the time travel rules that the film sets and abides by.
- Scoring Looper (16 minutes): Composer Nathan Johnson talks about the film’s score. While I appreciate hearing about this subject, it would have been nice if the other featurettes had been beefed up a little bit too.
An “animated” trailer rounds out this release. I put “animated” in quotes because it’s not animated in the sense of a cartoon. Rather, it uses semi-animated images of key scenes to hype the film. It’s an interesting take on the usual film trailer.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
Originally published February 15, 2022. Updated December 10, 2022.
