"Looper"

Went to go see Looper yesterday.

(Warning: contains spoilers)

For those of you who don't know, Looper is a film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis that involves time-travel.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't spend part of the movie covering up different parts of JGL's face with my hand to see how they did the prosthetics. I've determined they mainly altered the part of his face right under his nose to make home more Willis-like. 

Back to the story. It had elements of Terminator and Kick-Ass in that it involved time-travel specifically meant for killing an individual and a lot of bloody (but fun) action sequences. While I commend the movie for having a mostly original plot, I did have a few qualms with the film overall.

The world-building was phenomenal. It felt like a pre-Blade Runner universe - dark, dingy, flying motorcycles but no flying cars, yet. The main character spent most of his free time (when he wasn't using drugs) learning French. The ongoing gag was that he should have learned Mandarin (good gag - it's what made me think of Blade Runner so much). The outfits weren't trying too hard and did look very near-future. 

The basic plot is that Loopers are individuals who kill people who are sent back in time so they can dispose of the body before they ever existed. After working for a few years, the future version of themselves are sent back in time to be killed. This is called "Closing the loop." If you refuse to kill your future self, your past self is tortured in rather horrifying ways that alter your future self. (The way this was covered was a terrifying ordeal where the longer a future Looper avoided being killed the more parts of his body were lopped off. It was actually rather terrifying).

Namely, the main issue I had was the fact that some issues were never resolved. In the future there is a leader called the "Rainmaker." Apparently he's sending the Loopers back in time to close everyone's loops. Loopers are supposed to be killed 30 years after retirement. They never stated that The Rainmaker was killing Loopers before this time, only that he was closing all of the loops.

They never show the Rainmaker, nor do they explain why he is supposedly menacing. In fact, they never really delve into him at all. The entire movie seems like it will build up to an explanation but instead the issue is dropped overall. Well, mostly.

The future version of Joe (Willis) ends up getting married for a few years before his loop must be closed. During the struggle, his wife is killed. Enter Terminator mode.  Future Joe avoids getting killed by past Joe and decides he will kill the Rainmaker when he's a child. There are three potential children who could be the Rainmaker, so Future Joe decides to kill all three children. (Not without some remorse). During this time, Future Joe is being chased after by Past Joe as well as the Loopers in charge of terminating runaways. Meanwhile, Past Joe is trying to kill Future Joe while avoiding being captured and tortured. 

Past Joe discovers the Rainmaker as a child and ends up bonding with the mother as well  as the child. He decides to protect the child even though he was supposed to grow up to be "evil." The mother keeps stating that if the child is raised correctly, he'll turn out okay. Future Joe ends up intruding and ends up (nonfatally) shooting the child. In order to stop the future and save the mother and son, Past Joe ends up killing himself, saving everyone in the process and rewriting the future. 

Now, here's the issue. Rather than going back and showing the future, the movie ends with the mother taking care of her son and then the screen fades to white and THEN TO BLACK.

There was no proper resolve to the plot. They didn't even bother recapping Future Joe's relationship with his wife, nor did they show an alternate bit where she was alive. If the film had cut to the future for 5 minutes rather than just showing her stroking her son's hair, it could have ended better.

So, in all, it felt like the entire movie ended on a real whimper. Excellent universe, somewhat interesting characters, very weak ending.

Also at one point it almost seemed like Past Joe realized he was the Rainmaker even though it was supposed to be a parallel. That part could have definitely been filmed/written better.

All in all, good film, but rather undeserving of the praise and attention it's been getting. 

Look at Me and How Cool I Am

I am currently writing this post in a little Asian cafe.

This makes me hip, right?

Totally hip.


So, I went to Barnes & Noble today so I could talk to the managers to see if I could get hired.

EXCEPT TODAY IS GAME DAY LOL NOPE TOO MANY PEOPLE

So I shall have to wait until tomorrow. I've told all of my roommates that I am moving out in about two weeks, so glad I got that out of the way. For some reason I was really nervous about telling them. Not sure why.

So, yes.

Blogging in a cafe talking about my dull life.

Whee.

The Day The Earth Stood Still

Alternatively: I will kill everything.


So, I have this job I'm not entirely too fond of. Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic job if you don't have anxiety issues. However, I have some annoyingly severe anxiety problems.

My job consists of calling people on the phone all day. I thought having a job where I called people would diminish my fear of over-the-phone interactions. Nope. Didn't help.

In fact it might've made it worse.

Moving on. Apparently, if you come into work 5 minutes late (For example if you clock in at 9:06 you are late), you can get in trouble.

GUESS WHO GOT INTO TROUBLE TODAY.

So, I've officially been suspended for a day because I was late more than 3 times this month. And today I clocked in at 9:06 instead of 9:05 which is why I was suspended. (Do I even need to say how uncool this is?)

So, I'll be looking for a new job that I can get to at a reasonable time. I'm thinking of working in the Barnes & Noble I used to work at. Well, I worked at the Starbucks, but apparently they have a new manager who is the spawn of Satan. And I'd rather work in the bookstore anyway because my wrist keeps acting up and making latte's all day doesn't really help matters.

I guess I'll keep you posted on jobs and things.

xoxo Alyssa Rose