Yes, No, Maybe So: "Looper"

The subject is time travel. It only seemed thematically appropriate to post this highly anticipated trailer for LOOPER a week before it premiered but pretend we posted it a week late. 

This time travel crap will fry your brain like an egg"

See, the following conversation actually took place in the past with your comments arriving now from god knows when; surprise us by dating your reaction in the comments. For all we know you're writing from Los Angeles the morning after Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Oscar win as Bruce Willis in the stuffy cradle-to-tomb biopic Bruce Dies Hardest (2031). You know AMPAS will still love those Star-As-Star biopics deep into the 21st century. Ohmygod. His inflection on "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker" alone was chilling. He BECAME Bruce Willis.

Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker

When were we? It's time to break down the trailer after the jump with our patented Yes No Maybe So system. It's time to break down the trailer after the jump with our patented Yes No Maybe So system. It's time to break down the trailer after the jump with our patented Yes No Maybe So system. It's time to break down the trailer after the jump with our patented Yes No Maybe So system. It's time to break down the trailer after the jump with our patented Yes No Maybe So system.

YES

• Even if you didn't care for Brick, Rian Johnson's somewhat polarizing debut, you have to admit that it was super stylish and today's genre flicks need super stylishness to stand out since nobody makes anything but genre flicks really any more.
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt is one of our most exciting male leads.
• Bruce Willis has never been anything less than totally watchable... even in films that don't deserve him.
• The central hook (assassin who is asked to kill himself) is a neat riff on the more tired trope of 'assassin asked to kill someone they love or have just fallen in love with.'
• Great cast: Bruce, JGL, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Jeff Daniels
• If the sound work is this good in the finished film as they look in the trailer couldn't there be Oscar nominations in those categories?
• If the visual f/x are as good in the finished film as they look in the trailer couldn't there be Oscar nominations in that category.
• "LOOPER'S GUNS HERE" lol. (Have I ever told you about my thing for signage in movies? Perhaps I should.) 

NO

• 'We live the good life' over a shot of a female 'dancer' and Entourage like shots of men? "CLICHES GO HERE"
• Time travel films make my head hurt with their plot holes... the genre is so swiss-cheesy
• Emily Blunt's role better be good or this will have nothing to offer actressexuals. Looks extremely one quadrant to me.
• Oh god please tell me JGL doesn't narrate the entire movie! The tough guy exposition will be like cement shoes for otherwise visually buoyant filmmaking.
• Can we have one action film where the male lead doesn't go for the Bale/Batman gravel-voice? 
• Part of the great appeal of JGL is that he doesn't feel / sound / move like any other male lead... so if you're asking him to feel/sound/move like a very familiar mainstream male lead won't that take some of the fun out of him?
• Okay maybe I just find the make up work creepy. It's trying to make him look more like Bruce Willis and it's very authentic looking but it also makes him look like he's plastic surgery and you shouldn't mess with a face like JGL's.

MAYBE SO

• Love how sparse / controlled the imagery is even in showy shots. Death to cluttered frames!
• I found Brick super alienating and unsatifsying (yes, I know it's not cool to say so. Who cares) but I also found it promising as to what else Rian Johnson had to offer us in the future...
• ...and the future is now. Maybe he'll invent it?

Are you a Yes No or Maybe So?
Could you kill your future self if your life depended on it? (wait... what?)
Did this trailer fry your brain like an egg?
Over easy, scrambled, or sunny side up?

Comments

[Squasher88]

Brick was very unsatisfying for me too, but maybe this will be good. I also think it's a shame that they have to mess with Joey Gordon-Levitt's face!

[Ames]

I absolutely love Brick, but was unexpectedly a bit sour on The Brothers Bloom so coming at it from a personal fifty-percent record I am cautiously optimistic. The make-up will probably drive most of us crazy but perhaps it'll lead to some SNL gags down the road.

Upon re-watching the trailer, I hope it won't be this year's In Time.

[Arkaan]

Love Brick. Love The Brothers Bloom.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

[Volvagia]

Ames: Here's hoping.
Squasher88: Love Brick, meh overall on The Brothers Bloom. (Nowhere close to perfect, but Kikuchi had a bizarre silent bite to her performance and everyone else at least had charming performances.)
Nat: Well, with all the shifting timelines resulting in more time travel heavy movies (especially in Back to the Future 2's case), can you be sure what's an outright plot hole and what's the result of someone changing the past offscreen? (To be frank, I don't think the Back to the Future series really has ANY plot holes. It just happens to have one of the most complicated plots in the history of cinema.) This one, though, sounds simple enough to not be a total mindbender.

[Roark]

JGL weirdly bears an alarming resemblance to Rob Lowe in one shot (the close up when Willis first arrives). Agreed about the makeup - in most shots it looks pretty seamless, in others it stands out - but the ones where it doesn't stand out he looks like himself, and like he's not wearing any makeup, so what the what?

But I'm a yes on this. I haven't cared for either of Johnson's prior films at all, but hope springs eternal.

[Marshall]

Seems absurd because Staham is obviously the younger Willis (though not that much younger), but I doubt either one of them could pull off the other's accent.

[eurocheese]

Hated Brick, but enjoyed most of The Brothers Bloom. Does this seem like a stylistic step back for him? I'll be waiting for reviews, but the cast looks great.

[3rtful]

I hate the premise of this movie so much because there's no logical reason why a person would kill themselves in the future—because wouldn't that cause them to die on the spot their past self? I hate the makeup on Joe. He's beautiful. Fuck this movie. Past, Present, Future.

[Deborah Lipp]

Rian Johnson is an infinite free pass, and I love all the actors, and this is a total no brainer: YES YES YES YES YES

[Volvagia]

3rtful: You mean "there's no logical reason why a person would kill their future self?" I'd say: "One, It's the character's job and, two, maybe he believes in the concept of destiny. He wouldn't actually die on the spot, he'd just know exactly when and how he'd die. By his own hand."