In what has to be the surprise of the season, Rian Johnson’s Looper is actually good. No, really. After 153 reviews on the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, the action-adventure feature has a whopping 92%, beating out other well-received new arrivals in the genre End of Watch and Dredd 3D by a noticeable margin. If that was not enough to get people buying a ticket this weekend, the only film that critics liked as much as Looper this season was Oscar favorite Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. Both films received a similar 85/100 on Metacritic. Apples and oranges? Sure, but it is definitely worth pointing out their shared trip to respectability.
Movies like this can be tough to analyze because there are specific sequences that make a reviewers appreciate the film, and that is naturally tough to voice. That said, we do get an explicit nod at what such stellar responses often indicate–great acting, great visuals, and a smart script. Being called your classic popcorn movie, Looper may not be the biggest blockbuster of the year, but that does not make it any less genius. As a result, some are saying you may want to check this one out two times.
In regards to the few that did not like the film, they felt that the second half was weaker than the first; however, an acute sense of ‘I am better than this movie’ exists with some who start harping on ‘what could have been’ which is code for ‘I want to give this a bad review, but I don’t know how.’
Looper hits theaters nationwide today.