Giant Freakin Robot

Rian Johnson’s Looper is one of the best science fiction movies in recent memory. The film seamlessly blends digital special effects into the frames to create a futuristic world where extreme poverty and class strife run rampant, and some people have developed telekinetic powers, able to move things with the power of their mind. This pair of videos illustrates the process that went into creating what, on the surface, look like simple visual effects.

Rian Johnson’s Looper is one of the best, most ambitious science fiction films in recent memory. It’s also got the jankiest, most cobbled-together-looking time machine since Marty McFly and Doc Brown rigged the DeLorean to be pushed up to 88 miles per hour by that train in Back to the Future 3.

You never really get a great look at the apparatus in the film, but the appearance makes sense considering time travel has been outlawed, and you can imagine that a black market time machine wouldn’t be the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen. However, if you have an excess of cash burning a hole in your pocket, not to mention a relatively large place to put it, you can now own the time machine from Looper. Wouldn’t you like to sit in this and pretend to be Bruce Willis for a while?

While I won’t spoil things just to be a jerk about it, be advised you should watch the film before reading the following.

You don’t have to be a movie Nazi to be able to pick apart the errors that are doubtlessly embedded in almost every time travel movie out there, but you do have to be paying attention. And isn’t that what movies are all about? Just paying attention. Wait, fuck that. Movies are generally supposed to make sense while they’re doing their storytelling, but we all know sci-fi takes its fair share of liberties. Well, now that the good-eyed good guys at the CinemaSins are on the job, no movie is safe. Not even a movie that could theoretically come back in time and stop CinemaSins from even putting this video together.

Yes, Rian Johnson’s sci-fi time-crime-traveling thriller Looper is the latest to carry the scars of CinemaSins’ plot-dissecting talons, and boy did they pick some good ones. From easy marks such as the makeup and Bruce Willis’ wig for one scene, to diner posters advertising “Soy Steak,” these 43 entries seem shortsighted when put up against the larger numbers of Avengers and Dark Knight Rises. But that could be a reflection of time travel being more inherently realistic than Mark Ruffalo getting angry. Stay tuned all the way to the end of the video for a nice Pulp Fiction reference.

Until Disney finally gets around to officially announcing the director or Star Wars: Episode VII, pretty much every noteworthy director in town has been rumored or suggested for the gig, from proven veterans like Steven Spielberg to up-and-comers like Safety Not Guaranteed’s Colin Trevorrow. One of the more intriguing suggestions is Looper writer/director Rian Johnson. I’d love to see what Johnson could do with a Star Wars film, but Johnson himself seems more interested in playing his own sandbox, rather than George Lucas’.

Speaking to Digital Spy, Johnson admits that he’d be tempted by the offer, but for now is more interested in telling his own stories:

I don’t think I’m on those sorts of lists. On the one hand, it’s Star Wars, it would be very hard to say no to.

On the other hand, for me, I’m really enjoying just writing my own stuff, and right now that’s what I’m doing, I’m writing another original screenplay now, and we’ll figure out how to get it made.

That’s sort of what I’m in it for, is telling my own stories, and seeing if we can strike out on some new ground. So, luckily I don’t think it’s a problem that I’ll have to deal with!