Evaluation of Looper

That most recent movie that I was fortunate of watching was Looper. I saw it yesterday afternoon with my parents at Scottsdale Fashion Square in a rather small theater, which surprised me since this movie just came out.  But instead of telling you an evaluation of the movie, I was hoping I could evaluate a situation that happened before the movie.

My parents and I were sitting in the last few rows on the theater, munching on popcorn and sipping our enjoyable beverages. The previews started to play and in walks this boy –or young adult (it was dimly lit) with a back pack. He stands to the side of the theater as if he is looking for someone but fails to see anyone he recognizes. It was as if he was evaluating us, the audience. Trying to see us in the dark, which person it was best to sit by, who is more likely to judge him less. He stands there and waits till the preview is over then loudly exclaims, “Man, do I miss Tom Hanks!” Then he picks a seat in the front few rows, drops down his back pack, and walks out. He was an odd person, but nothing rang any bells so I simply carried on watching the previews. But then my dad leaned over to me and said, “If he doesn’t come back in five minutes, we’re leaving.”  Why would we leave? We paid good money for this movie. I’ve wanted to see this movie for a long time, I’m not leaving. He seemed like the type of person to be obnoxious and talkative during a movie as well, shouldn’t my dad be happy that this man has left? But then it hit me, why my dad was so concerned, this stranger had left his bag. My dad, being an older gentlemen (65), had put this together before it even began to register with me.  A stranger who arrived alone with a “look at me” attitude, and a very attentive behavior had just left his bag in a room full of people and left. Now I was concerned. With the recent shootings from this summer, the attacks on populated places, this was no different. Could this man – would this man be someone to kill a crowd full of people? Obviously my dad was not the only one to evaluate the current circumstance because a younger man who was with his children, went over to where the bag was laying, picked it up, and started to carry it out of the theater. I was in shock. This is what the world has come to, where even I was judging a man just because he put down his bag, even though he could be completely innocent.   Because of actions from several other people, I could not trust this stranger simply because he carried a bag. This is the way several other people felt in the theater as well because as soon as the bag had left the theater and the man returned, people clapped.   They applauded this young man for the heroic deed of carrying out the suspicious bag. I was happy the bag was removed too, but also a little sad. I felt bad for jumping to conclusions, uncomfortable about how paranoid I became, disappointed in the world because we no longer trust each other, but I was damn happy that the back pack was away from me.

We no longer trust anything that is not “normal.” I bring a back pack every day to school but when I leave to go to the bathroom in the middle of class, I don’t find my bag outside in the hallway upon returning. But a man brings a back pack to a theater and he’s demonized.  I guess it is better to be safe than sorry, paranoid than relaxed, alive than dead. I just find it a little depressing that because of people that abused the trust of their fellow humans in the past, we can no longer trust anyone. 

After leaving the theater I saw the strange man outside the mall. He looked like a street kid. Dirty, greasy, had a couple layers of clothes on even though it was still 100 degrees outside, and he clung to his back pack like it was his life raft. He had probably saved up to see this movie and instead of being able to enjoy it, he was asked to leave because of his back pack. 

But if you still want the evaluation of Looper, I’d give it two stars. There was way too much gore, Joseph Levett looked really weird, the kid in the movie gave me night mares and I don’t like the idea that China is going to take over the world. This movie was a look on what the future might look like in 30 years, I personally hope that this movie stays fictional.