Looper

I skipped this during Fantastic Fest, preferring the world premiere of Bring Me the Head of Machine Gun Woman over what was billed as an action shooter.  For the rest of the week everyone was telling me how wrong I was (or rather, how misguided the advertisements were) because Looper was a true sci fi film.

So what makes a film sci fi instead of action or horror?  Just because there's a piece of undeveloped technology that enables the plot doesn't make something a science fiction film.  True sci fi has on-the-horizon or pie-in-the-sky technology, sure, but it's not used to enable a shoot-em-up or some sort of slasher film.  Instead, sci fi uses the technology to poke and prod at the human condition, to see how human interaction and feelings react to new stimuli.  It's all about the people.

In these ways, Looper truly is sci fi.  Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is an executioner, killing those sent back from the future who need to disappear.  When it's time for him to "close his loop" - killing his future self (Bruce Willis) - he hesitates and things go awry.  Much of what follows is action chase, sure, as Joe tries to fix his mistake while his older self hunts the future mob boss who sent him back for his death.  That the boss is a young boy is troubling, sure, but is this fate fixed or is there another way?  In the end, Joe just can't be sure, and has to take what can only be a leap of faith.  It is right here that the film cements itself as the best of 2012 sci fi.

Looper
2012, 119 minutes, directed by Rian Johnson

Encounter at Raven's Gate

Close encounters in the Australian outback, filmed and set in the 1980s amidst small-town drama.  It baffles me.

Encounter at Raven's Gate
1988, 94 minutes, directed by Rolf de Heer

Resident Evil: Retribution

OMG there's so much explanation to establish backstory and bring in the characters.  Alice used to be a genetically-engineered killing machine, one of Umbrella corporation's tools to combat the T-virus infestation that has destroyed the world.  Or maybe she was just another experiment as they perfected the virus, the world be damned anyway.  But then she lost her powers and was just a woman who can do mid-air somersaults while shooting weapons in both hands.

She's met a lot of people along the way, many of which she's cared for, a subset of which make appearances in this film (though some as clones, not the original people, which is a convenient way to bring back a few who died).   In this film, she'll meet a few more, deal with some former friends turned enemies, and dutifully advance the plot along to the next sequel.  It was very perfunctory, and in that, not interesting.  My only other notes on the film are:

• Undead Russians can't shoot, even at point blank range
• Stargrazing as an awesome name for a craft services company

And with that, I guess I'll wait for the next sequel to be churned out sometime in 2014.

Resident Evil: Retribution
2012, 95 minutes, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson