I think this review generally encapsulates my feelings. Although more than half of it is just summarizing most of the movie.

This one is good too. His quibbles are my quibbles!

... I rather hope he doesn't. Some things shouldn't have sequels. (At least, not official ones.) You can't put the lightning back in the bottle.

Buttercup's Baby has been a running joke since the original novel was published. I think at one point you could actually write to the publisher and have it sent to you, but instead of a book you got a letter of apology explaining that it didn't exist.

The first chapter of Buttercup's Baby is in one of the later editions.

Yeah, no, apparently Goldman has been trying for a while to write a sequel, but it never works.

His quibbles are my quibbles!

That reviewer calls it thoughtful, which I just can't. Way too much handwavium, and no little bullying of the audience to just stop thinking so hard and just shut up and accept the ride.

Even though the ending risked going up in literal flames, hell, I'd call the ultimate failure of Sunshine more thoughtful than this seemed to be. They both collapse under their own weight, but Sunshine sure went out of its way to tip the whole thing over, whereas Looper just doesn't have a stable base.

I loved the moment (in Looper) when the door opened (that could have a couple ways to finish the sentence, huh?) to reveal Garrett Dillahunt. Raising Hope aside, the audience knew shit just got a whole lot realer, and reacted appropriately.

Tim Burton: How did it all go so wrong so fast?

I saw a lot more character growth of the main character in Looper than Drive.

I don't know, I don't see all that much in Looper either. It's slight change on one axis.

Does Drive have the logical consistency of a wet piece of toiler paper, which runs the risk of undermining any narrative arcs they're trying to convey?

I would say no, but I wouldn't describe Looper that way either so I doubt my verdict is of much use.

Strega,

just going from the final acts of the main character in both movies, don't you find that watching them involved a lot more movement of the character and his worldview and individual perspective about life in Looper than in Drive?

I mean in Looper, you have the character greeting himself so you know the two ways he could live his life. He was a seriously selfish asshole until he hit middle-age (and even then, I would gather he was still as self-centered as fuck). Not so in the final act.

In Drive, I didn't get that he was so self-centered. We saw him crush on a cute woman almost from jump street. He didn't vary from that. We first saw him as a driver and he ended as a driver. Sure he committed some acts of violence in between, but his main love always remained. I saw the main character of Drive as someone who acted as mostly a response to circumstances, where in Looper, he very much created and acted upon the circumstances.

Strega, you didn't think Looper had little logical consistency, or you think it had enough to get by?

I thought Looper had jst enough to get by. I was taken enough by the characters and some of the world-building that I didn't mind doing some hand-waving.