SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY

Everything from the initial ache over the mother-son separation to the woeful feeling of the kid being condemned to his future life to the feeling of bittersweet relief after JGL's sacrifice, all worked terrifically for me. I liked that no heartstrings were pulled with JGL's death and the focus instead shifted to mom and son. At that point the story had become about something more than the "Looper."

Stories about sons and their mothers always get to me. And now that I have a son of my own, I felt the ache and pain in the story for my girlfriend and our son as well (she cried). All thoughtfully conceived and sincerely executed.

Weird though this combo may be, the ending reminded me in a lot of ways of Toy Story 3 meets Straight Time, though with a more hopeful ending than Straight Time in terms of the theme of the cycle of violence (the loop of violence?).

I saw it with a midnight crowd that had odd reactions a couple times throughout the movie, but the ending left everyone in dead silence. I'm not trying to make it seem like Cries and Whispers, but I definitely think Rian Johnson stuck the landing.

For the record, I was not a Brick or Brothers Bloom fan. Hadn't been a Joseph Gordon-Levitt fan before either. Far from a regular patron of the sci-fi arts, and hadn't thought of Emily Blunt as anything other than Jim Halpert's wife before. Now I have at least a decent-sized appreciation for all.

My only faults with it the first time through were a couple effects, the inability of the Gat Men to hit anything, not enough screen time for Jeff Daniels, and the Kid Blue character. But honestly those are all minor issues.

Great movie.

>No spoilers, but the end didn't have the emotional impact it
>could have, for reasons I can maybe hypothesize once more
>folks have seen it.