First Impressions: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" + "Looper" (2012)

   All right, I'm back! :D I just got home from a week-long trip to England. And I have quite a few first impressions for you – as well as an account of my visit to Madame Tussauds in London! :) I'll probably post that story in full later on. But first, obviously, I'll go through my first impression reviews in small doses. I have seven movies to get through, plus a couple of video games.

   First up, my friend John and I went to the cinema on Tuesday and saw two movies.

   The first was The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which, for me, was this year's biggest surprise since The Cabin in the Woods! It's about a junior in high school who's an outcast until he's taken under the wing of two seniors. Maybe it's just because I'm overly sentimental and a sucker for underdog stories, but I surprisingly really loved this movie.
   In many ways, this is the polar opposite of Project X, since I genuinely liked all these characters and wanted to be part of this high school.
   It may seem overly soap opera-ish to some people, but I'll admit that I loved every second of it. It's a very familiar story, but its characters are so charming that it's just irresistible.
   My rating: 85%.

   And the second was Looper. And my first impression is that it was a tad over-hyped. I mean, yes, it was undeniably clever and very entertaining, but it didn't blow my mind, and I didn't think it was as amazing as everybody said.
   Parts of it maybe weren't quite developed enough for me to immediately get them, so my lingering confusion is probably why some later scenes fell flat.
   But like I said, this is just my initial reaction. Maybe a second viewing will change my mind.
   Still, many individual scenes were brilliantly written and executed, even if it didn't quite all gel together for me. What happens to the old Seth still sticks in my head; that was brutal!
   So on the whole, I enjoyed it, and I look forward to seeing it again to see if I can follow everything that evaded me the first time round.
   My rating: 75%.