Inception (with implanted spoilers)

oh, ok. make sure to give me a signal next time.

The snow palace design wasn't dreadful. I mean as a whole, it was a really dull film thing to look at.

so you basically didn't think the whole "Leo made his wife kill herself" thing was at all relevant to the movie or the events that transpired therein...?

xp: hahahahahahaha um if you're going to accuse someone of not being able to read, you should probably be able to do so yourself, or at least be able to determine which posts were the ones he wrote and which ones were written by completely different people blatantly making fun of you

If you are talking about this:

The first Transformers was ALSO a very straightforward movie. you don't have to be a family-pandering action movie to be straightforward!

... what most people who understand English would interpret that as is me saying "It is possible for 'Inception' to be a straightforward movie, like the first Transformers movie is a straightforward movie, without the former being a family-friendly action film." I've said nothing else about "Transformers" since then. Moron.

guys, pls, take this to the Big Boi thread

I'd give this a half-star more if David Bowie had Ken Watanabe's part

when it totally fails to explore the things its actually about (the mind, human relationships)

IS that what it's actually about? Granting the question of intentionality mattering, what I've taken away most from Nolan's comments about the film has been less "I am making a Big Grand Statement About Things" and more "I had this idea kicking around for a while inspired by a few lucid dreaming experiences and wanted to see what I could do with it."

This is all reminding me why I hate self-help books, for whatever reason.

^^^^^^^ "Inception was first developed by Christopher Nolan, based on the notion of "exploring the idea of people sharing a dream space—entering a dream space and sharing a dream. That gives you the ability to access somebody’s unconscious mind. What would that be used and abused for?"[7] Furthermore, he thought "being able to extract information from somebody’s brain would be the obvious use of that because obviously any other system where it’s computers or physical media, whatever—things that exist outside the mind—they can all be stolen ... up until this point, or up until this movie I should say, the idea that you could actually steal something from somebody’s head was impossible. So that, to me, seemed a fascinating abuse or misuse of that kind of technology".[7]

He had thought about these ideas on and off since he was 16 years old, intrigued by how he would wake up and then, while falling back into a lighter sleep, hold on to the awareness that he was dreaming, a lucid dream. He also became aware of the feeling that he could study the place and alter the events of the dream.[26] He said, "I tried to work that idea of manipulation and management of a conscious dream being a skill that these people have. Really the script is based on those common, very basic experiences and concepts, and where can those take you? And the only outlandish idea that the film presents, really, is the existence of a technology that allows you to enter and share the same dream as someone else".

This is all reminding me why I hate self-help books, for whatever reason.

lolololol

oh just shut the fuck up hi dere. all youre saying amounts to 'i see the intent AND it was achieved!' and then 'i came into this film wanting it to be good... and well it WAS! i see the LARGER MECHANICS where plebian others do not!'.

I suppose what I'm saying is if you make a film that isn't a successful action movie, you better have something else more interesting going on than your premise/Act 1 (which is what San Te has helpfully pasted). This is often when characters come in use.

Though Nolan himself has made the claim he feels great power comes with responsibility enough that I doubt he merely wants the film to be entertaining, I don't get that Hi Dere thinks other people don't see the larger mechanics, but that the larger mechanics were entertainment enough for him.

but again, intentionality is irrelevant.

this thread should end with Ned waking up next to Suzanne Pleshette's corpse

I'd rather say that than what you're saying, which is "I am kind if stupid and can't articulate my thoughts well enough to explain why I didn't like this movie so I'll just call it pretentious and hope no one notices"

You think he's kind?

stupid iPhone typo

this thread should end with Ned waking up next to Suzanne Pleshette's corpse

I would fear the reaction of Tom Poston's zombie.

Shifting gears to another complaint: I enjoyed the action sequences FWIW (though certainly the hotel hallway sequence was a cut above). I did, though, come to it from a different context that others seem to be -- all the video game comparisons, for instance, as I'm just not a gamer and aside from a scattered few slower-paced games haven't been since the 1980s, honestly. Nolan's my age and I have no idea what does or doesn't interest him (wouldn't surprise me if he does play a lot), but I didn't feel any sense of suffering by comparison to MW2 or whatever -- and I admit I had to think a bit before I realized that that stood for Modern Warfare 2. A different audience doubtless has a much different sense of it.

Looking back on my experience of watching the film I remember being very engaged with how it all unfolded and feeling pretty tightly wound up as a result. It worked, what can I say?

xpost - rather that than be a pompous dickweed who can only explain why this is a good film by regurgitating the narrative over and over.

'oh i can regurgitate the narrative. i UNDERSTAND this film'

anyway im done with posting in this thread. have nothing more to add and exchanging posts like this is a waste of time.

SUCCESS

movie is at #3 on the IMDB top 200 right now, right between the Godfathers.

ha, I liked it and all but that's kind of crazy

that's fanboys stuffing the ballot box, sure it will even out.

also I agree that "Knight and Day" was more fun; the difference is that I found both movies equally enjoyable

well maybe not "equally"; I wouldn't interchangeably recommend them to people but I did enjoy the hell out of both of them (both probably are magnified in perceived quality due to comparison with the other movie I've seen this summer: "The Last Airbender" aka "The Last M. Night Shyamalan Movie I Will Intentionally See")

When is someone going to make an actual fun-all-the-way-through blockbuster again?

Like maybe The Dark Knights or the good X-Men movies?

Or Kung-Fu Hustle.

Or the Die Hard movies.

Like those

I nominate admrl to make this film.

You didn't like the Iron Man movies?

Haha, no wai

xp - haven't seen those, actually. So I should? I don't like RDJ or Gwyneth

I should see those.

Errr...How many are there?

I guess I worried that they would be long and full of annoying dialogue scenes

see the first one, certainly

OK!

They're fun as hell. The last one was way better than Ocean's Eleven: a bunch of smart-ass actors exchanging wisecracks.

First Iron Man was fantastic, and more a drama than a superhero movie in many places.

Iron Man 2 was less fantastic. It was a bit messier and didn't satisfy me in the dramatic or action elements enough, but still something to see.

I also like a nice tight genre "exercise" (horrible phrase) like The Descent. What more movies are there like that?

"sweet and lowdown"

The first "Iron Man" is 126 minutes long, the second is 125 minutes long. There's some dialogue in there but most of the protracted scenes are "I am Tony Stark and I am INVENTING" scenes.

first movie carries 125 mins far far better than the second tbh

adamrl do you like the nu bond movies?

I liked the first Daniel Craig Bond, yes. that was great

The other one not so much. I like the Bourne movies of course

also the second "Iron Man" features a good amount of Scarlett Johansson kicking dudes' asses while wearing a leather catsuit, so basically A+

That does sound good.

I honestly didn't know there was a second Iron Man yet! I don't keep up with this stuff much

ah i'll still rep for watchmen, btw.

Yes I watched that on DVD. I like the first half but the second half was, like, INTERMINABLE

Nude Billy Crudup in blue body paint flirting with RDJ in Iron Man = best movie ever.

Someone should make an actual GOOD Punisher movie. I know they keep trying but third time's a charm, surely.