Inception (with implanted spoilers)

where's Armond White?

seething in a movie theater somewhere

I think it's incredibly rude and condescending to say that this movie inspires no discussion or achieves none of the things it tries to do, when very clearly so many people are reacting to it by engaging in discussion and praising it's achievements. Aside from a handful of early reviews I don't think anyone's claiming it's a work of cinematic genius; people are just pleased to see a movie that they really enjoy on several levels and think is very good. If you don't like the movie, that's absolutely fine, but it doesn't make people who do enjoy it morons, which seems to be the overriding tone here in a lot of posts.

Things I liked about Inception include...

The lack of explanation of the dream device - too many sci-fi films have suffered by trying to explain how things work unnecessarily, by taking tise out of the equation Inception avoids that.

The interaction between JGL and Tom Hardy. Several laughs out of that, really enjoyed watching both of them all the way through.

The rolling-corridor fight scene - this doubly impresses me now that I know they built a corridor that revolved through 360 degrees on giant hydraulic platforms in order to do it. Honestly one of the most gorgeous action scenes I've seen in a long time; I also love that it's played out in arch a bland brown environment, not at all showy.

The general lack of showiness in terms of colour palette was very welcome, actually, but i guess is a Nolan trait at this point. There were many moments I thought were beautiful or impressive but I never felt whacked over the head with them.

The zero gravity bit; must find out how this was done.

The shared dream logic and dream design resonated very much with me, especially the limbo level of Di Caprio and Cotillard's subconscious romance; the receding rows of buildings, the familiar houses behind fences and moved into strange new positions, all seemed like experiences from my own dreams. I tend to fly, or be being chased, or be in familiar but not quite right situations in my own dreams, rather than have outrageous fantastical stuff happen. This captured the dream state for me as well as anything else, and is up with Waking Life as far as that goes (much as I love Waking Life, a lot of it does not remind me of my own dreams, but feels much more like a cinematic representation of what we think of dreams of being, at least visually; narrative or lack thereof is perhaps closer to real dreaming, but the it's a film just about dreaming as opposed tom plot within a shared dream).

The questions it has raised; having seen it twice now and read much discussion and prose, I've had many thoughts myself and come across even more; who is being incepted, Fischer or Cobb? How much of the film is a dream? Are all the 'rules' actually rules, or are some of them just misdirects from Cobb's subconscious? The idea of the film being about Nolan and how he makes films himself is another interesting idea that I don't think I'd have come to myself, even though my primary thought at the end of the film was about how aware the film is of it's own status as a film. There are plausible clues for every interpretation, which all add up to it being a smart film, in my mind.

The romance also resonated with me - the line about wanting to live in a house but also loving "these kinds of buildings", that shared taste and ideals, the idea of building worlds together, growing old in dreams, the fear of not remembering that process, all struck me much harder on second viewing, possibly because on first viewing I was so tied up with following the narrative and unravelling what was real.

I could name a dozen other little things regarding set design, or lines of dialogue, or potential plot queries, but I shan't.

Things I don't like about Inception...

Ellen Paige's lack of hips and bad wardrobe, and I'm not entirely convinced by her as an actress either. But she wasn't annoying, just... not the best choice, possibly. Or not to my tastes.

The snow fight is too long, and almost incongruous, plus a little confusing. But it IS a dream after all, so I'll let it off. The ziggurat thing is a hospital, or so Paige described it as, but it does just look like a Bond villain bunker.

The movie itself is probably too long by 20-30 minutes; on second viewing we could maybe have done with a little less exposition and with most of the action sequences being trimmed, but I didn't think this on first viewing.

I don't think Nolan is great at big dramatic action climaxes, though I think he is very good with dénouements. The ferries in TDK and the snow fight in this both go on a touch too long, and see, anti-climactic compared to smaller, better observed, more genuinely dramatic or exciting moments earlier in each film.

Too loud, also a problem with TDK. While I applaud Nolan's use of full dynamic range, explosions, big doomy moments of score, gunfights, car crashes, etc, are all too loud. It's exciting in the cinema first time if their system can handle it, but it's a step too far for my tastes.

Di Caprio's big head. I like him more and more as an actor but he does have such an awfully big head.

I think it's incredibly rude and condescending to say that this movie inspires no discussion or achieves none of the things it tries to do

who made either claim?

maybe I missed it, but someone posting "Inception inspires no discussion" on a thread discussing Inception has bigger problems than rudeness

Actually that particular precise claim may have come on another board and vie got confused (it's a board Alfred and I both also use), but certainly some comments her have given me that same feeling.

whose?

some people wanted emotional drama and challenging puzzles (less messy imaginative stuff that makes up its own rules)
some people were just bored
some people liked the action and/or artsy sequences and/or didn't need a bunch of humanizing stuff
some people thought Leo and/or Juno hurt the film
some people got bothered by "that wouldn't happen" and "why would he do that"
some people were bothered by the ending and are set thinking that it was all a limbo dream
some people weren't bothered by the ending and are set thinking that the last sequence (or whole movie) wasn't a limbo dream

summed it up for yall

Damn ipad typos. You think you can type dead fucking quick with it but you need to double back and check things more.

I'd have to scour through 500 posts again and I'd rather not just to answer that.

oops I forgot one
some people wanted a movie about dreams; NOT A MOVIE where all the dreams were made by architects

Is it the new Vanilla SKy?

maybe it's the Vanilla Sky that I actually liked?

some people want Joseph Gordon-Levitt

maybe

JGL is an incredibly thin person

like, you have to be built like a pencil to make Leo look semi-jacked

I think it's incredibly rude and condescending to say that this movie inspires no discussion or achieves none of the things it tries to do, when very clearly so many people are reacting to it by engaging in discussion and praising it's achievements.

this sentence is utter bullshit. saying it's a failure is not "rude and condescending" to anyone other than nolan. and as you say, no one here said it inspires no discussion.

wanting to live in a house but also loving "these kinds of buildings"

^^^ the worst line of dialogue in the film for me. don't really need to hear characters didactically voice nolan's opinions about architecture. felt like a john goodman scene from treme.

It's rude to say "utter bullshit"

JGL is an incredibly thin person

like, you have to be built like a pencil to make Leo look semi-jacked

― he does NOT have the training (HI DERE), Tuesday, July 20, 2010 3:53 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

leo is hueg now!!

Worst line of dialogue was something about going deeper into Leo not deeper into the dream or something like that

like, you have to be built like a pencil to make Leo look semi-jacked

Leo's scrunchyface shaves at least fifteen pounds of baby fat off his total weight.

Quick review; Alfred, caek, some of titchy's posts. People generally seem start of reasonable and then get themselves riled up.

QED!

waht

something about going deeper into Leo not deeper into the dream

worst slash fiction ever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbgr0BRUDjI

leo is hueg now!!

waht

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/images/column/9909/inceptionpage.jpg

what do you mean 'waht', haven you not seen his last like six movies? he doesn't look like the gilbert grape kid anymore!

e.g. he is twice as big as this child [via HE]

who's the blond kid on the right?

xpost

Alfred I love you to bits but you're incredibly snide and bitchy about thing you don't care for at times. It makes people who do care for those things feel very scorned.

everyone looks hueg next to Ellen Paige, she is basically the size of a raisin

Inception=ilxor's Battle of Bunker Hills

and the most recent Leo movies I've seen were "The Aviator" (where he was wafer thin) and "The Departed" (where he was normal sized, or at least appeared that way next to Marky Mark and Matt Damon)

Alfred I love you to bits but you're incredibly snide and bitchy about thing you don't care for at times. It makes people who do care for those things feel very scorned.

oh for fuck's sake, Nick. I've never been Armond White. Besides, the number of posters who loved or liked the film a lot outnumber the dissenters.

xp, you should see shutter island. it is the fever ray of 2010's movies.

I think what makes Leo sound thin is his Keebler Elf voice.

http://www.moviesonline.ca/movie-gallery/albums/Blood_Diamond/BloodDiamond-11.jpg

next to noted shrimpy person djimon honsou

that red x definitely adds about 20 pounds to his frame though

Quick review; Alfred, caek, some of titchy's posts. People generally seem start of reasonable and then get themselves riled up.

the early posters seemed to like the film, the later posters less so. this is not a reflection on you.

all I can really tell from that picture is that being at a three-quarter angle while walking makes it look like he has a gut; anyone can have a wide frame without being super muscular, particularly when shot wearing a backpack and an open shirt

also he doesn't look like he is the size of Jason Statham, which is the optical illusion caused by putting him next to JGL

Now you've got me imagining switching the ensemble casts of this film and The Expendables

^^^^^^ To think many of you were already complaining about the mumbling....

i just hate how Leo is so deadly serious in nearly all his films, nearly all the time (of the films i've seen at least).
overall i liked the movie - and Leo's very stern face did not take away too much from my enjoyment.

wanting to live in a house but also loving "these kinds of buildings"

^ this line actually bothered me mainly because who the fuck likes the look of drab office buildings?!

managers

overall i liked the movie - and Leo's very stern face did not take away too much from my enjoyment.

very stern, very large

although again, that head next to Ellen Paige and JGL is going to look even larger than it is

leo's head is no javier bardem's head

some of the dream psychs kind of bothered me in a making-it-up-as-we-go-along kind of way and i was disappointed that most of the more striking imagery was given away in the adverts. but overall, again, i liked the film. not enough to see it again like one of my friends last night, tho.

They weren't drab office buildings! They were startling modernist skyscrapers that had fallen to disrepair and ruin.