Inception (with implanted spoilers)

Slocks, i think that THIS MOVIE IS NOT AS SMART AS IT THINKS IT IS!!! is actually a valid point, and not entirely dismissible as an argument. In a movie as high-concept as this one - as reducible to a slugline as "guys travel around inside nested dream-levels perpetrating a heist" - enjoyment is a direct function in an audience member's belief/interest in the conceit. once the emulsion's broken, there's no whipping things back together. the lugubrious, nearly-architectural construction of the dreams-in-dreams conceit started to turn me off within the first 45 minutes, and the airlessness of the acting killed the movie dead within the hour. the fact is, without the "smart idea" there wasn't enough in the movie to keep me occupied: acting, design, action, cinematography, dialogue struck me as Serious and wannabe-Important, but never fun or diverting or more than technically-proficient on their own. I love the Nightmare on Elm Street flicks (well, most of them), which have a similarly stupid premise, partly because they never lose the thread of their moronic premise(s), and they keep the story twisty and fun enough that the terrible acting, awful effects, and ear-twisting dialogue don't even register.

Honestly, if the movie had been either a little more cerebral and genuinely challenged me in either a narrative or conceptual way, or ridden a little less highly on the engine of its own cleverness just kicked back with a kind-of-cool idea as backdrop for a heist, I probably would have liked it. As it was, it fell in a really awful middle ground between the two possibilities; to my mind it served both ends poorly and bored the shit out of me.

I know much of this was discussed way upthread but 1) It would have been a much better (or maybe more satisfying) movie if it was about Leo being incepted, and that's the big reveal at the end - that the inception idea is stolen from him when he's incepted. 2) it would have been a lot better shorn 45 minutes or so of people firing machine guns at each other.

Also, per remy bean, bit of a problem to introduce the idea of inception vis a vis Leo talking to Ellen Page and the city folding in itself and stuff like that only to rarely (if ever?) do much that interesting in the dream world ever again.

...

if the inception idea is being stolen from Leo, he is not being incepted, which is the planting of an idea

okay I am thinking you didn't actually understand this movie

i did tho, it's still shit

(xp to self) For what it's worth, I feel the same frustration about the second Nolan Batman movie. The first one was 'new' enough (a horror-tinged 'real' universe Batman that stood in stark contrast to the antiqued expressionism of the '90s flicks) to interest me aesthetically, even in spite of a dull narrative drive. The second one – espesh w/ Ledger's trumped-up presence - ramped up the presence of the narrative, but its increased prominence didn't do more than alert me that the narrative wasn't very good (to my taste), and that the universe was joyless.

remy OTM.

I do understand the movie, as far as that goes. It's just been, what, a year and a half? I barely understand myself at this point.

remy OTM this movie is terrible

i like the movie

its good

its fun

a+

I'll say this much: Leo always looks like he's thinking, hard.

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/Poll/VoteControllerServlet

Polls Within Polls - Inception Showdown

dunno what went wrong the first time

http://chud.com/articles/content_images/5/dreamjob.jpg

your poll was incepted lol! ;)

did leo really have to find himself in this movie

why couldnt it just have been about shooting inceptions

i want to propose a movie

during which this couple decides they're gonna have sex, even though they're not sure their relationship is a-okay
during which guy is having trouble deciding which hole is the right hole because hey, might as well go for broke
during which a single mobile sperm is having trouble getting into an egg because the egg is not sure the pairing will be a-okay
during which some molecular level-shit mirrors the frustration of the previous levels, but, you know, on a molecular level
during which the movement of a single quark represents a watershed that will determine if some higher level shit will happen AND... he is played by a guy who looks just like a guy from the beginning of the movie AND he has a fantasy about having sex w/ a lady even though their relationship is not okay.

it will be called 'conception'

no that doesn't sound like a good movie

not like inception

i like that movie

(inception)

I am pretty sure that when he tries to have anal sex with her so they can make a baby, your movie is going to take a turn that blocks off the rest of your plot sketch

foiled!

u just made me think of:
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfpt77F3Qh1qbj46wo1_r1_500.gif

remy they made that movie already... it's called 'the butterfly effect' and stars famous twitter user and part time actor ashton kutcher

deadpan =/= "airless"

its just a heist movie with a slightly different "dreamscape-y" twist, just because it pretends to be serious (which it isn't, really) doesn't mean y'all have to get all het up about it not being cerebral enough

i mean the movie has its problems, no doubt, but im totally happy to see nolan putting his thinky-winky twist on the whole blockbuster formula, god knows nobody else is really trying

still, 148 minutes is a lot of good intentions to reward.

its just a heist movie with a slightly different "dreamscape-y" twist, just because it pretends to be serious (which it isn't, really) doesn't mean y'all have to get all het up about it not being cerebral enough

― the jazz zinger (s1ocki), Monday, October 24, 2011 8:51 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

otm

Seeing the memes before the movie, I kept waiting for this part, not knowing that it was just a photo taken from the set.

http://img.chinasmack.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/leonardo-di-caprio-inception-photoshops-01.jpg

Kept thinking Juno would be on the beach while the dream city fell down and Leo would be walking like that toward her like Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff.

tbh I'm still lolling at the "this would have been better if it had been more like 'What Dreams May Come'" argument

I know there's some pervy img zing to be made out of Leo, Juno, and What Dreams May Come, but goddammit I blame Monday for me not being able to come up with it.

the problems with inception (po-faced degeneration to mess) are quite different to the problems with TDK (lumbering MESSAGE subplots)

Both well worth watching, neither worth discussing for months after

also- they're incepting leo ffs

http://www.zuguide.com/image/Isabella-Rossellini-Blue-Velvet.3.jpg

"He put his incept in me"

Guys if anyone thinks there are lots of "alternate angles" to Inception or anything to be theorized about, then you missed a boat. And by boat, I mean a plot that was spelled out.

I mean the only thing that's vaguely open is whether the end is the top falling. Nolan says it is, but it's kind of the nondeterministic thing that leads to multiple interpretations in analysis, but to me it's not worth talking about because that is such a fucking boring open end!

I mean, if I was younger this might be ~mind blowing~ but I thought it was pretty entertaining if a little dead emotionally, which is kind of Nolan's stock in trade

d-mac otm, is what I'm trying to say

If Leo is being incepted or was incepted, what was the idea? "You are a clever, guilt-ridden murderer"?

What if outside the dream Cobb is a Pittsburgh weatherman.

xp not to do shutter island

yall shd watch Barry Lyndon tonight

me too!! we had to google it after we saw it to work out how it actually ended!! Still not sure.....

I think these 2 movies leave a certain degree of interpretation. The purpose is to make you feel unsettled!

I'll stick with comedy and chick flicks for a while - I think it was all a dream xxx