Inception

Started by modage, August 24, 2009, 10:21:41 AM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

socketlevel

***SPOILERS***

the coolest concept introduced in the film was "the kick" and i really like how dream layers affected eachother, i just was so dissapointed when they suggested the age old "is he still dreaming..."

the first two things i mentioned were fresh, and the last is boring lame and done a million times for no other reason then to have it.
the one last hit that spent you...

RegularKarate

***SPOILERS***

Quote from: socketlevel on July 23, 2010, 11:24:16 AM
who is participating in the debating is also a factor for me. that sounds bad doesn't it.
Yes, it does sound bad.  It sounds elitist.

Quote from: socketlevel on July 23, 2010, 11:24:16 AMnow I'm not trying to be like I'm above the film, instead i'm saying this element of the film is beneath us (yes there is a difference!)

Okay, what's the difference, then?

Quote from: socketlevel on July 23, 2010, 11:32:05 AM
the coolest concept introduced in the film was "the kick" and i really like how dream layers affected eachother, i just was so dissapointed when they suggested the age old "is he still dreaming..."

the first two things i mentioned were fresh, and the last is boring lame and done a million times for no other reason then to have it.

Why is it no other reason than just to have it?  I think you've kind of proven that you've dismissed the possibility of it meaning more than what you've decided it means because you feel you're above it.

I think the last shot is made to question the entire film, not just "oh, is he still dreaming?".

Stefen

Quote from: Alexandro on July 23, 2010, 11:08:14 AM
to the mexicans:

you mean this will not be released here on the IMAX CINEPOLIS THEATRES????

you mean we are stuck with cinemark or some crap like that for this?



Hey, you know who doesn't even have an IMAX either? Me. In NEW Mexico. Old Mexico, New Mexico, whatever, IMAX doesn't like us. It's racist!
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

Alexandro

they are showing the goddamn shrek movie at the imax right now.

cronopio 2

 SPOILER-FREE OPINIONS, I GUESS:

Went to Cinemark to see it, whatcha gonna do...

P beat me to it. This movie was as heisty as they get. (I'm pretty sure I've seen that french warehouse in either Ocean's 12 or a history class) It also had film noir themes and moods without being obvious about its style, which is one of the reasons I loved Batman Begins if you research that thread, or the dark knight thread, i can't remember. You don't have to put hats and cigarettes in everybody's face to make a movie feel like a noir. It's all about the main character running from justice, longing to be a decent man again.  Nolan is a master at making things look as organic as they can with concepts that might seem childish to respectable and boring adults. Inception might be a rip off of a million things I haven't seen, but it made everything feel fresh. Look at that fight scene with Gordon-Levitt and the guards at the hotel. Even with the awesome floating, it was more like Brian De Palma's Mission Impossible than The Matrix, instead of boring us with a gimmicky new special effect.

I imagined watching the movie with my mom and my aunts and people who get confused, almost offended whenever there's a dream going on in a movie. And I'm not saying I understood everything fully, but I thought it was funny that they took the apparent convolutions of dream logic as the concept to follow, like saying "we'll make an entire movie where people never know if what they're watching is a dream, AND MAKE THEM FEEL smart or at the very least entertained AT THE SAME TIME".

This is the kind of story I watch and feel frustraded by the elegance of the structure. Frustrated because I think I will never come up with something as original. I 'm going to make a very snob comment and say that Borges would've liked this movie. It had all the elegance in its presentation and resolution to make a labyrinth builder like him feel proud. It might seem mechanical, like samsong pointed out, but it was really a privilege to see what I consider precision in storytelling.


Random things:

-Anyone else thought this movie had echoes of Assassin's Creed, Echochrome and Call of Duty 4? Prove me wrong, Ebert.

-I thought Lukas Haas was going to reappear at one point. I hope he's doing well back in the cave where they took him from to shoot his part.

-and i think no one has mentioned the awesomeness of Tom Hardy in this movie. What a bad-ass.

socketlevel

***SPOILERS***

Quote from: RegularKarate on July 23, 2010, 01:01:27 PM
***SPOILERS***

Quote from: socketlevel on July 23, 2010, 11:24:16 AM
who is participating in the debating is also a factor for me. that sounds bad doesn't it.
Yes, it does sound bad.  It sounds elitist.

Quote from: socketlevel on July 23, 2010, 11:24:16 AMnow I'm not trying to be like I'm above the film, instead i'm saying this element of the film is beneath us (yes there is a difference!)

Okay, what's the difference, then?

Quote from: socketlevel on July 23, 2010, 11:32:05 AM
the coolest concept introduced in the film was "the kick" and i really like how dream layers affected eachother, i just was so dissapointed when they suggested the age old "is he still dreaming..."

the first two things i mentioned were fresh, and the last is boring lame and done a million times for no other reason then to have it.

Why is it no other reason than just to have it?  I think you've kind of proven that you've dismissed the possibility of it meaning more than what you've decided it means because you feel you're above it.

I think the last shot is made to question the entire film, not just "oh, is he still dreaming?".

elitist in the sense that don't trust everyone's opinion then sure. but i bet we're all like that. it was suggested due to the fact there were bloggers going crazy about, internet debating somehow validates the movie's depth. that's just silly.

the difference is that i'm not above the film as a whole, i just think the element i'm suggesting insults us the audience. if i was above the film then i'm looking down on it, i think we should all look down on that age old device as a cop out. a device like that is cheap because it focuses the film on something new right at the end. it works the same way a loaded statement does in an arguement, it's just a conversation ender.

how did you question the entire film? all it implies is that at the end he didn't make it out, and he created it all to remain sane in the dream world. and why the shit do we need to question the entire film, or part of the film at the end. the emotional and intellectual pay offs were fufilled. it's a clever gimmicky footnote.





the one last hit that spent you...

samsong

i second the tom hardy love.  didn't like bronson at all but he was great in it, and was great in this.

cbrad, my commending its positive attributes were just that: giving credit where it was due.  unlike a few people here, however, i found it wholly problematic and nowhere near a masterpiece.  as for whether or not those things are enough, sure they're enough, but to an end, and that end does not include cinematic greatness.  your point about it being an " original" blockbuster is fine but it supports an on-going trend of overrating based on relativity that i hate.  and after the success of the dark knight, christopher nolan could've made anything at any budget and it would've been put out the same way and met with the same kind of enthusiasm.  because nolan is a man of great taste and ability, it so happens that his follow-up to his leviathan financial success is a very good movie.  it's not like hollywood invested in some new talent and took a risk; nolan's had to prove himself.  in that regard it isn't cause for celebration.  it's great though that nolan is working, making the movies he wants to make.  

my deeming the film as hollow has to do with my belief that the form and style -- overtly/overly instructive dialogue, "airtight" plotting, rigid adherence to genre (i for one didn't find its execution of the heist genre to be particularly original outside of it involving the subconscious) -- betray whatever wealth of subtext there might be to glean from the film.  i'd like to think that i'm pretty good at meeting a film on its own terms while engaging with the material and i found this to be inaccessible as anything other than an immaculate, ephemeral entertainment.  all the theories and discourse are nice but i don't buy into any of them.  and it really does hinge on whether or not you believe it's all a dream or it's all real, or some hybrid of the two, which is all you can really draw from the ending.  the rest is interpretation based on which way you go with it.  but it's something that i feel is tacked on at the end and isn't something that's developed throughout the film.  i've seen it a second time after reading other people's thoughts and none of it holds any water for me, and if anything considering all those things made it a bit of a chore--in other words, far from enlightening.

Gamblour.

This is pretty crazy, but mostly just curious:

I guess Hans Zimmer was listening to this song as he fell asleep and it got incepted into his mind and shit.
WWPTAD?

modage

Wow that's fucking brilliant.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

SiliasRuby

I've been working the past three weeks heavily and thats why I've been missing around here. This film is genius. Complete genius that needs repeat viewings. I really don't know how nolan can top this...
The Beatles know Jesus Christ has returned to Earth and is in Los Angeles.

When you are getting fucked by the big corporations remember to use a condom.

There was a FISH in the perkalater!!!

My Collection

polkablues

Quote from: Gamblour. on July 23, 2010, 09:42:35 PM
This is pretty crazy, but mostly just curious:

I guess Hans Zimmer was listening to this song as he fell asleep and it got incepted into his mind and shit.

Zimmer said in an interview that I thought I read here, but maybe not, that Nolan had told him that Edith Piaf song was going to be used throughout the movie, so he specifically tailored the score so that the score and the song would seamlessly weave in and out of each other.
My house, my rules, my coffee

socketlevel

well put samsong, you once again typed it in ways i couldn't.
the one last hit that spent you...

Gamblour.

Quote from: polkablues on July 24, 2010, 01:18:53 AM
Quote from: Gamblour. on July 23, 2010, 09:42:35 PM
This is pretty crazy, but mostly just curious:

I guess Hans Zimmer was listening to this song as he fell asleep and it got incepted into his mind and shit.

Zimmer said in an interview that I thought I read here, but maybe not, that Nolan had told him that Edith Piaf song was going to be used throughout the movie, so he specifically tailored the score so that the score and the song would seamlessly weave in and out of each other.

Well then holy shit.  :bravo: Hans, bravo.
WWPTAD?

Alexandro

Quote from: cronopio 2 on July 23, 2010, 03:37:04 PM


Went to Cinemark to see it, whatcha gonna do...



fucking cinemarks of mexico city are like ten times more decent than the piece of shit here in mty. I went there a couple of months ago to see that crap edge of darkness and had to leave at the half hour mark. out of focus, no sound, no color. just absolute shit. I will wait for this, sadly.

pete

the best dream film in the last 10 years is Spirited Away, which doesn't even have a character dreaming - but it's one that follows the dream logic most closely.  I use P's comment as a springboard because this film, while it's about dreaming, actually doesn't feel very dreamlike.  instead it invents its own world, much like the matrix, with its own logic, based on observations Nolan's made about dreams.  reminds me of Waking Life that way: both are about dreaming but really have a much more pronounced cinematic style that uses "dream" as an excuse to get there.  nothing wrong with that though; it's just an observation and in my opinion, a difference between this and the gondry movies about Dreaming.

I do like myself a well-put together thriller though, and this one is very much that.  only complaint I have is the climatic action sequence in the snow feels a little random/ video game-esque and not particularly relevant to the rest of the movie in terms of tone or visuals.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton