Inception

[picolas]

the quoting does nawsing!!

unless people are actually okay with doing something that tedious.

[polkablues]

http://patorjk.com/text-color-fader/

[Stefen]

I love black mirrors complicated posts!

[Pas]

I love black mirrors complicated posts!

Yeah me too with images and fading and whatnot. They are big budget. 

[Stefen]

He's the Chris Nolan of posting. Or maybe the Zack Snyder. Haven't decided yet.

[Pubrick]

having now read everyone's theories and opinions..

i think it's enough to say that the dullest people on the board thought the film was dull, refusing to invest any imagination into the very real possibilities that the film offers, and that the most interesting people thought the film was interesting, themselves offering many thought provoking theories and proving that the ending is not cheap stupid silly nonsense but an invitation to make the dream real.

the only exceptions being GT and Samsong, who i believe may actually be smarter than Nolan.

[socketlevel]

having now read everyone's theories and opinions..

i think it's enough to say that the dullest people on the board thought the film was dull, refusing to invest any imagination into the very real possibilities that the film offers, and that the most interesting people thought the film was interesting, themselves offering many thought provoking theories and proving that the ending is not cheap stupid silly nonsense but an invitation to make the dream real.

the only exceptions being GT and Samsong, who i believe may actually be smarter than Nolan.

awesome, the popularity game is back! pick me pick me. why do you always pick fights with the least amount of blowback? samgsong and GT you get in the clubhouse don't worry! lol. it all looks like you don't give a shit and will say anything, but really it's calculated, xixax old boys club minded and... safe.

now please tell me how your bait worked so well on me.

i don't think the movie was dull at all, i just think it's easy and cliched and should be seen as nothing more than a entertaining picture. it's true i'm not investing any imagination into this picture, cuz it's not as creative as everyone says it is once you get through the facade. i guess in ten years when the next action movie that has a "is this all real?" subtext comes out the same fanboy jizz in my pants reaction will apply.

sorry i don't get a hard on walking out of the theatre and post outlandish claims calling it the best this-and-that of cinema (which one such claim was appropriately and astutely challenged by pete a few posts later).  truthfully, it will devalue the broad impact of your opinions in the end because you're just short-sighted gushing... cut to Avatar thread.

[Ravi]

American Cinematographer article

[matt35mm]

American Cinematographer article

Fantastic article!  Thanks, Ravi!

[modage]

"The underlying idea is that dreams feel real while we're in them, which is actually a line in the film," says Nolan, speaking to AC after the production wrapped. "That was important to the photography and to every aspect of the film. We didn't want to have dream sequences with any superfluous surrealism. We didn't want them to have any less validity than what is specified as being the real world. So we took the approach of trying to make them feel real." 

(marquee says NOTHING GREAT IS REAL)

[Gold Trumpet]

"The underlying idea is that dreams feel real while we're in them, which is actually a line in the film," says Nolan, speaking to AC after the production wrapped. "That was important to the photography and to every aspect of the film. We didn't want to have dream sequences with any superfluous surrealism. We didn't want them to have any less validity than what is specified as being the real world. So we took the approach of trying to make them feel real."  

Yea, but for me, one of the amazing aspects of dreams is that they always start out very realistic but turn out to be surrealistic. While we're in them, we accept the changes wholeheartedly because we are drunk with interest in what we're witnessing. Dreams change our perception possibilities. The more I think about Nolan's dream concepts, the more I think he was operating on a convenience level for what he needed to make his elaborate plot work out. Some people argue he is still discerning about dream ideas and I can't fully disagree with them yet since I still just have the memory of the one viewing.

Going back to my original idea that the film should have begun from the objective of the relationship and gone from there, it could have made surrealism more possible by making the reality with his wife so uncertain. They could have had a rocky relationship and DiCaprio could have not known what was real with her or wasn't. Since all bad relationships start with need for the lie, his road to the truth of her memory could have been a dance with idealization over reality and it could be utilized to continue to examine more points of their relationship.

It could have also played with the physical reality if where they lived used to be concrete and whole when they were together but somehow became war torn since she died. Parts of the city would be whole and parts would not be and DiCaprio's character could live for the memory of all the places he cared about that once were but no longer are at all. Mix in some rational ideas of how environments can change in real time and make Nolan rely less on special effects and more on illusion and he could make a film where the audience is less certain about what is real and what isn't. DiCaprio's memory would be with him everywhere so he would see his environment with a different lens anyways. The audience would be confused since they were witnessing his perspective. Towards the end in Inception, you see dreams breakdown by things falling apart literally. It's too obvious of a metaphor. This and other special effects is what makes the film less penetrating to my emotional core. It also what makes me think the action sequences will stand out by the end.

[ElPandaRoyal]

I admire the film and Nolan for trying, and it kept me entertained, but there are some issues I have with this, and I think they will only get worse when I see it again, just like what happened with The Dark Knight.

First of all, for a movie that challenges conventions, or so it seems that's what people are saying, there's a shitload of expository dialogue explaining everything that's going to happen, except, of course, when it's not convenient for us to know ahead of time. Right from the start, we know that there are people trained to defend themselves from dream invaders but for some reason, when it turns out that Fischer was trained in dream defense or whatever thay call it, well, Arthur just says "oh, my bad!" and everything proceeds as normal, as if it wasn't, like THE FIRST THING ANYONE IN THOSE CIRCUMSTANCES WOULD DO. I mean, were the guys in the dream be loaded with guns if they didn't think there was a possibility that they could die and never wake up? Well, a couple of rushed lines of dialogue and a guy who desperately needs to get back to his kids should answer that. This is just an example of a moment in the movie when I felt like I was being treated as if I was 5 years old, which was disappointing in a movie with such clever ideas.

But to me, the most serious issue I have with it is the way Nolan compromises some potentially great action sequences by cutting too much. I mean, for a movie that was first presented as something that took place in the architecture of the mind, or something like that, its sense of space frustrated me as well. The fight in the hotel would have been the best action sequence of the year, if only we were able to look at a shot for more than 2 seconds to really appreciate it. Nolan has been doing this since Batman Begins, when it comes to shoot action, and there is absolutelly no sense of what's going on in some scenes. Ditto for the whole snoe dream, which seemed quite generic in its scenes, and could be shot by either Michael Bay or Chris Nolan. Nothing in that whole sequence captivated me the least.

The final 15 minutes or so, however, were quite good in my opinion. I really like DiCaprio and loved the whole thing Cobb had with his wife. I thought the ending was quite powerfull and saved the movie to me. As for the last shot, I have to say I don't really see the problem in it. It can make you question the whole movie, it can make you question only if Cobb is dreaming a life with his kids, or if it's all real or not. To me, like for instance in Shutter Island, each and every movie that has the balls to be so ambiguous these days when everybody needs everything so chewed and ready to eat, deserves all my recognition. Even if in this case everything else feels kind of rushed and sometimes (and I reinforce sometimes) feels, I must say, like any other blockbuster around.

Oh, another thing, does Zimmer really need to use music in almost every fucking scene? It all felt like a monotonous tone that sometimes pissed me off. I hate to be in this position, but it seems like Nolan's most acclaimed movies, his last two, are my least favourite, but that's the way it goes. I may not hate Inception at all, but I also don't see why it's getting as much credit as it is.

[©brad]

I was listening to an a/v podcast on this movie and they brought up an interesting point, that as fun/frustrating as it might be to debate the ending, ultimately it doesn't really matter because it doesn't seem to matter for Cobb. Remember he spins the totem but walks away and never looks back.

Panda I'll agree with you on some of the action. I hate it when action scenes are shot in hand-held close-up as many of Nolan's fights are. I guess only so many directors know how to do fights in masters without cutting every 2 seconds. 

[matt35mm]

I was listening to an a/v podcast on this movie and they brought up an interesting point, that as fun/frustrating as it might be to debate the ending, ultimately it doesn't really matter because it doesn't seem to matter for Cobb. Remember he spins the totem but walks away and never looks back.

This is the main thing that I picked up on when watching it.  I was surprised that the camera even shows the totem again, because I thought the real ending was that Cobb's obsessive checking of reality didn't matter anymore; he was finally with his kids.

[ElPandaRoyal]

I was listening to an a/v podcast on this movie and they brought up an interesting point, that as fun/frustrating as it might be to debate the ending, ultimately it doesn't really matter because it doesn't seem to matter for Cobb. Remember he spins the totem but walks away and never looks back.

This is the main thing that I picked up on when watching it.  I was surprised that the camera even shows the totem again, because I thought the real ending was that Cobb's obsessive checking of reality didn't matter anymore; he was finally with his kids.

Yes. This is what I wanted to say when I commented upon the ending but didn't. Despite my problems with Inception, that final shot really worked for me.