Inception - Chris Nolan + Leo DiCaprio = best movie of the summer?

I am immune to spoilers, I am not sperglord when it comes to those. I can enjoy a movie even when knowing serious spoilers. That said I have not opened any spoilers.

i shall be watching this later today

  On 7/20/2010 at 11:34 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

btw anyone who is still reading this thread and hasn't seen this flick yet is pretty weird, even non-spoilers are bound to be spoilers at this point

seriously.... wtf is my problem?

uh oh, sneaky is almost at 10k posts

  On 7/20/2010 at 8:05 AM, jefferoo said:

saw it tonight.

pretty pretty pretty good.

Definitely original and entertaining. Quite a refreshment after seeing so much junk lately. I always dig a movie that makes you think.

 

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I really liked the whole dream within a dream within a dream bit and was happy to see they took it one step further. the time shift element was awesome too! I did start to get a bit bored with all of the shooting and blowing things up in the snowy mountain fort dream.

also, I didn't really buy the relationship between dicaprio and cotilard. I kept thinking that they didn't have much chemistry and if I was him I would fucking stab her in my dream just to get her to leave me alone. everything else was pretty cool by me. It was actually the first movie I've seen with Juno girl in it where I didn't want to punch her in the head. The Indian actor from Drag Me To Hell kinda bugs me a tad though.

The British actor who played the forgery artist was awesome. JGL was solid as always.

 

My take on the ending was that Cobb and Saito are still asleep on the plane. It leaves a good opportunity for a sequel. "Can they get out?"

 

My gf really liked it too but was wondering if the whole movie was a dream because of the beginning with Saito as an old man saying how he thought he knew dicaprio or something like that. You know what i mean.

What do you think? Could the whole thing have been a dream?

 

 

this thread is filled with far too many people who (for some reason) didn't seem to "get it" or are disappointed because they expected the most amazing film ever, apparently.

IMO:

• it totally justified the 2h30m runtime, w/ barely any filler
  
• it had a perfect amount of head fuck factor, but i still walked out of the theater with a firm grasp on what happened (a/k/a not like Lost).
  
• I thought the acting was good
  
• the score was great
  
• it was action-packed, but not action overload (a/k/a gender-neutral)
  

  On 7/20/2010 at 8:48 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

the pin

i know you didnt mean "the pin" from brick but he was in inception too. dragged from the helicopter early on.

  On 7/20/2010 at 3:41 PM, iamabe said:

 

 

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it's possible that Cobb and Saito remain in limbo for decades in their shitty dream world. But why is Saito so old and Cobb is mostly unchanged? (Also how weird is it when Hollywood gets actors to wear shitloads of makeup to make them look fucking old?)

 

  On 7/20/2010 at 4:37 PM, Benedict Cumberbatch said:

 

 

really enjoyed it! wasn't perfect, but a lot of my favorite movies aren't anyways. I enjoyed the spirit of it all.

Also, mega lol during the previews... the trailer for Devil came on, and everyone was totally engrossed, and buying it, and going along with the concept fine, until the words m night shymalan appear, and the entire theatre bursts into a roar of laughter. NO one takes him seriously anymore. lol

8/10

I tried to go in with no expectations; more or less a requirement now when I hear a movie being advertised as a mind-fuck. A lot of people have very easily fucked minds these days. Inception was pretty damn good and one of the better "big/summer" movies I've seen in a while. Compared to something like Avatar, it's nice to see an action movie that wants you to have an attention span. Nolan's always been good with that.

His movies, though, are often almost always too insular and hermetic, and they do well at exploring the games that they've set up but fall short of greatness because of that. The Dark Knight had some lovely chaos at its heart (thanks, Heath) but still was so bloody intent on making its thematic concerns explicit in the plot, and Inception's world is so rule-bound. Still, that intentional ambiguity at the core of Inception was nice. I hated the 50 or so people pouring out of the theater with baffled expressions and exclamations ("zomg how many dream layers? 4? No, nine?") and loud vows to watch and re-watch the movie so that they can answer "was he or wasn't he?" Hate. Fucking cretins.

But I love that Nolan had the guts not to condescend to that.

Edit: I might bump the rating up by .5 in the future; I really did enjoy this quite a bit.

Edit 2: Solarbabies 10/10

heat

  On 7/20/2010 at 8:03 PM, Kcinsu said:

Also, mega lol during the previews... the trailer for Devil came on, and everyone was totally engrossed, and buying it, and going along with the concept fine, until the words m night shymalan appear, and the entire theatre bursts into a roar of laughter. NO one takes him seriously anymore. lol

rofl

  On 7/20/2010 at 8:19 PM, baph said:

His movies, though, are often almost always too insular and hermetic, and they do well at exploring the games that they've set up but fall short of greatness because of that. The Dark Knight had some lovely chaos at its heart (thanks, Heath) but still was so bloody intent on making its thematic concerns explicit in the plot, and Inception's world is so rule-bound. Still, that intentional ambiguity at the core of Inception was nice. I hated the 50 or so people pouring out of the theater with baffled expressions and exclamations ("zomg how many dream layers? 4? No, nine?") and loud vows to watch and re-watch the movie so that they can answer "was he or wasn't he?" Hate. Fucking cretins.

I liked that the dark knight was explicit about its themes. there was a beauty in that clarity. I think it was done just right - he didnt beat you over the head with the themes. The monologue at the end is a perfect conclusion.

Also, the first time I saw the movie I was in the front fucking row, craning my neck up 60 degrees and the thing was so close I could hardly see wtf was going on. In that situation I think it's forgivable to have to see the movie a second time to understand what happened

just got out of the cinema from seeing this. awesome film. easily the best of the year for me.

made me cry (promises of growing old together)

  On 7/20/2010 at 8:30 PM, iamabe said:

 

 

I liked that the dark knight was explicit about its themes. there was a beauty in that clarity. I think it was done just right - he didnt beat you over the head with the themes.

are you fucking kidding? That ( and not to mention Bale's forced gruff voice and cgi-face rushed 3rd character bad guy tack-on) was why i couldn't get into Dark Knight, the 'everybody has evil inside of them' theme was so heavy handed it was cartoonish and *unable to be taken seriously. The climax with the whole dueling boats was comical where the prisoner in one boat decides to sacrifice and throws the remote out, it makes me cringe to think about.

  On 7/20/2010 at 8:32 PM, Awepittance said:

  On 7/20/2010 at 8:30 PM, iamabe said:

 

 

I liked that the dark knight was explicit about its themes. there was a beauty in that clarity. I think it was done just right - he didnt beat you over the head with the themes.

 

are you fucking kidding? That ( and not to mention Bale's forced gruff voice and cgi-face rushed 3rd character bad guy tack-on) was why i couldn't get into Dark Knight, the 'everybody has evil inside of them' theme was so heavy handed it was cartoonish and able to be taken seriously. The climax with the whole dueling boats was comical where the prisoner in one boat decides to sacrifice and throws the remote out, it makes me cringe to think about.

lol. no, i'm not kidding. The Dark Knight is elegant. It sets up batman as a hated, misunderstood vigilante perfectly. and come on, there's some great humanity in that boat scene.

I feel like ranking Nolan's films.

Prestige 10/10

The Dark Knight 9/10

Memento 7/10

Inception 7/10

Batman Begins 6/10 (highly overrated, aggravating camera work, etc.)

  On 7/20/2010 at 8:30 PM, iamabe said:

  On 7/20/2010 at 8:03 PM, Kcinsu said:

Also, mega lol during the previews... the trailer for Devil came on, and everyone was totally engrossed, and buying it, and going along with the concept fine, until the words m night shymalan appear, and the entire theatre bursts into a roar of laughter. NO one takes him seriously anymore. lol

 

rofl

 

  On 7/20/2010 at 8:19 PM, baph said:

His movies, though, are often almost always too insular and hermetic, and they do well at exploring the games that they've set up but fall short of greatness because of that. The Dark Knight had some lovely chaos at its heart (thanks, Heath) but still was so bloody intent on making its thematic concerns explicit in the plot, and Inception's world is so rule-bound. Still, that intentional ambiguity at the core of Inception was nice. I hated the 50 or so people pouring out of the theater with baffled expressions and exclamations ("zomg how many dream layers? 4? No, nine?") and loud vows to watch and re-watch the movie so that they can answer "was he or wasn't he?" Hate. Fucking cretins.

 

Also, the first time I saw the movie I was in the front fucking row, craning my neck up 60 degrees and the thing was so close I could hardly see wtf was going on. In that situation I think it's forgivable to have to see the movie a second time to understand what happened

Oh no, don't get me wrong; if you missed something the first time for whatever reason (it's 2.5 hours, so there are many potential reasons, not the least of which is letting your mind wander from the plot whilst thinking of an interesting question raised or a bit of dialog, etc) there's nothing wrong with re-watching.

I'm talking about the folks who sat through it all and were maddened/upset that the image at the end of the movie was intentionally ambiguous and think that there's some way to string the pieces together to resolve that, and apparently think that doing so would not be missing the entire point.

  On 7/20/2010 at 8:44 PM, iamabe said:

  On 7/20/2010 at 8:32 PM, Awepittance said:

  On 7/20/2010 at 8:30 PM, iamabe said:

 

 

I liked that the dark knight was explicit about its themes. there was a beauty in that clarity. I think it was done just right - he didnt beat you over the head with the themes.

 

are you fucking kidding? That ( and not to mention Bale's forced gruff voice and cgi-face rushed 3rd character bad guy tack-on) was why i couldn't get into Dark Knight, the 'everybody has evil inside of them' theme was so heavy handed it was cartoonish and able to be taken seriously. The climax with the whole dueling boats was comical where the prisoner in one boat decides to sacrifice and throws the remote out, it makes me cringe to think about.

 

lol. no, i'm not kidding. The Dark Knight is elegant. It sets up batman as a hated, misunderstood vigilante perfectly. and come on, there's some great humanity in that boat scene.

 

I feel like ranking Nolan's films.

 

Prestige 10/10

The Dark Knight 9/10

Memento 7/10

Inception 7/10

Batman Begins 6/10 (highly overrated, aggravating camera work, etc.)

fair enough, i just think if you have such a high rating for Dark Knight which i consider an extremely flawed messy movie you should cut Inception some more slack. just my opinion man

here are my personal Nolan ratings

Inception 8.5/10

Following 8/10

Memento 8/10

Batman Begins 7.5/10

Prestige /Dark Knight 7/10

Insomnia 6.5/10

  On 7/20/2010 at 3:58 PM, blicero said:

this thread is filled with far too many people who (for some reason) didn't seem to "get it" or are disappointed because they expected the most amazing film ever, apparently.

 

IMO:

• it totally justified the 2h30m runtime, w/ barely any filler
  
• it had a perfect amount of head fuck factor, but i still walked out of the theater with a firm grasp on what happened (a/k/a not like Lost).
  
• I thought the acting was good
  
• the score was great
  
• it was action-packed, but not action overload (a/k/a gender-neutral)
  

lol so we are suppose to have your expectations?

I liked the story and acting, but I think the dreams were handled in a too literal way (basically the trailer showed everything you needed to see in terms of surreal dream sequences/action). Lets face it, the dream element was just a means to create a new matrix film basically, because the worlds the dreams took place in, and the action that took place in those dreams weren't very dream feeling. Nolan could have played around with many elements to create a kind of eternal sunshine thriller, which would have been a lot more interesting, but instead of characters traveling through an actual mind melting maze, we got a slow elevator, city streets, and a snowy mountain. seems pretty unimaginative. Oh and the Sim City Cobb and Mal created... you're a god and you create an empty urban city to live in for 50 years... interesting

I may sound overly critical, but I simply see too many half attempts for such a cool idea. Cause I did enjoy the plot and I was watching intensely throughout... Basically the biggest component to why I am disappointed, is they set it up as an action packed dream world (aka the matrix) but (aside from a few scenes) the action just felt flat. Give me Children Of Men action camerawork with more interesting sets/dream worlds, and I could see this film as a masterpiece. Also some variation in who the bad guys were in the dreams. You'd think if your creating a security system for your mind, you'd make it more confusing/complicated for the perpetrators than call of duty bad guys running at you with pistols. I'm still thinking about the story and some of the striking cinematography and I definitely want to see it again soon.

i know i'm not the first to say this in the thread, but i think if Nolan had gone overboard in the freudian or surrealism department in the realm of dreams the movie wouldn't have felt quite right. I saw a lot of similarities to Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine in terms of the imagery, hyper realism.

and re: Children of Men camerawork. The camerawork in and of itself in that movie was impressive, but what ruined it was the overused Saving Private Ryan frame-skipping filter that makes Children of Men already in 2010 seem like a dated movie. Kind of like how when you watch Fight Club now and wonder why in the late 90s they threw every fucking dark or edgy movie through a green filter. I liked Children of Men but it's very overhyped often as a masterpiece. I found it to be a high octane action movie with good acting, not much more.

edit2: i also am a little bothered by all the Matrix comparisons. first of all the Matrix was an over stylized fucking fashion fest compared to Inception. Every major character in the Matrix was decked out in sunglasses, leather dusters, knee high boots. Just the most snazzy late 90s action movie fashions. I Didn't get the same offending vibe from Inception. Yeah they wore nice suits, but it was a lot less distracting than watching Lawrence Fishburne looking like a gay goth club patron.

  On 7/20/2010 at 9:53 PM, karmakramer said:

  On 7/20/2010 at 3:58 PM, blicero said:

this thread is filled with far too many people who (for some reason) didn't seem to "get it" or are disappointed because they expected the most amazing film ever, apparently.

 

IMO:

• it totally justified the 2h30m runtime, w/ barely any filler
  
• it had a perfect amount of head fuck factor, but i still walked out of the theater with a firm grasp on what happened (a/k/a not like Lost).
  
• I thought the acting was good
  
• the score was great
  
• it was action-packed, but not action overload (a/k/a gender-neutral)
  

 

lol so we are suppose to have your expectations?

 

I liked the story and acting, but I think the dreams were handled in a too literal way (basically the trailer showed everything you needed to see in terms of surreal dream sequences/action). Lets face it, the dream element was just a means to create a new matrix film basically, because the worlds the dreams took place in, and the action that took place in those dreams weren't very dream feeling. Nolan could have played around with many elements to create a kind of eternal sunshine thriller, which would have been a lot more interesting, but instead of characters traveling through an actual mind melting maze, we got a slow elevator, city streets, and a snowy mountain. seems pretty unimaginative. Oh and the Sim City Cobb and Mal created... you're a god and you create an empty urban city to live in for 50 years... interesting

 

I may sound overly critical, but I simply see too many half attempts for such a cool idea. Cause I did enjoy the plot and I was watching intensely throughout... Basically the biggest component to why I am disappointed, is they set it up as an action packed dream world (aka the matrix) but (aside from a few scenes) the action just felt flat. Give me Children Of Men action camerawork with more interesting sets/dream worlds, and I could see this film as a masterpiece. Also some variation in who the bad guys were in the dreams. You'd think if your creating a security system for your mind, you'd make it more confusing/complicated for the perpetrators than call of duty bad guys running at you with pistols. I'm still thinking about the story and some of the striking cinematography and I definitely want to see it again soon.

  On 7/20/2010 at 9:58 PM, Awepittance said:

i know i'm not the first to say this in the thread, but i think if Nolan had gone overboard in the freudian or surrealism department in the realm of dreams the movie wouldn't have felt quite right. I saw a lot of similarities to Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine in terms of the imagery, hyper realism.

 

and re: Children of Men camerawork. The camerawork in and of itself in that movie was impressive, but what ruined it was the overused Saving Private Ryan frame-skipping filter that makes Children of Men already in 2010 seem like a dated movie. Kind of like how when you watch Fight Club now and wonder why in the late 90s they threw every fucking dark or edgy movie through a green filter. I liked Children of Men but it's very overhyped often as a masterpiece. I found it to be a high octane action movie with good acting, not much more.

I'm not talking about super surrealism, Im simply asking for it to have been more surreal feeling. The surreal things that did happen felt too computed and mathematical.

Children of Men created sets and action unlike anything when I saw it in 2006, this didn't for me. Not comparing it overall to Inception, cause they are very different movies.

yeah the only reason i'm bringing matrix and children of men back into the discussion is because i thought Inception was leagues better than both. (and i want to continue defending inception cause ima fan boy)

  On 7/20/2010 at 9:58 PM, Awepittance said:

 

edit2: i also am a little bothered by all the Matrix comparisons. first of all the Matrix was an over stylized fucking fashion fest compared to Inception. Every major character in the Matrix was decked out in sunglasses, leather dusters, knee high boots. Just the most snazzy late 90s action movie fashions. I Didn't get the same offending vibe from Inception. Yeah they wore nice suits, but it was a lot less distracting than watching Lawrence Fishburne looking like a gay goth club patron.

You need to read what I am saying. I'm talking about concept, not style. The Matrix and Inception are very different, as they should be...

  On 7/20/2010 at 10:08 PM, Awepittance said:

yeah the only reason i'm bringing matrix and children of men back into the discussion is because i thought Inception was leagues better than both. (and i want to continue defending inception cause ima fan boy)

lol, Im not comparing them, I'm saying the camerawork in Children of Men would have benefitted the dream sequences cause it would have given a better feeling of personal perspective, instead of Bourne/DarkKnight.

The Inception world basically reminded me too much of Nolan's previous films when each unique dream from each unique dreamer, should have had its own unique feeling/atmosphere. Adding some creepy undertones (Lynch/Kubrick) would have also added a lot to it.