Christopher Nolan's Inception

[Crook]

I realize we're all excited to see Nolan work on new things, but suggesting Batman is beneath him as an artist is getting kinda ridiculous. More than half his work have been adaptations. Every film he's done, while meddling in a few different genres, have all relatively dealt with very particular themes. He's a precise director and clearly a man of vast creative talent. Original or not, Batman as a character fits his sensibilities like a glove.

We all want great movies from him, but let's not pretend like this guy is on Spielberg-levels in churning out original properties on a consistent basis. We should be more worried about whether Nolan repeats material. Despite working on a sequel, he hasn't. I don't remotely feel like I'm missing out on something great when Nolan takes his time to work on Batman. Every film he's done has improved on the predecessor in some form. So I'm quite confident with him working on B3. I have a good feeling he'll elevate things further. It's not about the material, it's about what you do with it.

 

[luke1234]

Not saying Inception was convulted, but I hope that Batman 3 takes a simpler more traditional approach to ending the trilogy with all loose strings tied up.

 

[-Arya-]

Spoiler

However to me it makes much more sense for them to actually lose their grasp of reality while they are asleep in one of the deep dream levels, rather than gradually losing their memory of reality. Hence my theory that when they wake up, that's when they're lost.

Spoiler

Falling asleep in a dream level and waking up, then losing touch with reality. Yeah...that does makes a lot more sense.

 

[Crook]

You do realize that's precisely how the machine even works, right? The person just waking up in the middle of a dream, while not realizing they're dreaming happens about a dozen times in the movie. It's the entire foundation of the dream concept.

 

[rashad]

As quick as the hallway scene was, it was still amazing because I have no clue whatsoever how they pulled that off . Sure it was brief, but I can honestly say I've never seen anything like that.

I loved the action in this film. And that scene was fantastic especially knowing it was all done in camera. Lee Smith's editing was superb during that sequence.

I guess Yusuf should've found a bigger hill to roll down.t:

 

[Electrofarce]

The Five Levels of Inception:

Spoiler

 

[The Shape]

Not to be a debbie downer, but I give it 6/10.

Its a good film, but its not great. Towards the end it becomes muddled down in its own mythology, which it never really takes the time to properly familiarize the audience with (its almost as if The Matrix were to begin moments before Neo goes to speak to the Oracle for the first time).

I'd give it a 7/10 if I felt the ending was the least bit satisfying but instead we are given a shameless set up for a sequel that I compare to Jason jumping out of the lake again at the end of a Friday the 13th movie. Its not clever film making. Its not "letting the audience decide." Its cheap and lazy film making that robs the audience of closure.

That said, the cast and action scenes were amazing. It could've simply used some better story telling.

I was reading through the thread, saw this, and felt I needed to respond.

I don't think your complaints are valid, because much like The Matrix, the first act of Inception is spent introducing the viewer the the mythology of dreams, while the second act involves them planning their inception job down to the last detail. Maybe you missed something along the way that left you confused during the ending, but I'm sure a second viewing could iron that out.

As for the ending, I think there's a lot of things Nolan wanted to accomplish with the ending, and setting up a sequel was absolutely NOT one of them. And your comparison to Friday the 13th is extremely misguided. In F13, we watch Jason get killed, yet he pops up at the end in a moment that makes the viewer go, "Oh, great, he survived." I don't really think that ending is as thought-provoking as Inception's was, since the ending to Inception leaves a few clear-cut possibilities. The ending wasn't the least bit cheap, and you sound like the dude from AICN that was *****ing about it. Some people, like yourself, need closure in a movie ending and that's fine, but Inception just isn't that film. I mean, the ending sort of fits with the theme of the entire film so I think it fits pretty damn well.

 

[-Arya-]

You do realize that's precisely how the machine even works, right? The person just waking up in the middle of a dream, while not realizing they're dreaming happens about a dozen times in the movie. It's the entire foundation of the dream concept.

I thought you were referring to simply sleeping (not using the machine) in a deeper dream level, and then eventually waking up not knowing where he/she is. My mistake.

 

[Anita18]

Despite it been overrated it is none the less still a brilliant movie, the ambiguous ending had the audience booing though. I guess at that stage everyone wanted to know what happened to Cobb.

The more you think about it, the more brilliant you'll realize that cut is. Nolan is asking you why you care what happens to Cobb. You just spent 2.5 hours watching something that isn't real to begin with, because it's a movie.

I realize we're all excited to see Nolan work on new things, but suggesting Batman is beneath him as an artist is getting kinda ridiculous. More than half his work have been adaptations. Every film he's done, while meddling in a few different genres, have all relatively dealt with very particular themes. He's a precise director and clearly a man of vast creative talent. Original or not, Batman as a character fits his sensibilities like a glove.

We all want great movies from him, but let's not pretend like this guy is on Spielberg-levels in churning out original properties on a consistent basis. We should be more worried about whether Nolan repeats material. Despite working on a sequel, he hasn't. I don't remotely feel like I'm missing out on something great when Nolan takes his time to work on Batman. Every film he's done has improved on the predecessor in some form. So I'm quite confident with him working on B3. I have a good feeling he'll elevate things further. It's not about the material, it's about what you do with it.

It might be also arguable that doing a good adaptation is harder than doing original work, because as we saw from Inception, he had the freedom to take the story where he wanted to go. Pleasing Batman fans AND the critics AND the general public is a very high order.

On a more basic level, you're simply taking the premise and characters of another work and molding them into your own version of their story. For The Prestige they basically took everything out and added to the story they wanted to tell. They must be glad that the book didn't have a lot of crazy fans like Harry Potter.

Besides, some of our greatest films (not counting TDK ) have been adaptations. The Godfather? Shawshank Redemption? The Shining? LOTR?

 

[luke1234]

The Five Levels of Inception:

Spoiler

Ah yes, this helps

 

[Assassin32]

I can't find the screenplay anywhere. Is it available online?

 

[Mr. Earle]

So if there is a timer that shuts down the machine, why would someone lose himself in limbo forever? At some point time would run out and he'd be back to reality.

 

[JP]

So if there is a timer that shuts down the machine, why would someone lose himself in limbo forever? At some point time would run out and he'd be back to reality.

But you would still be trapped down there until the timer runs out. You'd be old, alone, and miserable for decades upon decades.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Earle no offense, but come on, you haven't even seen the film. You should feel guilty to have caved in. I would hate myself for doing that. There's nothing worse than watching a film and knowing everything that will happen. The magic is gone.

 

[Anita18]

Earle no offense, but come on, you haven't even seen the film. You should feel guilty to have caved in. I would hate myself for doing that. There's nothing worse than watching a film and knowing everything that will happen. The magic is gone.

Well, I dunno about Nolan's movies. The construction is used just so, that you can find a lot of things to ponder on and enjoy even though you know the entire story going in.

If you knew about Sixth Sense's twist going in, there's nothing else much to ponder on besides looking for the clues that Shyamalan drops in the movie. Here, you can keep on pondering because it's just THAT ambiguous.

But seriously Mr. Earle, those plot things really are minor details that don't have anything to do with Inception's core story.

 

[Christopher Nolan]

still it takes all the excitement...

 

[rashad]

I can't find the screenplay anywhere. Is it available online?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/16...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1608870154

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

Reading up about Inception ruins the movie. Just go in with blinders on and enjoy but please don't wear the rose-colored Nolan glasses that some of his fans do. Judge the movie fairly and decide if you dig it or not. I dug it. It's a movie I can't stop thinking about. (partly because it's so f**king confusing)

I don't understand the arguements that the ending is a cheat. Whats so cheaty (a made up word, I know) about the ending? It's a fun ending that has you questioning everything that just happened. The movie is about questioning reality so it fits. It doesn't feel cheap or tacked on at all too me.

I think that it is valid to criticize the movie's never ending expostion and Ellen Paige's so-so performance but the ending and the fact that the dreams don't look surreal? I just don't understand those criticisims.

 

[Solidus]

I may be off of what your saying. But the dreams are not suppose to look surreal. They are suppose to trick the mark that it is reality. That is the point.

That and besides a few dreams, most of mine usually happen from places of memory in my dreams.

As for the exposition, it was needed, creating a whole new world with its own rules and regulations you need such things. That and it still allows for so much uncertainty and theories which is good.

 

[Mace Dolex]

A few pages back I had called the movie a POS but only because the film was still fresh in my mind and was typing what I felt at the moment, but....

....after reading a more simplified plot over on wikipedia the movie made more sense to me, it's one of those films that requires more than one viewing, I still stand by on not considering it the best film of the year (let's be realistic here), the film is just about 30 minutes too long.

 

[Assassin32]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/16...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1608870154

Well, yeah, but I meant for free.

 

[luke1234]

Reading up about Inception ruins the movie. Just go in with blinders on and enjoy but please don't wear the rose-colored Nolan glasses that some of his fans do. Judge the movie fairly and decide if you dig it or not. I dug it. It's a movie I can't stop thinking about. (partly because it's so f**king confusing)

I don't understand the arguements that the ending is a cheat. Whats so cheaty (a made up word, I know) about the ending? It's a fun ending that has you questioning everything that just happened. The movie is about questioning reality so it fits. It doesn't feel cheap or tacked on at all too me.

I think that it is valid to criticize the movie's never ending expostion and Ellen Paige's so-so performance but the ending and the fact that the dreams don't look surreal? I just don't understand those criticisims.

Really? I thought she was one of the better performances that kept Cobb's character grounded in reality. I thought her and Leo had really good Teacher/Student chemistry.

And as for the movie being 30 minutes too long? I believe this film could of easily went to three hours with the butt load of information we kept getting.

 

[Christopher Nolan]

still it takes all the excitement...

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I'm not saying she ruined the movie or was terrible I was just eh about her performance.

Er Solidus, I said that I didn't understand the criticisms of how the dreamworld looks because it made sense for it too look real in order to fool the dreamer.

You completely misunderstood what I was saying because I was defending the movie.

 

[luke1234]

I'm not saying she ruined the movie or was terrible I was just eh about her performance.

gotcha,
though each character was rather short-lived in this movie, I thought every actor brought their A game to their part, which definitely helped the viewer engage more directly into this sporadic plot.