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Inception


Theophany
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I know I said I wasn't going to say anymore, but fuck that. I think this is Nolan's best film by a long shot... better than Dark Knight and even Momento. I consider myself a pretty critical film goer, and I don't like gushing over stuff, but damn. Just about every topic I'm interested was pretty much rolled into this movie; low-tech cyberpunk elements, dreams, dream logic, alternate realities, combat/violence playing out in states of altered physics, espionage, surprises, arresting imagery, manipulation and mind tricks... On top of that, it has a compelling and empathetic main character, solid writing, a premise that is fully developed and realized, solid direction, and energetic pacing. If I had to recommend two movies to anyone from summer 2010, it would be this, and Toy Story 3. If I can afford it, I'm going to see it once or twice more while it's still in theaters. I think it's important to support films like this. They're too few and far between.

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Just saw it. Definitely a good movie. I was on the edge of my seat for a good part of it. I also like how you really had to pay attention to details to really follow what was going on.

Stop reading at this point if you don't want spoilers, I will try to keep it spoiler free but just in case.

However, I think I am going to be in the minority but - for a movie that is about one's dreamworld, I can only describe its imagery as sterile. Boring highrises, beach,.. erm... wait. That is it! Those are the only settings you pretty much get to see. None of the settings are particularly dreamlike. Even the trippy clever effect introduced at the beginning of the movie never really come to the forefront or get used in a way that has any kind of impact. And for being in a dream, the characters are still very much bound by normal laws of physics, with very few exceptions. Even 'projections' act like normal people. Unlike some other movies that ask you to suspend disbelief, this one asks you to suspend imagination.

Now, some might think this is not fair, but to me, this movie was more Vanilla Sky than the Matrix.

It was good. Just not great. And by far not groundbreaking in any way. So lets not blow it out of proportion, shall we?

EDIT: Nolan is great at grounding a fantasy world in reality, as he has done in Batman and Prestige. I just don't think he has the feel and imagination for creating fantasy settings.

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you liked the dark knight but you didn't like batman begins???

I am confuse

Well, I didn't mind Batman Begins, but I hated Dark Knight. The only thing I liked about it was Heath Ledgers' performance... other than that, it was very, very vanilla for me. I don't feel that any of the other actors could even hold a candle to Heath's work in that movie, and it suffered for it. That and the fact I just didn't like the movie...

THAT SAID, I cannot WAIT to see Inception... it looks absolutely brilliant. Just from the trailer, which may I add, ISN'T like every other trailer out there and does nothing to give anything away (good thing), it looks gobsmackingly stunning and very intelligent.

Can't wait.

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Inception was a great movie. Not mind-blowingly incredible but it was not just good; it was great/top-notch/impressive. I think its a must-see for anyone looking for a thoughtful, intelligent movie with clever twists and ideas.

some notes: SPOILARZ-kinda

That final multi-stage "kick" at the end seemed like it was dying for a trippy "focus on one person as they are thrown through the various stages of the 'kick' in one long shot" but it never came and it made me sad.

Also, the ambiguity in the ending isn't done terribly well because if "it" didn't fall, it kind of defeats the whole point of his final revelation. It was his realization that the real-world was the most important and ultimately his kids were there to ground him in that reality. I appreciate that there are several ways of looking at it (he could just be further into the dreamworld so he imagines his kids' faces) but that just makes it dumb.

The fact that they got him to start killing off his own self-conscious was pretty clever.

END SPOILARZ-kinda

It was a great movie.

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I was very pleased with the movie. Agreed that the hotel fights were amazing. Also I think Mal is one of my favorite movie antagonist's

Spoiler alert:

Im just sad that the ending ended like it did. For me I felt like it was the last thing thought of and Nolan just slapped the you "decide what happened" ending... a bit of a cop out in my opinion.

Movies that have a rushed ending make me sad since its the most important part of a story or movie.

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I'm ready to boycott the Alien prequel too when it comes out. Haven't these franchises suffered enough?

Now who's ready for Inception 2?

A. Alien prequel? I'd at least be hopeful.

B. Predator could make a come-back provided they have it take place in medieval times, or some early historic era. We all know everyone wants it.

B. No Inception 2 please. Or at least, not a continuation... The ending was perfect.

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A. Alien prequel? I'd at least be hopeful.

B. Predator could make a come-back provided they have it take place in medieval times, or some early historic era. We all know everyone wants it.

B. No Inception 2 please. Or at least, not a continuation... The ending was perfect.

A: learn your alphabet.

B: I swear to god if they make an Inception 2 I will burn down every last goddamn movie theatre in North America. Then shoot up Hitler's face.

C: Inception was sex.

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spoilers?

Stop reading at this point if you don't want spoilers, I will try to keep it spoiler free but just in case.

However, I think I am going to be in the minority but - for a movie that is about one's dreamworld, I can only describe its imagery as sterile. Boring highrises, beach,.. erm... wait. That is it! Those are the only settings you pretty much get to see. None of the settings are particularly dreamlike. Even the trippy clever effect introduced at the beginning of the movie never really come to the forefront or get used in a way that has any kind of impact. And for being in a dream, the characters are still very much bound by normal laws of physics, with very few exceptions. Even 'projections' act like normal people. Unlike some other movies that ask you to suspend disbelief, this one asks you to suspend imagination.

i completely agree with this. i thought the dreamworlds were too tame, even considering the fact that they were trying to ground them in reality or whatever. they rarely felt like actual dreams, and the city-bending stuff that happened early on never really came full circle despite the fact that it had huge potential, which was a bit disappointing. i also felt like the plot was not quite as "complex" or "mindbending" or whatever as the pre-release hype and trailers had made me believe, but i guess that's not really the film's fault. it felt like it touched on a few really fascinating issues but never fully delved into them.

i also think the pacing was sort of shitty. big chunks of it (like 30 minute chunks) felt like montages, and there wasn't much breathing room, which is sort of rough in a movie that's 2 and a half hours long. i felt like the characters weren't really developed as a result - we were just kind of dragged along from event to event without much regard to who these people are or any of that.

but i actually really enjoyed it despite all that. i dunno if i'd call the action sequences "groundbreaking," but they were incredibly well done, and it was a really exciting movie overall. some very cool concepts and ideas were brought to the table, which was nice. so it was really cool. but i thought it was shallower than i wanted it to be, which was a shame. it had a lot of potential to address some pretty crazy shit, but i think it came up a bit short. it succeeded way more as an action movie than anything else, i think.

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I heard one bad review before this that said things like:

"How many times is the driver side window gonna get shot out"

and

"Why did Cobb drop the drugs in the drink when the stewardess was visibly in on it too?"

now... adding on to that... I'm hearing people mention a lack of trippy dream stuff and I have to agree with that too. I found myself thinking: 'wow, there's a lot of solidly created things in this dream world, like a photo in a wallet carried away from a bar and examined in an elevator... all of that was in his head in this dream world after it had nothing to do with him anymore?'

I've heard comparisons to Paprika too, which, I thought was fair for story elements but that's about as far as the comparison goes. Maybe if it had more crazy inflated teddy bear parades people would've liked it more? Who had time for that kind of surreality with a storyline as direct as this one. Hell... personally I think the level of surreality was perfect, and anyone wishing it had more was wishing for a different movie. Of COURSE the trailer was going to have the cool stuff in it.

Also there will be way more content. I'm guessing about an hour of director's cut content on the DVD. Think about it. Ellen engraving the bottom of the pawn? Where did that go?

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B. No Inception 2 please. Or at least, not a continuation... The ending was perfect.

Eh, that was the joke. I'm not a huge fan of sequels to awesome movies. Matrix trilogy is a good example. Predator too. Aliens was pretty solid, and Alien 3 wasn't terrible, but everything beyond that including the AVP horse shit just destroyed everything cool about both Alien and Predator. I love Ridley Scott, but he's made pretty much nothing noteworthy since Gladiator so I don't have a lot of hope :(

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