Christopher Nolan's "Inception" (We're giving up on spoiler tags) [Archive] - Page 8

Pop Trash

12-22-2010, 05:09 PM

How so with Resnais?

I've only seen his early films (namely Hiroshima, Mon Amour and Last Year at Mirambad), but Nolan's free, timeless editing is similar to Resnais (Malick and Wong Kar Wai also employ this style). Not only will there be the noted "dreams within dreams," but he also puts brief flashbacks of Mal in there, implying only a first person memory from Cobb. So it goes even beyond "dreams within dreams" it becomes "memories within dreams within dreams." It's a narrative/cinematic version of mirrors pointing at mirrors (which Nolan also deftly uses in the early dream with Ariadne and Cobb).

This time around, I also really liked the repeating motif of Cobb's kids. Not only are there more "memories within dreams" of Cobb remembering seeing his kids, his kids will pop up in the dreams, implying that his memories are infecting his dreams. Nolan blocks this brilliantly by always having the kids pointing in the same direction (a two shot only showing the backs of their heads, and I believe they are holding hands and running away from the direction of Cobb, but I might be wrong about that...funny how memory works).

Pop Trash

12-23-2010, 09:17 PM

Furthur thoughts on the second half:

-I still don't quite get the "snow fortress" dream. Who designed that? Ariadne? And is it ever explained why that dream needed to be so violent with shit getting blowed up real good? Is it just to satisfy the needs of the action movie audience?

-I'm sure this was addressed in previous posts but what is the deal with the Limbo and the old man make-up Saito? Did Cobb stay down there for "fifty" years until he woke up and Saito aged but he didn't or something?

-Hans Zimmer's music isn't nearly as "WHOOMPY" as people suggest. I think people are thinking of the trailer and not the film itself. I found the music often quite pretty and stirring this time around, and I'm not sure if I care how much actual music knowledge Zimmer has if the results are good.

number8

12-24-2010, 12:23 AM

-I still don't quite get the "snow fortress" dream. Who designed that? Ariadne? And is it ever explained why that dream needed to be so violent with shit getting blowed up real good? Is it just to satisfy the needs of the action movie audience?

Yeah. The fortress was there to make it look like it was an extraction job, to fool Fischer. The explosion was just the kick necessary to get back up a level.

-I'm sure this was addressed in previous posts but what is the deal with the Limbo and the old man make-up Saito? Did Cobb stay down there for "fifty" years until he woke up and Saito aged but he didn't or something?

Saito went into limbo for like, what, 5 minutes before the rest of them did, because he died in the fortress. Those minutes were decades in there.

transmogrifier

12-24-2010, 02:20 AM

I wrote this in another thread about the ending of Inception:

I mean, if it was truly not important what the reality of the final scene was because Leo had found happiness, the top should never have been set spinning - I mean, after he has hugged his kids, he will walk back in and find it either spinning or not, and thus have it answered for him. But Nolan can't resist the gimmick just to leave the audience in the dark for no thematically logical reason

I'm interested in what others think - to me it is a case of Nolan playing to the audience at the expense of the internal logic of his film and the main character. He should of just had DiCaprio lay the top down when he left the room. But Nolan the showman couldn't resist.

[ETM]

12-24-2010, 03:42 AM

My personal reading is that Nolan is performing "inception" with the final scene - leaving it unknown if the tap kept spinning or not mirrors the scene earlier in the movie (I haven't read anywhere that this connection was made, which is odd) when Cobb does it to his wife in Limbo - he finds her secret spot and her totem, spins it, and immediately closes the door of the safe. I completely forgot about that the first time I watched the film, but when I made the connection, I thought it was really subtle and elegant: in a shared Limbo, that hiding place is somewhere in her subconscious... whether the top fell or not doesn't matter, it's her totem anyway, and it determines if she's dreaming or not. But by leaving it in that state of neither/nor, like Schrödinger's cat, it creates doubt.

The natural and most common reaction to the ending by an average person is just that - you start doubting pretty much the entire film, and the little bits that Nolan threw here and there, which didn't seem to have that much impact on the main plot during the film itself, start to become interesting: Cobb's failed spin after being sedated by Yousuf in Mombassa... the fact that the movie begins with the slowed-down Piaf song, which, in the movie's reality, signals the end of the dream to the extractor - "you're waking up from the dream, and this film is reality"? Then starts the looking for differences in the kids' clothes, and all the other fun stuff we've been doing in this thread.

In the end, I don't think there's a "preferred" reading of the film - it's a quite engaging, exciting experience when taken at face value, and Nolan's little nod in the end just makes it more enjoyable, in a "oh, you cheeky, clever rascal, you, Nolan" way, not some clue towards the "true meaning" of it all.

Fezzik

12-29-2010, 12:52 PM

;312281']
In the end, I don't think there's a "preferred" reading of the film - it's a quite engaging, exciting experience when taken at face value, and Nolan's little nod in the end just makes it more enjoyable, in a "oh, you cheeky, clever rascal, you, Nolan" way, not some clue towards the "true meaning" of it all.

This is pretty much my exact reaction to the ending the first time I saw it, except I think I lovingly called him a bastard after the screen went black :D

Mara

02-12-2011, 12:27 AM

This is pretty much my exact reaction to the ending the first time I saw it, except I think I lovingly called him a bastard after the screen went black :D

Oh, hi, I just watched this. Yeah, I'm always late to the party, but my auditory processing issues mean that I know better than to try and watch a complex film in the theaters. I need subtitles. I was right with this one-- there's no way I would have been able to catch what everyone was saying above the (pretty dominant) score.

Anyhoo, I figured out about halfway through that we were going to end on a shot of that damn top spinning. And my take was that Cobb was planning on watching it to see if it fell before allowing himself to see his children's faces, but when they turned around it was so cathartic for him that suddenly the top didn't matter to him anymore. The camera lingered because it still matters to us as viewers. But I still said, "Oh, Chris, that isn't nice."

But the top wasn't going to fall. Because it was in a film. Films aren't real. I'm glad I'm here to clear this up for you.

Anyway, I enjoyed the film, although I think I'll rewatch one more time before sending it back to make sure I caught all the great stuff. I think Nolan has excellent taste in actors, and every time a new face showed up, I was glad to see them.

So, one question, and I'm not going to page back sixty pages to see if it's been covered, sorry. It's about the kicks.

In dream level one, there are two kicks where they try to wake everyone up-- one when the van begins falling, and one when it hits the water. Meanwhile, Arthur is on level two and everyone else are on level three and in limbo. I guess the reason that the first kick didn't pull everyone back to the van is because they were one level removed... right? You can wake someone from more than one level down. But if that's so, why didn't at least Arthur wake up when the van started dropping? He was only one level removed.

I'm not complaining-- Arthur in non-gravitational space was some of my favorite stuff from the film, and side note, when did Joseph Gordon-Levitt get so hot? He was gorgeous in this.

megladon8

02-12-2011, 02:46 AM

chrisnu

02-12-2011, 03:10 AM

side note, when did Joseph Gordon-Levitt get so hot? He was gorgeous in this.
See Mysterious Skin.

Qrazy

02-12-2011, 02:44 PM

Joseph Gordon Levitt was gorgeous, I agree.

Very snazzily dressed.

I'm jealous of slim, lanky guys when it comes to wearing suits. Guys who are stockier or more muscular in build tend to look fat in a suit. See Michael Jai White in The Dark Knight.

Nah they just need a new tailor.

In answer to Mara's question the van hitting the water is the kick that wakes people up. The van falling is just the beginning of the kick. It signals to everyone further in the dreams that it's time to start waking up because if they're too far down when the van actually hits the water they won't wake up at all.

Mara

02-12-2011, 03:35 PM

In answer to Mara's question the van hitting the water is the kick that wakes people up. The van falling is just the beginning of the kick. It signals to everyone further in the dreams that it's time to start waking up because if they're too far down when the van actually hits the water they won't wake up at all.

Hm. I'll have to watch it again. I was under the impression that the fact that they didn't wake up when the van started to fall was a mistake, since Arthur was supposed to kick them back to level 2 before they lost gravity (hence the clever and convoluted elevator plan.) Also, when they saw the avalanche in level three, they all panicked and said, "We missed it!"

number8

02-12-2011, 03:46 PM

I'm jealous of slim, lanky guys when it comes to wearing suits. Guys who are stockier or more muscular in build tend to look fat in a suit. See Michael Jai White in The Dark Knight.

Tom Hardy looked fine.

number8

02-12-2011, 03:48 PM

Hm. I'll have to watch it again. I was under the impression that the fact that they didn't wake up when the van started to fall was a mistake, since Arthur was supposed to kick them back to level 2 before they lost gravity (hence the clever and convoluted elevator plan.) Also, when they saw the avalanche in level three, they all panicked and said, "We missed it!"

You got it right. Yusuf specifically said that the water is a safety net. If they couldn't sync on the van crashing through the bridge fence, they have a second chance when the van hits the water.

Spun Lepton

02-12-2011, 03:49 PM

Nah they just need a new tailor.

In answer to Mara's question the van hitting the water is the kick that wakes people up. The van falling is just the beginning of the kick. It signals to everyone further in the dreams that it's time to start waking up because if they're too far down when the van actually hits the water they won't wake up at all.

Incorrect. It's the sense of falling that wakes them out of the dream, and they must be conscious inside the level that they are falling in to be affected by it.

The team was supposed to have come out of the 2nd level BEFORE Yusuf sent the van over the bridge, and that fall was supposed to pull them all the way out of the dream state, back to reality. Since they were mired in a clusterfuck, the timing was off. Yusuf sends the van over the bridge too soon.

Arthur even says, "Too soon!" when he hears the cue music. The music was supposed to be Arthur's cue to drop the group on the 2nd level, sending them up to the 1st level.

Cobb mentions there will be a second kick when the van hits the water. (Freefall, then slamming into the water, gravity would drop them again.)

They never get out of the 1st level with the last kick. So, they probably went and found a building and jumped off, or something.

Plothole: Yusuf should've been kicked out of the first level when he dropped the van, but he's wasn't. I think Nolan tried to cover this plothole as best he could, because Yusuf needed to still be asleep and dreaming for everybody to remain on that level, since it was his dream.

There's another relatively large plothole that I noticed on, like, the 4th viewing.

Cobb and Mal are stuck in Limbo for around 50-some years in dreamtime, but HOW they're stuck down there is glossed over a bit. If the train was what kicked them out, why wait 50 years before doing it? Ariadne and Fischer escape limbo with a kick, too, so why the 50 years?

It could've been easily explained with a line of dialogue or two, so I wonder if there was a better explanation that was cut from the final edit.

Mara

02-12-2011, 04:13 PM

Tom Hardy looked fine.

I find him annoyingly generic-looking. I've seen him in a couple of films, and seen probably dozens of pictures of him, but I never recognize him from one time to the next. Sometimes I even got confused who he was during the course of the film.

Right now, I can't picture him in my mind's eye. For some reason, his face and features hold no interest for me.

And any man can look good in a suit as long as it's well-tailored to his size and build, which can be tricky. Waistcoats, however, only look good on really thin men.

Stockier and bulkier men look better than thin men in thin, unlayered clothing, like t-shirts.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/2c3b43337a8ff976_josephgordonl evitt_3.jpg

"I am dapper and handsome."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/joseph-gordon-levitt-uncertainty.jpg

"I have no body."

Mara

02-12-2011, 04:15 PM

Plothole: Yusuf should've been kicked out of the first level when he dropped the van, but he's wasn't. I think Nolan tried to cover this plothole as best he could, because Yusuf needed to still be asleep and dreaming for everybody to remain on that level, since it was his dream.

Yeah, as soon as the van started dropping, Yusuf should have woken up completely, and Arthur should have kicked up to level one.

There are a number of either plot holes or unexplained gaps, but with a plot this complex, you just kind of go with it. It is what it is.

Spun Lepton

02-12-2011, 04:47 PM

Yeah, as soon as the van started dropping, Yusuf should have woken up completely, and Arthur should have kicked up to level one.

There are a number of either plot holes or unexplained gaps, but with a plot this complex, you just kind of go with it. It is what it is.

Yup. Picking out the plotholes doesn't have much effect on my enjoyment.

Qrazy

02-12-2011, 05:06 PM

Incorrect. It's the sense of falling that wakes them out of the dream, and they must be conscious inside the level that they are falling in to be affected by it.

The team was supposed to have come out of the 2nd level BEFORE Yusuf sent the van over the bridge, and that fall was supposed to pull them all the way out of the dream state, back to reality. Since they were mired in a clusterfuck, the timing was off. Yusuf sends the van over the bridge too soon.

Arthur even says, "Too soon!" when he hears the cue music. The music was supposed to be Arthur's cue to drop the group on the 2nd level, sending them up to the 1st level.

Cobb mentions there will be a second kick when the van hits the water. (Freefall, then slamming into the water, gravity would drop them again.)

They never get out of the 1st level with the last kick. So, they probably went and found a building and jumped off, or something.

Plothole: Yusuf should've been kicked out of the first level when he dropped the van, but he's wasn't. I think Nolan tried to cover this plothole as best he could, because Yusuf needed to still be asleep and dreaming for everybody to remain on that level, since it was his dream.

No I don't agree with this interpretation. Yusuf should not have been kicked out of the dream. You have to experience the falling from the above layer, so Yusuf would have to experience it IRL to wake up. This is established at the beginning of the film when Cobb falls into the bathtub to wake up in an upper layer and later in training when JGL is woken up from a dream by being pushed in a chair. So really the plothole is more so why Ariadne jumped off that building with Fisher to get out of limbo. But I don't think this is a plothole really because it's established to get out of limbo once you're in it you need to a) be aware you're in a dream and then b) die. Which is kind of funny in a way given that if you die in a level about limbo then you go to limbo but if you die in limbo you get out. I think they jumped off the building to simply kill themselves just as Mal and Cobb killed themselves via train or Cobb and Saito presumably killed themselves later. The jump from the building wasn't a kick.

If shifts in gravity inside a dream woke people up they would have woken up a million times over.

There's another relatively large plothole that I noticed on, like, the 4th viewing.

Cobb and Mal are stuck in Limbo for around 50-some years in dreamtime, but HOW they're stuck down there is glossed over a bit. If the train was what kicked them out, why wait 50 years before doing it? Ariadne and Fischer escape limbo with a kick, too, so why the 50 years?

It could've been easily explained with a line of dialogue or two, so I wonder if there was a better explanation that was cut from the final edit.

For a long time they wanted to be there for that long, then Cobb realized they had to wake up to be with the kids and went about trying to convince Mal to wake up.

Spun Lepton

02-12-2011, 06:48 PM

Well, you're certainly correct about the opening scenes. They do give Cobb the kick on the level above, however, he doesn't wake up until he's submerged and the water starts filling his dream.

Them kicking over Arthur during the tests were there to show that the drug leaves inner-ear functions intact. Arthur does appear to simply be asleep in those instances.

Spinal

02-12-2011, 06:55 PM

People keep claiming that there are all sorts of plotholes, but upon further examination, they all seem to close up.

Mara

02-12-2011, 06:58 PM

People keep claiming that there are all sorts of plotholes, but upon further examination, they all seem to close up.

The van going off the bridge should have kicked Arthur up to level one. I can't see any other way around that.

Spun Lepton

02-12-2011, 07:01 PM

People keep claiming that there are all sorts of plotholes, but upon further examination, they all seem to close up.

Close the one I have spoilered above. I'd like to hear your explanation.

Qrazy

02-12-2011, 07:35 PM

Close the one I have spoilered above. I'd like to hear your explanation.

I just explained it.

Qrazy

02-12-2011, 07:36 PM

The van going off the bridge should have kicked Arthur up to level one. I can't see any other way around that.

In the dream that opens the film Cobb isn't woken up by his chair falling over. He's woken up once he hits the water. It's the same thing with the van. The van going off the bridge is the start, hitting the water is the real major kick.

Spinal

02-12-2011, 07:42 PM

I just explained it.

Yeah, I wasn't clear why that needed further explanation.

megladon8

02-12-2011, 07:43 PM

Yeah, I understood the real "kick" as being the impact of the van hitting the water, not the fall itself.

Mara

02-12-2011, 08:27 PM

...okay, that's not how I understood it. Because they make such a big deal about the inner ear and how the sensation of falling wakes someone up. But I'm going to watch it again anyway, so I'll see how I can read it next time.

Plus, there's no water involved at all in the kick from level three to level two (the "falling" collapse of the building) and from level two to level one (the "falling" sensation that comes from exploding the elevator down the shaft.)

Qrazy

02-12-2011, 09:00 PM

Ezee E

02-12-2011, 09:06 PM

I always took it like a dream. You never wake up when you're pushed. You wake up when you hit the ground, and you feel yourself even take the hit.

Mara

02-13-2011, 01:46 AM

The water isn't what wakes them up. It's the sensation culminating in the hit. That is to say you wake up the instant before/as you hit.

I can accept that.

Morris Schæffer

02-13-2011, 11:58 AM

and side note, when did Joseph Gordon-Levitt get so hot? He was gorgeous in this.

All actors that were once in 3rd Rock From the Sun have become exceedingly scrumptious.

http://www.cmongethappy.com/images/french_stewart.jpg

http://boston-legal.download-tvshows.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/William-Shatner.jpg

http://infomavensdesktop.files.wordpr ess.com/2010/02/john_lithgow_garp.jpg

http://static.cinemarx.ro/poze/postere/actori/way/Wayne-Knight-7537-65.jpg

:D

Spun Lepton

02-13-2011, 03:47 PM

I just explained it.

I missed that part of your post, my bad. If this was the case, then I was confused about their motivation. I thought they'd taken a sedative in order to explore limbo, but then found themselves stuck there.

Viewing number 5, here I come ...

DavidSeven

02-13-2011, 06:35 PM

I missed that part of your post, my bad. If this was the case, then I was confused about their motivation. I thought they'd taken a sedative in order to explore limbo, but then found themselves stuck there.

Viewing number 5, here I come ...

They lost their grip of what was real and what was not, and this was partly attributed to Mal's desire to stay in limbo. Cobb performed "inception" on Mal (convincing her their world wasn't real) in order to get her to leave with him. Essentially, the same sort of thing that happened to Saito and Cobb at the end of the film. They weren't stuck; they just had to come to terms with the fact that they were dreaming in order to leave, and the deeper you are, the harder it becomes.

Skitch

02-13-2011, 07:23 PM

I thought we gave up on spoiler tags. :lol:

Now that Akira has found its way into my collection, Inception is the next blu I'll be in the hunt for. Only seen it once in theater, and I'm really looking forward to seeing again.

MadMan

02-14-2011, 07:58 PM

Btw, as much as I love Inception I'd like to point out that Dreamscape in some ways did the whole "Entering people's dreams bit" back in the 1980s :P

Spun Lepton

02-14-2011, 08:28 PM

Btw, as much as I love Inception I'd like to point out that Dreamscape in some ways did the whole "Entering people's dreams bit" back in the 1980s :P

With much less success. :P

MadMan

02-14-2011, 09:06 PM

With much less success. :PInception-95
Dreamscape-92

I disagree about the "Much Less Success." Perhaps a tad less success ;)

Spun Lepton

02-14-2011, 09:23 PM

Inception-95
Dreamscape-92

I disagree about the "Much Less Success." Perhaps a tad less success ;)

I loved it when it first came out, but I watched it on Netflix recently and was less than jazzed by it. There was some cool dream imagery, but I thought it was pretty meh, otherwise.

Sycophant

02-14-2011, 09:45 PM

Valentine.

http://www.bombdotcom.net/wordpress/shit/cotillardinceptme.jpg

Dukefrukem

02-24-2011, 01:09 PM

I've now come to my senses that there's no way this is winning Best Picture. :(

Morris Schæffer

02-24-2011, 05:33 PM

I've now come to my senses that there's no way this is winning Best Picture. :(

You still believe Nathan Fillion will play Drake so believing Inception will win best pic is peanuts. :)

I'd like to see it also frankly. It would be a great winner.

Dukefrukem

02-24-2011, 05:36 PM

Nathan Fillion WILL play Drake. I'll put $20 on it!!! .. wait...

MadMan

02-25-2011, 08:56 PM

I loved it when it first came out, but I watched it on Netflix recently and was less than jazzed by it. There was some cool dream imagery, but I thought it was pretty meh, otherwise.I watched it this year, and I thought it was just really cool. Kate Campshaw was actually good in it, and not annoying, Dennis Quaid's always been a likable, charasmatic actor, Max Von Sydow is his usual awesome self, and you have Christopher Plummer as the bad guy. Plus what's his name from Green Acres as the president, not to mention what's his name from The Warriors, also. Maybe I just really bought into the concept, 80s cheese and all, but the snakeman was a radical monster and I liked the nightmare dream concept of a world struck by nuclear fallout.

Sycophant, that valentine=hawt.

Duke as much as I love Inception, even if there was no King's Speech it still wouldn't win Best Picture. The Social Network would instead, or True Grit, or even say, Black Swan over it. I'm just glad it got nominated, and its too bad that Nolan got passed over for a director nom.

Dukefrukem

02-27-2011, 02:46 PM

Yeh i realize this now. Next year I will predict movies based on how the academy votes and not which deserves it.

Raiders

02-27-2011, 03:02 PM

Yeh i realize this now. Next year I will predict movies based on how the academy votes and not which deserves it.

But you didn't do either this year.

:P

Dukefrukem

02-27-2011, 03:38 PM

But you didn't do either this year.

:P

Hiyoooo

Dukefrukem

02-28-2011, 11:54 PM

crazy (http://blastr.com/2011/02/matt-damon-explains-exact.php) to think that a movie that was finished filming and released in 2007 conflicted with a movie that was released in late 2009.

Dukefrukem

09-13-2011, 02:40 PM

Intentional?

http://blastr.com/assets_c/2011/09/Inception091311-thumb-550x239-70545.jpg

Fezzik

09-13-2011, 03:45 PM

Intentional?

http://blastr.com/assets_c/2011/09/Inception091311-thumb-550x239-70545.jpg

Nah. And the only reason I say so is that DiCaprio's character was called "Cobb" throughout the film and Murphy's was almost exclusively called "Fischer."

I think its just a coincidence.

Raiders

09-13-2011, 04:01 PM

Brilliant. You could even take out Saito and add in Yusuf and make DREAMY. Layers!

Dukefrukem

09-13-2011, 04:46 PM

Brilliant. You could even take out Saito and add in Yusuf and make DREAMY. Layers!

http://files.sharenator.com/We_need_to_go_deeper_RE_Blond_ Btch_comp-s400x203-120047-580.jpg

Derek

09-13-2011, 04:52 PM

http://kulturelive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Xzibit_AG040.jpg

MadMan

09-13-2011, 06:47 PM

:lol:

Its now official: this movie has been beyond covered to death.

Sycophant

09-13-2011, 08:25 PM

And even if it is intentional? Major meh.

Sycophant

09-13-2011, 08:26 PM

It may well be intentional. And lame. But not intentionally lame?

number8

09-13-2011, 08:48 PM

You gotta include Ariadne and Yusuf. So it should be DREAMS, AY?

MadMan

09-13-2011, 10:39 PM

You gotta include Ariadne and Yusuf. So it should be DREAMS, AY?Just add an "r" and its "Dreams, Ary?"

What that means, I don't know. Or care.

Winston*

09-13-2011, 11:14 PM

You gotta include Ariadne and Yusuf. So it should be DREAMS, AY?

DRAMA, YES!

Lucky

09-14-2011, 05:19 AM

You gotta include Ariadne and Yusuf. So it should be DREAMS, AY?

Or instead of nightmares they were having DAYMARES.

Dead & Messed Up

09-15-2011, 06:28 AM

Or instead of nightmares they were having DAYMARES.

http://old.tehrantimes.com/News/10985/09_BIG%20BANG.jpg

B-side

12-11-2011, 08:06 AM

In the wake of Mark Cousins' assessment of the end of Inception signifying a shared, incredibly intimate dream between four people (most of them strangers to each other), I can't help but create a few allegorical scenarios in my mind, some of which make it feel like a much more profound film in retrospect. I think most here can agree that in the past decade or so, technology in film has been seen as a force of separation. A medium of superficial thrills at the expense of real human contact. I think what Inception does is revise this idea into a slightly more ambivalent one. Though the modern era brings about worldwide financial crises and ADD mindsets, it also features a rapidly expanding manner in which someone from Tajikistan can have a conversation with someone from Detroit, MI without leaving their home. The internet is an idea pile; a plateau in which everyone is on the same level. Technology is the means for these four people to engage in an experience that proves far more intimate and telling than any casual conversation could ever have been. An experience in which people's demons are obstacles to be conquered by you and your group of travelers. Cousins describes their looks on the plane as embarrassed at the intimacy of the dream they just shared, but in that nakedness they've formed a deep relationship and were placed on the same plane of transparency. They look at Cobb red-faced, but knowingly. The chore of tearing away those layers of armor to allow someone in is chipped away as your sub-conscious refuses to be suppressed. Mal is a fluttering phantom of guilt and past transgressions, her repeated appearances a reminder of a past thought to be best forgotten. If Nolan is a product of this modern era, and if this film fed the appetites of teenage boys everywhere looking for something "cool," then fine, but it surely wasn't at the expense of Nolan's artistic integrity. Nolan is an idea man with dementia. A painter with tremors. A photographer who can only shoot in black and white. It's clear to me that The Dark Knight explored important societal territory. Did it do so in the most subtle or elegant of fashions? Absolutely not. Did Inception's exposition suck some of the fun and mystery out of exploring its new dream logic? Yes. But like a troll on a message board or a Tea Party member shouting at a town hall meeting, can he be criticized that much for grabbing a megaphone to shout slogans above the constantly connected masses?

Skitch

12-11-2011, 11:56 AM

I'm not trying to be a dick, but this is the first thing I thought of.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e125/skitchthemovieman/utf-8BdGhpcyBtZWFucyBzb21ldGhpbmcu anBn.jpg

:)

MadMan

12-11-2011, 02:23 PM

I'm not trying to be a dick, but this is the first thing I thought of.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e125/skitchthemovieman/utf-8BdGhpcyBtZWFucyBzb21ldGhpbmcu anBn.jpg

:):lol:

Oh and fantastic review, Brightside-I'm kind of amazed we got one now a year after the movie had been released and this thread had completely de-evolved into cheap but really funny jokes. I rather like your ending:

Absolutely not. Did Inception's exposition suck some of the fun and mystery out of exploring its new dream logic? Yes. But like a troll on a message board or a Tea Party member shouting at a town hall meeting, can he be criticized that much for grabbing a megaphone to shout slogans above the constantly connected masses?I disagree that a troll on a message board is the same as a Tea Party member (and as much as I dislike the Tea Party they have more valid and interesting concerns), but I do agree that in some way Inception was saying more about the modern world than people thought. Your thoughts now make me want to watch the movie again. Well that and the fact that I'm in love with the soundtrack.

Oh and I really hope there isn't a sequel, either, as that would ruin the amazing ending and make that final scene completely moot. I could see them doing a prequel, though :|

B-side

12-12-2011, 05:43 AM

I disagree that a troll on a message board is the same as a Tea Party member (and as much as I dislike the Tea Party they have more valid and interesting concerns)

Well, the idea wasn't to equivocate the two's politics, but rather their manner of action; to be the loudest thing in the room.

MadMan

12-12-2011, 05:45 AM

Well, the idea wasn't to equivocate the two's politics, but rather their manner of action; to be the loudest thing in the room.Oh. Well that makes sense, then.

megladon8

12-12-2011, 07:18 PM

Another watch is in order, but I was surprised watching it home on DVD (my second viewing, the first being theatrical) how poorly this held up.

Not that it's bad in any way...I just found it underwhelming the second time around.

Derek

04-06-2012, 11:59 PM

http://araginlesbian.tumblr.com/photo/1280/5373642354/1/tumblr_lkws11GV0F1qzma4h

Derek

04-07-2012, 04:40 AM

http://cheezcomixed.files.wordpress.c om/2011/03/koma-comic-strip-thems-the-rules.jpg

Derek

04-08-2012, 08:23 AM

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j94/DSmith724/Icineption.jpg

Spinal

07-23-2012, 05:21 PM

*ahem*

MadMan

07-24-2012, 10:20 AM

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j94/DSmith724/Icineption.jpgShit like this still makes me laugh. The one where JGL terrifies the kid never fails to crack me up.

The more I think about this film, though, the more I realize that the whole snow level part of the movie really does suck and almost brings the rest of the film down with it. Although I guess the big huge arc conclusion happens during that particular part, and I liked that aspect, but the action snow sequences really just don't work for some reason. Maybe its because I didn't need Inception to turn into a goddamn Bond film. And not the good kind of Bond, the cheesy kind that doesn't work.

Morris Schæffer

07-24-2012, 01:40 PM

I think something more memorable could have been done with the snow finale, but it virtually doesn't matter since it's the fact that it's just another dream state that really elevates it. Moreover, dreams are rarely specific, but rather vague, elusive so there's that. I held my breath when Mal appeared. Intercut with Gordon-Levitt doing extraordinary things in corridors and elevator shafts enhances the snow action also. Works for me. One of the best movies of the last ten years.

But again, I don't recall why it had to be a snow-based conclusion. Perhaps there was a reason for it. Seems that, given the premise, it would have been awfully easy to take that finale in any number of directions although the Page character, as I remember, was there to sort of steer the whole dreamworld into something the team could deal with, without any kind of abstract and absurd interferences to ruin the mission.

Dukefrukem

07-24-2012, 02:50 PM

But again, I don't recall why it had to be a snow-based conclusion. Perhaps there was a reason for it. Seems that, given the premise, it would have been awfully easy to take that finale in any number of directions although the Page character, as I remember, was there to sort of steer the whole dreamworld into something the team could deal with, without any kind of abstract and absurd interferences to ruin the mission.

Well if I recall, they wanted a long drawn out "maze" map where Hardy could string along bad guys until the job was completed. However, becaue they spent so much time in the previous dream levels, they needed to hurry through the map (go through the secret vent) which Leo wasn't supposed to know about, which is when Mal showed up.

Morris Schæffer

07-24-2012, 04:51 PM

I was gonna make some lame pac-man joke, but I'll stick to a curt " ah yes, I remember it now." :)

Russ

03-20-2013, 09:46 PM

I was looking for a good reason to do the annual Inception thread bump and I found one:

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff324/astrojester/ReimagineInception_zps123cd775 .png

Movies Reimagined for Another Time & Place (http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/the-noteworthy-the-rappaport-vs-carney-saga-cant-stop-mct-menello-remembered) is a fun little site. And you can even purchase the posters too.

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff324/astrojester/ReimagineBigLebowski_zps41e0f9 93.png

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff324/astrojester/ReimagineSuperman_zps7c8deeb5. png