Escape to the Movies: Inception

[Proteus214]

I liked the mind bending aspects of the story, but there's something I had a problem with...

Spoiler

What exactly is the psychological metaphor for killing projections of the subconscious with bullets and grenades? What were the guns representative of? Is it the infiltrators' will overpowering that of the dreamer's sub-conscious defenses one projection at a time? Does anyone remember the explanation for that if there was one?

They did explain that in a way.

Spoiler

That the mind actively creates the basic elements and the subconscious extrapolates the rest of what goes on in the world including the logic of how things work. Person gets shot with bullet, person dies.

 

[Raykuza]

I just went to see it on Bargain Tuesday with a sold out theater. The part that made the final scene great for me was when I knew the entire theater was thinking the exact same thing that I was: "Aw come on! What the hell?!"

 

[Tinneh]

Great review! I did love the story, and, it was pretty epic! I loved how complicated it was for once!

But...

Spoiler: Major Spoiler - Do NOT read if you have not seen this film, it will ruin it for you.

...that one scene with Mr. Cobb's totem spinning, leaving you wondering if it's all real...

...annoyed the hell out of me. Still a damned amazing film though.

 

[Tinneh]

My only real complaint is that if you carefully follow the film and have seen others like it (six sense randomly comes to mind.) you already know how it's going to end. There are hints throughout that point toward the ending. It would be neat if the DVD had an alternate ending.

Well the ending was (thankfully) ambiguous. I too anticipated the kind of ending that I suspect you anticipated, but as the film went on, I wasn't so sure. It's nice because the ending is kind of a nod to that suspicion that many savvy moviegoers will have. We sit there with tension, wondering if the top will fall, but we never know in the end. I think that uncertainty is all the more compelling. Perhaps I'm missing some of the "hints" you picked up on? Naturally, the ambiguity of the different dream-states calls into question any semblance of reality in the film; they do that in the first scene, but that's almost to be expected given the nature of the story. I get the sense Nolan and the writers expected that and kept it satisfyingly ambiguous throughout. So we may suspect, even before the possibility is mentioned in the film, but our suspicions are never confirmed.

Please put the plot elements in spoiler tags, some people haven't had the luxury of seeing this film yet.

 

[rsvp42]

My only real complaint is that if you carefully follow the film and have seen others like it (six sense randomly comes to mind.) you already know how it's going to end. There are hints throughout that point toward the ending. It would be neat if the DVD had an alternate ending.

Well the ending was (thankfully) ambiguous. I too anticipated the kind of ending that I suspect you anticipated, but as the film went on, I wasn't so sure:

Spoiler

It's nice because the ending is kind of a nod to that suspicion that many savvy moviegoers will have. We sit there with tension, wondering if the top will fall, but we never know in the end. I think that uncertainty is all the more compelling. Perhaps I'm missing some of the "hints" you picked up on? Naturally, the ambiguity of the different dream-states calls into question any semblance of reality in the film; they do that in the first scene, but that's almost to be expected given the nature of the story. I get the sense Nolan and the writers expected that and kept it satisfyingly ambiguous throughout. So we may suspect, even before the possibility is mentioned in the film, but our suspicions are never confirmed.

Please put the plot elements in spoiler tags, some people haven't had the luxury of seeing this film yet.

I edited my original post, but I can't speak for the person that quoted me. Although in my defense, people who haven't seen a movie probably shouldn't be 7 pages into a discussion thread about the movie. I've learned to not even read reviews until I've seen a movie, just so I can avoid any accidental spoilers (I'll look at RottenTomatoes and MetaCritic score numbers though). Alas, I don't have much pity for someone who doesn't take similar precautions.

 

[mikespoff]

MovieBob - thanks for the spoiler warning!

I stopped the video at that point, I'm seeing the movie tomorrow. Will watch the rest afterwards.

As always, thanks for your consideration and dedication to letting people enjoy and properly experience great movies!

 

[Tarakos]

This is seriously the best movie I've seen in a long time. I'd say it's on par w/ Fight Club as my favorite movie. Better than Dark Knight, but only just.

 

[Firia]

I stopped at the spoiler alert, and thank Bob heartily for having the good decency to do that. Yahtzee has given spoiler warnings after the fact, and caused me to nash my teeth some. I then decided to take Bob up on his endorsement, and watched Inception. Hawt DAMN was that a fine movie! It was really pecking at my all take favorite movie, Momento for a good long time, and then I learned the same director did both. No wonder!! It even has some of the same emotional tugs that I only FELT in Momento!

Really Bob, you were spot on here. Readers? Get out there and see the movie. And below, I'm putting plot discussion into the spoiler tag. Stay out of that unless you want some of the most exciting bits given away.

Spoiler: Plot related question, SPOILER ALERT

So Bob mentions the hair pulling bit. This caused me to cock my head to one side. Was he refering to the very very end, with the spinning of the top? That's really all I can think of. I was to emotionally moved to get frustrated, so, I'm not sure.

 

[Plurralbles]

OMG i TURNED OFF THIS VID SO i COULD SEE THE MOVIE FIRST! : ) Mostly caps makes me smile.

it wobbled... confusing?

Spoiler

I wanted the camera to come back to it being on its side so badly... that would have been a heart warming ending. But no, but I swear it started to wobble. Ithought it was a punching point that he could never live his life being absolutely certain about his reality, nto that the movie goer had to question his fate, which I would find certainty that he was still screwed as a stupid, "DUH!" hackneyed ending and knocks the film's writing down a few pegs.

It was interesting to see the mind work of a man who spent an entire lifetime with a woman creating their entire world, then ending up killing her in real life before growing old IRL. In fact, he could have been shown to have even more pain.

How did he get to reason with his old self though? Convince it to kill itself so he could get to the final level of "his" reality(the reality that the movie considered 100% real until the very end)

The funny thing is that the entire movie could just be one fantastical dream. The entire thing. or it could be him choosing his dream land forever but convincing himself that he went back to life and the others are sitting in reality. Or it could be all a dream that Mal convinced him to say in.

i think he's still dreaming... his wife was right and he should have believed her... for one thing, the children in the end was still wearing the same clothes like in his dreams.. another, the issue before that he was being chased by authorities, its like what happens when one realizes he's in a dream, all the people chases the dreamer.. well its just my opinion.. but i really think he's still dreaming...

Yep. After the movie I thouht of that but decided against reality and cynicism and thought up the happy ending that all the dumb people think.

 

[Quistnix]

I liked it, but I'm not yet in the "love it" camp.

First, it's a shame they got Leonardo di Caprio for this part. Don't get me wrong, I loved the guy in Catch me if you can, but in this movie his lackluster performance is outclassed by the stellar acting of everyone else.

Second, I'd expected more of a puzzle. I'm not that much of a smart guy, but I can't imagine people getting confused by this movie if they only pay attention to the first 30 minutes where the rules of the dreamworld are explained. After that, it's a pretty linear, straightforward affair. In fact, nothing surprising happened after those first 30 minutes.

And Nolan's best? I guess you didn't really watch The Prestige..

 

[Demiath]

Very effective summary...although the worldview ascribed (with what appears to be good reason) to Nolan seems rather repugnant and archaic. Break free of that tired 19th century reason/emotion dichotomy, mr Nolan!

 

[AvsJoe]

I'm proud of myself for following the movie thoroughly and completely the whole way through. I was expecting Primer-level mind-fucking (or at least Basic-level plot twists) but was instead delighted to see that they made it smart but easily-followed if you keep your brain running and don't lose track of what's going on in the other levels. Great flick!

Also, I notice I have seen every theatrically-released movie Dileep Rao has been in. This guy is a great actor and I hope to see him again soon. I especially loved him in Drag Me To Hell.

 

[mezmir]

I wanna say after seeing the movie the day it came out, and now watching this review, that the review was pretty much spot on. Great movie, and what problems I kind of felt with the movie were addressed in bob's interpretation of Nolan and the emotional element as a weakness.

See, my only real grudge, was the ending. But after he pointed out the angle of emotion as a weakness and such, it makes more sense for it to end like that. Thank you bob for making me MORE satisfied after hearing someone else's interpretation.

 

[Zing]

Just saw it finally, as expected it was fucking phenomenal, and I want to say I would have liked more Character Development other than Cobb, but honestly the movie would have been 5 hours long. Also, even though it was an especially smart film, especially compared to most crap out today, I didn't find it nearly as complex as The Matrix(Which like Bob says, wasn't even that hard to understand), but its also possible I am overstating the intelligence of the general public. I have one thing to say about the ending

Spoiler

 

[littlewilly91]

But it was balls. Fun for a while, once you submit to all the nonsensical balls perhaps, but the action was dull and the structure failed after the first act. I kept myself amused twiddling my thumbs and having my own dreams. I dug the ideas in it, but it all happened so slowly.

Every critic review I've read says otherwise and the meta score is high, but every real person I know who's seen it thought it was balls.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

Watched it last friday, and it lived up to every bit of hype I placed upon it's shoulders for the past year. Actually my favourite film of all time, Brick has been bested. Now...

Inception is the movie of 2010. I'm calling it now.

Walking out of that theater last night, all I could think about was how astronomical the odds of Inception working that well actually were.

I mean just the odds of each element working well are unlikely; first of all, to somehow achieve that screenplay, and pitch it well enough to get that budget, and then get that cast to work that well together... I'm legitimately blown away.

Brief side note: If you weren't a Joseph Gordon-Levitt fan, you sure as shit are one now.

Damn right. The guy's been awesome in and since Brick. A great actor and my favourite. JGL's weird looking though, he still looks like a bloody kid and he's what, 29 now?
Awesome cast, but if you ask me Tom Hard stole (and I mean it) the show with his performance. My friends were all saying "The English guy's a ledge [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ledge]", but that brings me to my next thought of that film...how did they get the comedy so perfect? Who was helping Chris out on that, because it just worked far too well...

have you seen papurika? similar genre but still bad ass. 1 more week till it comes out in japan, i cant wait

When people asked me "why are you so hyped for this film? What is it about?" I responded "have you seen Paprika?" and they might as well have said "what's a Paprika?" Two great films, similar in concept (kind of, I stress kind of) and I love them both.

Wow. Bob likes/pretends to like a pretentious combination of scifi and arthouse philosophy?? Nooooooooo

I...wha...but...

SHUN THE NON-BELIEVER! SHUN!

 

[awatkins]

Yeah, I watched it last week, really enjoyed it. My favorite sceen was the no-gravity fight in the hotel. For some reason I liked that character better than Leonardo's, lol, maybe my subconscious identifies better with him.

Just a random question that my curiosity punched me with; What's Movie Bob's day job?

 

[Mysticgamer]

Yeah, I own it actually and once I heard what the spoiler was (he just says the concept of the movie) I know I have to see this now.

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

Now that I've finally seen the film, I walked out of the cinema with the oddest feeling:

"That Nolan film was better than Memento."

Memento was the stick by which I measured the rest of Nolan's work. The Prestige measured up mostly and The Dark Knight was every bit as good. But Inception broke the stick right the hell in half. I'm still thinking about it. I'm still in awe of its concepts. I'm still liking the characters. That's a mark of not just a good film, but a great one.