Has anyone seen it yet?
I've just returned from my second viewing -- I am completely and utterly blown away.
I have to admit that I am a Christopher Nolan fanboy.. I loved The Prestige, Memento is mindbendingly delicious, and The Dark Knight was one of the most riveting movies I've ever seen in a theater. This movie was a shoo-in for me, I knew I would wind up loving it. But I didn't expect that it would blow all of those other movies out of the water completely.
I thought The Dark Knight was brilliant (though a bit flawed) and I didn't believe Christopher Nolan could top it, but he has really outdone himself with Inception. The film's plot starts out simple, but as things progress the complexity reveals itself. Things can become very confusing in the beginning, but that's OK: the director masterfully presents the story to us in a way that is so engaging that even though we aren't entirely sure what's going on -- we can't help but keep our eyes glued on the screen.
I'm not going to even attempt to write a detailed synopsis of the plot, simply because I am unable to. All that I can say is that it involves dreams and dream infiltration -- a group of highly trained scientists using a "dream sharing" technology to facilitate corporate espionage and thievery. These scientists plant themselves in a subject's dream in order to extract information from them, or even incept the roots of an idea into their mind.
It's so hard to describe, I just simply don't have the vocabulary for it, haha.
Eventually, all of the pieces of the puzzle fall in place. Everything makes sense. The last 40 minutes of the movie were the most breathtaking moments I've ever experienced in a movie theater. Pure adrenaline rush. I had to actually gasp for air on numerous occasions because I had forgotten to breathe. I didn't want to blink. The editing, cinematography, special effects, acting, music .. everything was spot on.
One of the best movies I've seen in years. The best sci-fi movie since The Matrix, possibly even since Blade Runner.
GO SEE IT!
[Edited by - blueEbola on July 19, 2010 7:53:00 PM]
Anyone seen Inception yet?
I saw it, it's a good movie. I think it has been a bit over-hyped in my opinion, it is worth a watch. It's one of those films that you'd want to watch twice as the storyline gets somewhat complex (didn't help that I had a late night before!). The ending implied there will be more movies to come. Overall a really unique storyline which is well executed.
This is certainly a must-see movie for me. When I find the time to make it to the cinema.
However, I did see that it's being shown at the IMAX in London so I may have to make the (albeit rather short) trip to London and watch it.
However, I did see that it's being shown at the IMAX in London so I may have to make the (albeit rather short) trip to London and watch it.
I thought it was extremely entertaining, definitely the best movie I've seen this year. The scene with the van slowly falling from the bridge as action kept on occurring at the lower dream levels was really awesome, as was seeing something at the top dream level have cascading effects down to the lowest dream level. I also felt the loud, blasting music really added to the experience somehow. Usually I don't like such music in action films because it seems like it's used to artificially make up for lack of an interesting story, but here it was combined with an already very compelling story, and it just worked.
Finally, I'm not sure the ending was meant to imply there are other films. I thought it was just meant to leave things up to your interpretation. But the whole theater was on the edge of its seat as the coin spun, and everybody clapped when the credits rolled.
Finally, I'm not sure the ending was meant to imply there are other films. I thought it was just meant to leave things up to your interpretation. But the whole theater was on the edge of its seat as the coin spun, and everybody clapped when the credits rolled.
There might be spoilers in my review. It's hard to tell. There is so much going on in the movie, with much of it being kind of absurd out of context, that I don't think a review could ever spoil the outcome.
I saw it in IMAX and I was blown away. I need to find a new IMAX theater, though. This one had issues with hairs or something in the lens. I'm actually rather glad that it wasn't 3D, because I'm pretty sure I would have hurled a couple of times from vertigo.
There was a very fine line to tread on the concepts of dreams, dream manipulation, and recursive dreaming, and I think the 10-year writing process that Nolan applied definitely shows. There were a couple of points where it felt like the dream manipulation wasn't taken far enough, but restraint was definitely a virtue here, as the various interactions between the dream and waking worlds were very well done. Nolan does do an excellent job of explaining the entire "system", and he stays fairly consistent with it. It could have been completely ridiculous, but I think it turned out well.
The cinematography and effects were brilliant. Pacing was spot on. The use of standard film tropes was limited, but cleverly executed. It begins at the end, but you don't really know it's the end. Even knowing it's the end, you don't know how or why we got there, which is far more important. It does a standard "heist movie team recruitment montage", but doesn't extend it ridiculously into dozens of characters, each one has a specific purpose that is explained well.
It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. It's mind bending in some places, mindless in others: the gun fights had a lot of "infinite magazine" issues, and while I would normally say "it's the dream world, they can do whatever they want," it's presented that the dream world behaves like the real world unless specifically altered. Also, Ellen Page's character seemed to understand everything too deeply and too quickly. There was some indication that she was supposed to be a prodigy, but her character wasn't developed enough to get that across. Ultimately, she came across more as a mechanic: throw in a complete noob in the story line so we don't have to ham-hand explaining everything to the audience. She wasn't out of place, I just would have liked more out of her.
Some standard "features" of dreams were presented really well. There were a couple of hand-to-hand fight sequences that felt like fight dreams that I've had. The concept of lucid dreaming making you question the reality of the waking world is something I've also experienced. Dreaming about dreaming is something I've done before as well, though I wouldn't have called it recursive dreaming, it's more like iterative dreaming wherein the transition is explained as "waking up". I like how the time dilation that happens when you dream was used as an actual mechanic.
I liked that, while it presented the fairly standard "what is real" question that dream sequence/time travel/blah blah blah always offers, it also gave us tools for definitively saying "yes" or "no", cleverly used those same tools both in the narrative and in making you question the ending, and ultimately asked "would it matter if it weren't?" There is an underlying current throughout the movie of a moral dilemma for the characters, understanding that the dream world isn't real, but barely being able to resist the temptation of indulgence. Some are more successful than others, and the movie doesn't paint them as right or wrong.
It's heartening to see a movie like this getting made, instead of Spiderman 13 or something. Honestly, I wasn't that upset when the new James Bond movie was canned; while I enjoy the genre and I thought Daniel Craig was a great Bond, how hard is it to slap a new name on it instead of giving Bond a new face and expecting nobody to notice/care? It's not like there is an overarching story arc that they've been trying to build over the last 40 years and had the inconvenience of their leading man leave/die. So to see a new story, with fairly unique elements, with great execution, with typically unpopular sci-fi elements thrown in, during a typically bad movie season (summer blockbusters aren't known for being great films) was encouraging for the future of Nolan's productions and maybe Hollywood in general.
It's a movie that acknowledges that it is not an independent film and executes its big-budget status to its strengths. You're not going to get a surreal art film, but there is a touch of surreal in it. It doesn't wallow in sophistry, but does dabble in philosophy. It doesn't needle down on describing tech, but it doesn't completely McGuffin it either. Basically, everything in this movie has purpose towards the story line, not just making a movie that will sell tickets.
I saw it in IMAX and I was blown away. I need to find a new IMAX theater, though. This one had issues with hairs or something in the lens. I'm actually rather glad that it wasn't 3D, because I'm pretty sure I would have hurled a couple of times from vertigo.
There was a very fine line to tread on the concepts of dreams, dream manipulation, and recursive dreaming, and I think the 10-year writing process that Nolan applied definitely shows. There were a couple of points where it felt like the dream manipulation wasn't taken far enough, but restraint was definitely a virtue here, as the various interactions between the dream and waking worlds were very well done. Nolan does do an excellent job of explaining the entire "system", and he stays fairly consistent with it. It could have been completely ridiculous, but I think it turned out well.
The cinematography and effects were brilliant. Pacing was spot on. The use of standard film tropes was limited, but cleverly executed. It begins at the end, but you don't really know it's the end. Even knowing it's the end, you don't know how or why we got there, which is far more important. It does a standard "heist movie team recruitment montage", but doesn't extend it ridiculously into dozens of characters, each one has a specific purpose that is explained well.
It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. It's mind bending in some places, mindless in others: the gun fights had a lot of "infinite magazine" issues, and while I would normally say "it's the dream world, they can do whatever they want," it's presented that the dream world behaves like the real world unless specifically altered. Also, Ellen Page's character seemed to understand everything too deeply and too quickly. There was some indication that she was supposed to be a prodigy, but her character wasn't developed enough to get that across. Ultimately, she came across more as a mechanic: throw in a complete noob in the story line so we don't have to ham-hand explaining everything to the audience. She wasn't out of place, I just would have liked more out of her.
Some standard "features" of dreams were presented really well. There were a couple of hand-to-hand fight sequences that felt like fight dreams that I've had. The concept of lucid dreaming making you question the reality of the waking world is something I've also experienced. Dreaming about dreaming is something I've done before as well, though I wouldn't have called it recursive dreaming, it's more like iterative dreaming wherein the transition is explained as "waking up". I like how the time dilation that happens when you dream was used as an actual mechanic.
I liked that, while it presented the fairly standard "what is real" question that dream sequence/time travel/blah blah blah always offers, it also gave us tools for definitively saying "yes" or "no", cleverly used those same tools both in the narrative and in making you question the ending, and ultimately asked "would it matter if it weren't?" There is an underlying current throughout the movie of a moral dilemma for the characters, understanding that the dream world isn't real, but barely being able to resist the temptation of indulgence. Some are more successful than others, and the movie doesn't paint them as right or wrong.
It's heartening to see a movie like this getting made, instead of Spiderman 13 or something. Honestly, I wasn't that upset when the new James Bond movie was canned; while I enjoy the genre and I thought Daniel Craig was a great Bond, how hard is it to slap a new name on it instead of giving Bond a new face and expecting nobody to notice/care? It's not like there is an overarching story arc that they've been trying to build over the last 40 years and had the inconvenience of their leading man leave/die. So to see a new story, with fairly unique elements, with great execution, with typically unpopular sci-fi elements thrown in, during a typically bad movie season (summer blockbusters aren't known for being great films) was encouraging for the future of Nolan's productions and maybe Hollywood in general.
It's a movie that acknowledges that it is not an independent film and executes its big-budget status to its strengths. You're not going to get a surreal art film, but there is a touch of surreal in it. It doesn't wallow in sophistry, but does dabble in philosophy. It doesn't needle down on describing tech, but it doesn't completely McGuffin it either. Basically, everything in this movie has purpose towards the story line, not just making a movie that will sell tickets.
These days I only watch S3D (stereoscopic 3d) movies, as I want to learn about it more and plan to be a freelance S3D editor, or something like that. As for the rest, I just wait until the DVD comes out and rent it. Not only it's cheaper, but I can watch it multiple times, and analyze the script and acting too. (plan to go to screenwriting class) at the end of this year.
Anyway, The Dark Knight is awesome, although a little bit flawed, and as for dream (there was a movie about people who can go into other people dream, they just have to be close, and can kill people inside their dream) when I was a kid, and also the elm street series, so I guess i'll just wait until inception comes out on dvd.
as the 'we can change world by thinking' things, I've seen the dark planet too, which is quite awesome at it's time. as they not only change the world, but also personality.
so like i've said, i'll just wait for dvd. there also bonus features.
Anyway, The Dark Knight is awesome, although a little bit flawed, and as for dream (there was a movie about people who can go into other people dream, they just have to be close, and can kill people inside their dream) when I was a kid, and also the elm street series, so I guess i'll just wait until inception comes out on dvd.
as the 'we can change world by thinking' things, I've seen the dark planet too, which is quite awesome at it's time. as they not only change the world, but also personality.
so like i've said, i'll just wait for dvd. there also bonus features.
I know absolutely nothing about it except that Leo was in it when I walked into the theater, and I loved the movie. Totally awesome. It's a whole different experience to go into a movie knowing literally nothing about it.
It was really, really good. They took a bunch of risks in subject matter, portrayal and the ambition level of the subject matter.
I can't wait to see it the second time so I can see stuff I missed.
I can't wait to see it the second time so I can see stuff I missed.
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
