July 30, 2010
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Inception – A brief and crappy review [possible spoilers]
Yesterday I had a big hole in my afternoon schedule (and really, I’m normally pretty busy after lunch of Wednesdays…) so I decided to go see Inception. I’d heard so much about it from reviews, xangans, and even actual real life people. One friend said it was so complicated he wanted to see it a second time just to get it straight! That’s the kind of film for me! I said to myself. I love a good, complicated, thinker’s movie!
So, I get to the movie theatre, and the entire time I spend the movie imagining what ridiculously complicated twists are going to be in store. Ok, they’re in a dream… but maybe the dream is actually… real! Maybe Mal is dreaming the entire thing. Maybe Mal was right about reality? Maybe the entire movie is about planting the idea that what Dom thinks is real (i.e. what the viewer is told is the “real world”) is in in fact the limbo, and Mal is trying to get him to return to reality! Maybe that kid from Third Rock From the Sun is actually in league with the guy inheriting his father’s empire, and together the two are going to try to kill Dom! Maybe the first level of reality is accurate, but when the team goes from the first dream level to the second, they’re not actually moving into another dream level, but are in fact going directly to limbo, and the other levels of dream and the so-called limbo that follows them are actually the dreams of the team while they sleep in limbo waiting for the plane to land and wake them up!
And, of course, none of this happened. There was no twist ending. There wasn’t even anything I had to think twice about understanding. Reality. Level one. Level two. Level three. Limbo. The only thing that was in any way even attempting to be clever or confusing was the uncertainty of the ending. But because Nolan didn’t actually show whether the top stopped spinning, it demonstrates that he really didn’t put any damn effort into coming up with something clever or confusing or intelligent by way of a twist ending. Instead, he just sort of dumped a predictable, cheap-shot attempt at confusing (annoying?) viewers in at the end, in place of genuine plot.
But aside from that, great movie. I liked the score, and some day, I want to build my own fortress of solitude, so I can man it with my own collection of James Bond henchmen rejects.
Comments (18)
Agreed. I expected much more out of this movie because people kept talking about how “complex” and “amazing” it was.
Momento was better. Hell, the only thing that took me a while to think about was why the hell they were bothering to go into LAYERS and LAYERS of that businessman’s dreams in the first place.
I am disappoint.
I really enjoyed inception. Maybe it’s because I was in love with the concept. Maybe you were only disappointed because the reviews you heard gave you unfulfilled expectations.
I’ll probably go see it anyway
@The_Brink_of_Omniscience - Yes, I do really think that is it. I enjoyed the movie itself. Like I said at the bottom, it’s a great film. Just not what everybody is saying it is.
I really loved the whole concept of it! I thought it was pretty original, at least it was something I hadn’t seen in a movie before. The whole concept of time going exponentially slower with each level of the dream was really cool.
Anyone ever see the movie Arlington Road? now thre is a movie with a great ending.
@ProudToBeAChristianFruitcake - I liked the ending in Mystic River.
Anything and everything that Nolan does is overrated. I don’t have the attention span to support this crap.
It’s overated of course, thus its time to turn on the porn. At least that would be a nice mind fuck.
I didn’t think the ending was all that mysterious, you just have to watch Dom’s ring.
I still need to see it.
lol. It wasn’t the most complex movie if you paid attention, but it was intricate enough that I paid close attention so that I wouldn’t be lost. I could see the end coming by the time of the last sequence, but it still got me thinking. IMO its a major film that at least tries to do something different or slightly more complicated than the usual.
I enjoyed the film, though I realized there were other films like Dark City, Donnie Darko, Blade Runner etc; that I had to see or re-watch again, that are possibly better than Inception..lol; But I still enjoyed it. This is the only movie I remember in a long time that actually blew me away. Nothing else has done it really.
WEENIES
ok actually saw the movie and I agree
everyone knows the Usual Suspects had the best ending.
i thought Inception was still pretty good.
I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous – everyone hasn’t met me yet.
– Rodney Dangerfield.
Well, there was also the fact that when Ken Watanabe’s character Saito was giving Cobb his assignment, he said something that Mal had also said to Cobb when she had gone crazy. (I wish I could remember the quote, but I saw Inception the day after it came out. I recall it being verbatim though.) It brings up the question as to when Cobb’s dreaming started.
Then there is also the issue as to why Saito was in Cobb’s dreams as an old man, too.
I think with movies like Inception, Avatar, or any other highly-anticipated movies, it’s best to go without any idea of how the movie is doing in terms of ratings/reviews. I have begun to just not even look up what movies directed by Nolan are going to be about because it’s easier to evaluate if I have no expectations.