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Editorial: How Does THE DARK KNIGHT RISES End and Where Will BATMAN Begin Again?INCEPTION Review
by Matt Goldberg Posted:July 16th, 2010 at 2:22 am
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“True inspiration is impossible to fake,” explains a character in Christopher Nolan’s existentialist heist film Inception. If that’s the case, then Inception is one of the most honest films ever made. Nolan has crafted a movie that’s beyond brilliant and layered both narratively and thematically. It requires the audience to take in a collection of rules, exceptions, locations, jobs, and abilities in order to understand the text, let alone the fascinating subtext. Nolan’s magnum opus is the first major blockbuster in over a decade that’s demanded intense viewer concentration, raised thoughtful and complex ideas, and wrapped everything all in a breathlessly exciting action film. Inception may be complicated, but simply put it’s one of the best movies of the year.
“I’m asking you to take a leap of faith.”
Inception requires so much exposition that a lesser director would have forced theaters to distribute pamphlets to audience members in order to explain the complicated world he’s developed. During my first draft of this view, I realized I had spent three paragraphs simply trying to explain the plot. I will simply avoid this exposition and present the movie’s basic premise. Inception centers on a team of individuals led by an “extractor” named Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who, through the use of a special device, construct the dreams of a target and use those dreams to implant an idea so that the target will make a decision beneficial to the individual who hired the team. To say that scratches the surface would be an insult to both scratches and surfaces. But since it takes Nolan about fifty minutes to set everything up, I hope you’ll forgive my brevity.
Why is it so difficult to explain the plot in depth? First, I don’t want to spoil you. Secondly, the film layers dreams on top of dreams to the point where a unique keepsake called a “totem” is required in order to inform a character as to whether or not he or she is still dreaming. Then you have people in particular roles like “The Architect”, “The Forger”, and “The Chemist” in order to pull off the job. Furthermore, dreams have rules: dying in a dream forces the dreamer to wake up, delving too deeply into a mind can cause an eternal slumber called “Limbo”, using memories to construct dreams is dangerous because it can blur the line between dreams and reality. In addition, intruding in the dreams of another will cause the dreamer’s “projections” (human representations created by the dreamer) to attack the intruders like white blood cells going after an infection. And these explanations only represent a fraction of the terminology, rules, exceptions, or details that are necessary for creating the world of Inception.
But it’s not a confusing movie if you provide it with your full attention. There are a lot of summer movies that ask you turn off your brain and enjoy the persistent-vegetative-state ride. Inception is not one of those movies. There’s a lot to take in, but the imaginative and thoughtful delivery of exposition keeps the viewer riveted despite the amount of information required in order to understand the premise, setting, and plot.
It tends to be the case that lots of rules create lots of loopholes. Filmmakers can use these to cheat and let audiences fill in the leaps of logics. But Inception always plays fair. It will twist your mind but it’s not a film built on twists. It’s a film built on possibilities and the boldness of pursuing those possibilities. On my first viewing, the film experienced a technical malfunction where a misplaced reel skipped the movie forward by twenty minutes and then played the scene upside down and in reverse. Inception had already sent the audience through such a strange narrative labyrinth that almost everyone in the theater wasn’t sure if something had gone wrong or if Nolan had just made another bold decision.
The film deserves, demands, and rewards repeat viewings, but from your first viewing you can grasp the events on screen and how they interact with each other as long as you force yourself to be an active viewer. But with set pieces so intricate, so jaw-dropping, and so breathtaking, you’ll find that there’s no exertion needed to stay focused. You’ll already be swept up in the whirlwind.
“And I will lead them on a merry chase.”
Inception features one of the best fight scenes of all-time. Take a moment to consider that: in the entire history of cinema, of every fight scene that has ever taken place, the one in this movie is among the best. Watching a fight without gravity is incredible. It’s not like in The Matrix where a character can defy gravity if they choose. The fight scene in Inception has no gravity to defy and Arthur (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the team’s point man, has to figure out how to achieve his objective while fending off projections. I can only hope that someday in the distant future, when people with free time are on a space station in zero-gravity, they will re-enact this scene. In the meantime, Nolan’s spectacular visual effects will have to suffice.
With the exception of one set piece (which I’ll get to in a moment), the action scenes in Inception are spectacular. Visually lush and imaginative, Nolan transforms car chases into countdowns, fistfights into puzzles, and shootouts into…well, shootouts. There’s a mission on a snowy mountainside that doesn’t work as well as the other set pieces because there’s a poor sense of location, a lack of visual diversity, and sloppy editing. But that doesn’t really halt or hurt the film because Nolan brilliantly placed the car chase, the fistfight, and the shootout on top of each other. You would think this would cause action fatigue, but by cutting between three set pieces and having what happens in one set piece affect the others, the action climax of Inception isn’t exhausting—it’s exhilarating.
“If you’re going to perform inception, you need imagination.”
You can be the best action director around but you can only get so far if you lack characters worth caring about. With Inception, every character not only has a particular skill and task, but has a personality that mirrors their job description.
We learn about the characters of Inception not from long monologues about their past or even (with the exception of Cobb) delving into their dreams and memories. We learn about them by how they interact with each other. The small moments between Arthur and Eames, “The Forger” (Tom Hardy) indicate years of working on j tolerating each other on jobs but with no animosity between the two. Neophyte “Architect” Ariadne (Ellen Page) is a total jerk towards Cobb, but she’s the only one who’s willing to cut through his bullshit. Cobb’s relationship with his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) is the heart of Inception. The interactions among the supporting characters are standard for a well-made action movie, but the relationship between Cobb and Mal is yet another reason why Inception stands apart.
DiCaprio will take some flack for playing a similar character to his one in Shutter Island from earlier this year. Both Cobb and Teddy Daniels have become separated from their families, suffer from unbearable guilt, and have a tough time handling the nature of reality. Here’s another similarity: DiCaprio is great in both movies. I wouldn’t worry about him getting typecast as tragic-figure-with-tenuous-grasp-on-reality-as-a-result-of-intense-guilt-and-regret.
Two of the film’s stars will (hopefully) find their careers at the next level after this movie opens. Their names are “Joseph Gordon-Levitt” and “Tom Hardy”. Gordon-Levitt has excelled at playing lost boys, tortures souls, and recently a charming male lead in (500) Days of Summer. You can now add “bad-ass blockbuster action star” to that list. Gordon-Levitt’s versatility is why I will be excited for any movie that lists him as one of its stars.
Hardy’s critically acclaimed performance in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Bronson brought him to Hollywood’s attention. His performance in Inception will bring him the attention of countries. He brings a light-hearted touch to the film and while the script forces other characters to remain serious, Eames takes a more laid back approach to the mind-heist game. But he’s not comic relief and he’s not around to comment on absurd circumstances. Like everyone in the cast, he’s there to help the team achieve their goal (although the script functions in such a way that you could see each character as a representation of a specific idea).
The only actor who’s a little shaky is Ken Watanabe who plays Saito, the team’s employer. His performance is great. He pulls off the impressive feat of being threatening without being menacing. The only problem is that Watanabe’s Japanese accent is so thick that it’s sometimes difficult to make out what he’s saying. In a movie where the dialogue is as delicately crafted as the rest of the film, it’s unfortunate to lose a few lines due to something as simple as pronunciation. And it’s only noticeable because everything in Inception is so finely crafted.
The physical scope of this movie is astounding. Worlds fall on top of each other, a freight train can burst onto a city street, hotels can lose all gravity, and everything that we know is impossible appears completely natural. It’s not enough to say that the cinematography is gorgeous, or that the sound design is sensational, or that this is one of composer Hans Zimmer’s all-time best scores. There aren’t “supporting” elements in Inception. Just as the film layers its narrative structure and thematic subtext, so it does with its technical elements. You will notice the cinematography and the art direction and the sounds and the score. It’s like hearing beautiful solos mixed together in a glorious anthem.
“Dreams feel real while we’re in them. It’s only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.”
As you’ve probably guessed, when I said at the beginning of this review that Inception was the first movie in over a decade to mix breathtaking action with thoughtful subtext, I was referring to 1999′s The Matrix. The comparisons are inevitable. Both movies deal with the nature of reality combined with pulse-pounding set pieces that will be included in any action-scene highlight reel. But The Matrix is a freshman level course compared to the doctorate held by Inception, and it has nothing to do with how far special effects have come in ten years. It’s about taking multiple genres, settings, ideas, emotions, and questions and weaving them into a rich tapestry that will have folks talking long after the credits roll. But then you throw in those advanced special effects and you have a summer blockbuster that will blow your mind.
You’ve never seen anything like Inception, and you’ll want to see it again and again.
Rating: A
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Related Links
- INCEPTION Press Conference Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Christopher Nolan, Hans Zimmer and Emma Thomas
- 4 Movie Clips from Christopher Nolan’s INCEPTION
- INCEPTION Video Roundup: Christopher Nolan On Set Interview, 6 Minutes of B-Roll (Behind the Scenes Footage), Video Featurette
- 7 New Character Posters for Christopher Nolan’s INCEPTION!
- UK TV Spot for Christopher Nolan’s INCEPTION
This is by far the best film I have ever seen. It is intelligent, complicated, layered, eye candy and midn candy. I returned two days later. Something I have never done. Ever. And I enjoyed it even more the second time around. Unbeleivable. Mind blowing.
what is so special, I live like this everyday.
I was thinking the same thing. Cobb is dreaming and Mal is actually alive. I wondered why she was trying to stab him. If you die then aren't you suppose to wake up?
You suppose to wake up. But man… Cobb could wake up in his 4th dream out of his 5th
These directors are taking Hollywood to a new height, overwhelming the world with there eminence.
The picture is no less than a masterpiece and even seeds an INCEPTION inside us to reach perfection.
Those here who are criticizing the film have just not been able to understand the plot .
The story is so intrigue and everything is blended from emotion to technolgy.
Each and every scene has something and you cant even worth blinking your eyes.
Great work indeed!
I will suggest rewatching the film with attention to those who are not satisfied
I LOVE IT! It should win an oscar! and Mr. Nolan deserves an award!
Personally I think it's obvious that Cobb is still trapped in his dreams
The story itself is actually very simple but the way Nolan presents the movie made this movie look complicated. I don't think any director could have done it as interesting as he does. So thumbs up for his masterpiece. Whether this movie is a rip off from various of movies but this movie deserves for your attentions. It's great one and excellent for me in my eyes
I didn't enjoy this movie. I felt tired and confusing while watching this movie. It is too much overrated. It should be 8.3/10 at the most.
Great review! I saw this movie today, and I have no words! The special effects was amazing, and I loved that I had to pay attention all the time to follow it.. 10/10!
But.. even if I loved the movie, I was a little confused in the end, when the “thing” never stopped spinning? Was he still in a dream, or was it the reality?
This is one the of the best movies i have ever seen!!! And believe me, i've seen allot of movies.
Nolan did a amazing/incredible/breathtaking Job! And Leonardo is getting greater and greater! When i came home from the cinema, i wanted to see it again..
Inception is an religion.
absolutely amazing ! the best film I've ever seen…. im still in shock ! how could possibly someone came up with the idea…. well i can say the director is a legend…..
I agree with you I felt the movie while entertaining in places was saturated in its on complexity. I really started to get bored of the dream within in a dream concept which when honest is not very orginal. If this film was written by a master science fiction writer it could have been much more than it was. The creative scope that was possible in this film was completey limitless and just having the idea of planting a thought in someones head to split up there fathers empire to me is not very interesting.
I'm going to shoot the next person who says “exposition.”
Saw Inception. Did NOT like it.
Would describe it as one long, VERY long music video.
What the $#$^$! I didn't go to see a music video. I went to see a frickin feature film.
One observation I've made is that adding music to a scene of often over used because
the director or producer may feel that the acting or story is not strong enough, so instead they drown it out with EPIC music. I think this is cinematic insecurity.
LOL
Oh yeah,
The Japanese guy overacts much of the time.
Best guys for me were the English bloke and Leonardo.
The young mind-driller girl looked RIDICULOUS in the ski mask. She looked like a mini-chipmunk. I laughed out loud during these snow scenes.
LOL
This movie is the best movie was ever created. and I never said that about any film I've ever seen. This movie reflects about our reality, and made me wonder a lot about what reality really is. What happens if tomorrow I wake up, and everything I thought was real, actually isn't…? How many times can I wake up before it's real? Maybe we keep waking up forever into different dreams, and that's our destiniy? Now that's a thought
Take Brilliant + Thrilling + Inspiring + True joy, and you get INCePTION!
Please tell me what the dying father said! I couldn't hear it when he corrected the son who thought he was saying he was disappointed….
Right before the pinwheel? Please!
best show i have seen for a long time! amazing mind blower that forces your mind to stick with the show every second!
” Inception… The best acted and highest budgeted piece of crap to hit the screen in years.”
When I hear comments like this about Inception I just think, “I wish you were smart enough to actually keep up with the movie” and then go on appreciating how good it was…When you see a movie that was good enough for you let us know, but that will probably never happen.
The son asks,
” I know, you are disappointed, because I tried to be more like you, to please you.”
The father says..
” No, I am disappointed because your tried.”
In other words, he was disappointed that the son tried to emulate him and not be his own person. A man in his own right, trusting himself.
Excellent review. Magnificent film. Adding to the comments made by the reviewer, it was an interesting use of music as the prelude to change of consciousness/levels within the shared dream.
My 14 year old loved it. It made for incredible conversations post movie as we walked our dog in the moonlight.
Those that do no understand.. set fires to distract everyone from that fact =)
I agree that the citations of The Matrix and Dark City are appropriate. However, I think the dream layering sequences and themes also owe a bit to David Lynch, who in Mulholland Drive (among other films) developed this idea quite well. Even the lightly regarded What Dreams May Come appears to be part of Nolan's lineage. We can trace the theme further, to the mythic tales of those who have ventured into the disorienting and dangerous realm of Hades, whence return is anything but certain. Nolan's palate, in Memento onward, has been the human mind (which, if equated for the sake of argument with the human brain, is as much a labyrinthine structure as anything the movie's “architect” can imagine). From Borges to P. K. Dick, the question “What is real?” has always afforded artists ample room to play. Even – and this may be a stretch – Heisenberg's notion that the object of an observation is changed by the presence of the observer, and the even older theme that the observer is concurrently changed (one is never the same after stepping into the stream, nor is the stream) may be afforded a sort of homage in Nolan's vision: In some respects, the audience is the target on Nolan's inception (just as the object of a search engine's search in the searcher). The sequence of the opposing mirrors when the new architect first begins to test her acumen and to discover the game's rules seems to leave Cobb incredulous, but by then he ought to have known better…
total waste of time and money – nothing good to say about it except the australian guy was funny.
” Inception… The best acted and highest budgeted piece of crap to hit the screen in years.”
Franklin, That trait belongs to Avatar im afraid!
in one word booooorrrrrinnnng!
I'm confused as to why anyone thinks this movie is confusing. They set up a character specifically so they can explain to the audience what is happening, which they do over and over again. It's a fun movie but that's it. I don't get the hype. To me this is a 'shut-off-your-brain-and-enjoy' summer popcorn movie. That's fine but let's settle down a bit. 7 out of 10 at best.
one of the BEST movies I ever saw, the idea was freaking smart the scenario was also very smart,
I think that I did understand the movie but I still have a question: when the Van was falling from the bridge it affected the 2nd level of the dreams this is why the gravity was null in the 2nd dream, but why that effect did not affect the 3rd level, the 3dr dream was the Rich kid dream and he was in zero gravity, so why it did not affected his dream ???
Great review–but needs spell check or proof reader.
Guys, the ending isn't meant to explain anything. Although the children look the exact same, and whatever, it might have just been a directing mistake. If you interpret the ending a certain way, that doesn't change the actual ending, that changes how the movie ends for YOU.
I thought it was an interesting story, with a well-conceived premise about sharing dreams and some of the possibilities that might go along with such a concept. While I was entertained and fairly engaged in how the inception played out, I didn't find the relationship between Cobb and Mal particularly compelling. It seemed that their history together and their present realities were intended to be a driving force behind the story, but I found that I was only intrigued, rather than invested, in the outcome regarding them…perhaps because so much of the film itself was spent unfolding the plot, rather than spending enough time visiting long enough with them for me to really care who they really were/are…or it might have been more of a question of how that time was spent as opposed to how much of it there was.
Among other reasons, this is an example of why I felt it was a good film but not a great one.
The best movie i ve seen from a long time! on every aspect i give a 11/10! I wish all people that said avatar was the best movie ever go see this movie! If these 2 movies on in the same nomination and avatar win an oscar this is all crap! seriously!
Great work. Neatly review.
I too have written about the review about this movie
Check out at http://planetnaveen.com/2010/07/inception-movie…
Naveen
One of the worst films I've ever seen.
I feel like the Emperor's new clothes, but layer upon layer of gunfights and chase scenes left me bored and I wished that someone would have woken me up and out of the theater!
Why couldn't the Hollywood writers inject some dream layers of character psychological building, but no every layer, with the exception of the children, was VERY LONG chase scenes and shoot outs, and not very well done. Come on.
Okay listen, I am a Teenager and I see this is movie as my favorite from this whole entire summer. (Grown Ups came close but after seeing Inception I completely forgot about it) I mean this movies story line was astounding! The actors/actressess all pulled threw to me enough where i beleived that I really knew each one. This movie's perspective changes a lot but never loses its exciting thriller side to it. So Go see it! If you did already, find other people to go see it with who havn”t. I mean I'm glad my friend mentioned it to us.
holy crap this movie was absolutely terrific. the action was awesome, it wasn't filled up with sex or swearing, and it was so intelligent. any bad reviews are from people with not enough of an attention span or lack the brain power to put the awesomeness together. when i left the theater i was a little depressed that our world wasn't that cool
This movie drops you into the middle of the story and it takes a while to understand what is happening. That is probably no accident. I am sure the genesis of this story came from the ideas presented in the Matrix series. This story is like playing a three dimensional chess game but the director's skill doles out the moves just as you need them. It doesn't require any kind of super concentration to follow the story but it certainly fill up you head with questions. The climax involves trying to reconcile four versions of reality- one real world and three dream worlds. Surprisingly, your head is not hurting with confusion but rather it is filled with excitement. This is one I will see again- I'm sure I missed something.
I will say that the very last scene let's the audience decide for themselves what state the dreamer is in when the movie is over. Wonderful acting all around- a suspense thriller of the first magnitude. It may win the Oscar for best picture because the editing, sound design, the music, the acting, and special effects are so good. See it in a theater with a good sound system.
One other comment. I think it is safe to say that this movie is derivative of the Matrix to some extent but there is an idea in “Inception” that was taken from a sixties movie, “The Illustrated man”. In that story, a couple, who are already the dream of other dreamers, are persuaded that the world will end tomorrow. They want to space their children the horror of the “last day” so decide to euthanize them (a boy and a girl). But the wife cannot bear to do it so they decide to go to bed and not do the horrible deed but face the tragedy together. The next morning, the wife wakes up and shouts, “It didn't happen! We are alive”. She runs to the children's room and finds her husband in anguish over the bodies of their kids. He was trying to space them the agony of the End, but the end didn't come. Sound familiar? I think no matter how innovative a movie may seem, it doesn't get ideas out of the blue- still it is legitimate to build a new idea from an old idea even if cinema is borrowing from cinema.
Despite all the good parts, the whole really isn't very good for two reasons. First, the number one rule of fiction is broken in a huge way – Don't explain but instead show and reveal. The first half of the movie is packed full of characters explaining what is happening or what will happen, all to establish the premise of dreams within dreams with varying passage of time. Secondly, the movie makers trap themselves into this premise and plod away at the final suspense/action sequence, cutting between the multiple layers of dreams to the point that each cut starts feeling like a gag – “Oh, now we're in a shooter video game set in snowy mountains…oh, there's the van falling in slow motion again…oh, there's the side kick rolling about on walls and ceilings. Once the sidekick lassos his buddies together and moves them around in no gravity I couldn't help but laugh out loud, as did a number of people in the theatre. Other than these two big flaws there are many others such as – 1. More key characters should have gone through a discovery process across the entire film, figuring out layers of dream and reality along with the audience. 2. The most intense altered reality scenes are all blown during the young lady architect's training. 3. Aren't your dreams way, way, way more bizarre and intense than 99% of this movie? 4. We are given no reason what so ever to really have any concerns about the “bad guys” in this film, nor is there anything that really convinces us that the “good guys” are really in peril. 5. The moral question of “Is it OK to pirate someone's mind and mess with it?” is never really addressed. 6. We are given no reason to believe that the inception being executed is really justified. 7. Why doesn't the grandpa just take the kids on vacation out of the country so they can visit their Daddy? 8. If you could live a whole life time in a dream world you created with your spouse, would you create a weird, ugly, urban world? Would you really want to spend that whole life time alone together? 9. Finally, I can not stand chase/fighting sequences where you can not at least have an idea of where people are, where they are specifically rushing to, and who is who. This movie was full this kind of badly filmed and edited junk, especially the winter fighting scenes. This movie is OVER RATED. Oh yes, as a 35 year fan of mystery and sci fi – the plot WAS NOT COMPLICATED OR HARD TO FOLLOW…IT WAS VERY, VERY PREDICTABLE.
Excellent effects and very good story line. The sound track really shined towards the end. It really grips you. The director of this movie does a good job keeping you tuned in,
Great review.
However, I found the movie sometimes trips on itself while simultaneously insisting upon itself. Now, that may have been a necessary evil for a film with this type of plot complexity, but I have to agree that it just left me also feeling a bit cold. Oscar worthy? I think not. All the players played at their expected levels of excellence. But, I did not see any stand-out performances in this work.
It was in a word, the 'Anti-Matrix'.
Almost the same film turned inside-out in it's message.
There is a clear hole in the plot, that is when Murphy(the subject/victim) makes a transition back from Level1 to Real world Level0. Here is the explaination
http://stimulations.blogspot.com/2010/07/is-the…
In real world, the conscious is so obvious that it controls the subconscious but when you dream the subconscious controls the conscious..many a times in your dream you want to do something but your subconscious which you realise is you, does not listen to you and does something else. This is what i call the parallel universe.
Now the movie Inception, it says, that there is this guy who controls his subconscious as much as he controls his conscious, so much, that he creates conscious in the subconscious and spans it to many a levels. maybe i can buy it, but to dream in a dream of others and interlink with each other subconscious to many levels is a little far-fetched. At this point, you will definitely have dreams of all the other people interconnected and it will be so random that none of the events happening in the movie will be in sequence.for example, you will have the di caprio's nightmare and then you will have the girl's nightmare interconnected (suppose the girl has nightmare of seeing a shark attack then when dicaprio see's the train approach the girl's nightmare can happen at the same time)
Technically, i think that di caprio is master-minding all the dreams then the purpose of whole movie is lost. That is, when you dream you can unlock or see the person's conscious and sub conscious and with that he can easily guess the 'safe' combination. in comparision, the matrix is far far better movie than the inception.
bottom line..poorly conceived movie but brilliantly acted and masterfully directed.di caprio as usual is a genius and nolan did a great job.
The movie's about moviemaking as a way of controlling people in a dreamstate, not dreaming per se–that's why it's so centered on action. This article says it pretty well: http://madeinhead.org/anism/?p=407
i don't care what any one says if u think its dumb then u don't know what a good movie is its worth watching more then once any one who says different has bad taste in film and shouldn't even give a opinion
In real world, the conscious is so obvious, that it controls the subconscious but when you dream, the subconscious controls the conscious. Many a times in your dream you want to do something but your subconscious which you realize is it does not listen to you and does something else. This is what i call the parallel universe.
Now the movie inception it says that there is this guy who controls his subconscious as much as he controls his conscious so much that he creates conscious in the subconscious and spans it to many a levels. Maybe i can buy it but to dream in a dream of others and interlink with each other subconscious to many levels is a little far-fetched. At this point you will definitely have dreams of all the other people interconnected and it will be so random that none of the events happening in the movie will be in sequence. For example, you will have the Di Caprio’s nightmare and then you will have the girl’s nightmare interconnected (suppose the girl has nightmare of seeing a shark attacking while Dicaprio see the train). Technically i think that Dicaprio is master-minding all the dreams then the purpose of whole movie is lost. That is when you dream you can unlock or see the person’s conscious and sub conscious and with that he can easily guess the ‘safe’ combination. In comparison, the matrix is a far far better movie than the Inception.
Bottom line..poorly conceived movie but brilliantly acted and masterfully directed. DiCaprio as usual is a genius and Nolan did a great job.
wowowo thats a great movie i so agree with kaptdo man that is a great review but i still think that cobb was dreaming and there is gonna be a second one!!!!
im so excited!!! LD is amazinggggg love him!!!
I have to say, having read some of the reviews this is the one that i agreed most with. Alot of critics are far too harsh and to be honest do not take really have a idea about what a good film is. Great film, saw it in the cinema and got completely involved. I would just like to say that the film itself is not that hard to understand it just requires your attention the whole way through, the concepts it introduces are not that hard to understand.
Lets assume what we have seen in the 1st half of the movie, i.e. right after the beginning set of “Dom Cobb (Leonardo) washed up to a beach … and then with an old man (Saito) tells Cobb that he had once known a man who had that top with him …” IS NOT a dream.
One interesting puzzle I have for you is if Saito (at the end, the old man) appeared to be 80 or 90 yrs old. This means he may have trapped in limbo for 40 yrs, say. What was the real world timeline?
Saito was killed at Level 3 (Snowy mountain scene), and therefore his limbo should be Level 4. For a time correlation of “10 hours of real world time gives 1 week in the first level dream, 6 months in the second level and 10 years in third level dream.”, Saito's real world “coma” could have been about another 10 hrs after the end of plan flight.
Assuming my beginning assumption is valid, the scene of young Cobb meeting the aged Saito was possible on one condition that Cobb did actually successfully locate Saito after saying goodbye to Ariadne (when she was going to push Fischer off the building (cliff) and falls down herself, providing the “kick” to leave that Level 4 dream).
But how? My best guess is for Cobb to provide himself a needed “kick” to leave L4 back to L3 and then enter the scrambled mind of Saito (who was dead at L3: Snowny mountain). That's one way to explain for the age difference or space time variation.
Therefore my best guess is therefore if elderly Saito dared enough to pull the trigger to kill himself there at the limbo and if he could ever come back to real world, time-wise, this could not possibly stick to the time sequence shown towards the end where Saito woke up and made that phone call to clear the immigration for Cobb.
The inevitable conclusion is Cobb was trapped in the end. That was not real … sadly but also makes this an truly remarkable movie of 2010 !!!!!
Richie
Has the world gone nuts?
This movie is utter rubbish of no entertainment value.
The script was convoluted, self indulgent and utterly confusing.
The movie is essentially an uninteligable skeleton of a script, padded with digital sets and special effects. Oh, and did I mention fight scene after fight scene, fighting over who knows what?
The gushing reviews here remind me of pretentious would be intellectuals looking at blobs of paint on canvas in a stark white gallery with chardonnay in hand giving stern meaning to the art. When in fact a monkey painted the piece.
We've been made fools by the Film's director Nolan. No wonder it took nearly ten years for the studio to agree to make this film. When Nolan firsts proposed it, it was dismissed. As his stature grew over time, the studio rethought it based on Nolan's prior successes.
A good move is always about a good story and script. Computer special effects don't make a classic. This movie is no classic.
Don't waste your money.
AMAZING MOVIE!!!!! In my opinion better than The Dark Knight. Nolan is one of the best directors of all time. A person on this movie who CAN NOT be overlooked and often is is Han Zimmer. The scores he creates for not only INception, but The Dark Knight, The Last Samurai, and even The Pirates of the Caribbean truley are characters of their own, seeming at times to even dictate the story line. The cast was incredible. A huge kudos to the casting department. Oscars, here they come!!!