Non-spoilery thoughts on "Inception"

[flowrs4ophelia]

(Incidentally, the theatre where I saw the movie was bombarding everyone with Old Spice commercials. They practically could have done a tie-in campaign. Haha.)

I think Inception, though overall a quite good movie, could have done a lot more more with its concept than it did. I know a central idea is that the dreams are supposed to feel normal to the characters, but knowing this was inspired by movies like Dark City I can't help but regret how normal-looking rather than surreal so many of the scenes are. The characters are enjoyable enough that I was left wishing for more character-oriented moments and development. The film is much too intense to work as a simple and fun heist movie about a group of criminal specialists pulling off the seemingly impossible, but even with what's at stake for DiCaprio's character, I'm not sure it completely works in making you emotionally invested in the mission that's being attempted either. Even though we're often reminded of his reasons for what he's doing as his tragic past involving his family is gradually revealed, that story and the story in the present never really feel functionally connected. Maybe virtual realities and the like have been dealt with so much in recent sci-fi that it's more of a plus that it doesn't try to cover new ground in this way, but it never digs deep enough into the possibilities and questions of the kind of deception and illusion involved to be very memorable as a deep science fiction either.

Strangely enough, I know some people had similar complaints about The Prestige because they couldn't emotionally get into it. I personally had no difficulty staying excitedly glued to my seat during that entire movie and was somehow able to get drawn into the characters' obsessions and sympathize enough with them while others seemed to just get alienated by how increasingly unlikeable they became. So I suppose this might be a pretty subjective kind of problem in some of Nolan's movies. I've noticed before that his films always seem to start with a strong and slightly disorienting in media res kind of narrative that doesn't slow down right afterwards; you just eventually get used to the pace and are able to latch onto it and follow. When information is being given, it usually complicates rather than simplifies the viewing experience. He is so good at conveying the theme of obsession and a very focused and in-the-now state of mind because he doesn't waste a moment on the kind of relaxed exposition or development that usually gives the audience a sense of security and stability. In a movie like this or Memento, devices like that would disrupt the flow of it which is such a significant and fitting part of its unique kind of storytelling. Though Nolan's style is generally a great strength of his films, I guess sometimes it can make them seem to lack something as well. If you can stay drawn into what's happening, your mind will probably be blown, but if at any point you have to wonder But why do I care? then the film will pretty much irrecoverably abandon you.

If it sounds like the movie disappointed me, that's certainly not the case. I'm the one who's really annoyed when people have to emphatically point out the flaws of something that's "so overrated" just because they're sick of hearing about it so I hate to look like that person. I do recommend the movie, but I just know everything positive there is to say about Inception has probably already been said. (Yeah, as if that usually stops me from gushing extensively over something...But you get the point. LOL.) I'm surprised anyone would call it a "masterpiece" or Nolan's best work so far, but I think most of my problems with it have to do with my feeling that there was just so much really good stuff in it that could have been taken even further. I still had a great time watching it and am reserving some more decisive judgment until I see it again, not because I necessarily think it's okay for a film to require multiple viewings to be understood but because I know I could have paid better attention than I did during parts of it.

Comments

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

**averts eyes from spoilers as I haven't yet seen the movie, but stares at the prettiness that is JG-L**

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

Guh, I love him. :)

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. I really enjoyed the movie and am glad such movies are able to get made what with all the other mindless stuff in theatres every weekend (and yeah, although Nolan is wasted IMO on the Batman franchise, I understand that those kind of movies make this kind of movie possible). But I did feel it wasn't his best.

I loved The Prestige, and it was possibly my favorite movie this decade honestly. And I really enjoyed Memento but I had a detatchment to Inception that wsn't there with the other movies. I didn't really know or feel for these characters much because there was too much plot emphasis. I don't know if it would have been different with someone other than DiCaprio as the lead (I have a hard time getting past his DiCaprio-ness at this point) but I was slightly underwhelmed with all I'd heard by the predictableness of the movie (esp. the ending). I also felt the opening was very very slow and way too much was actually explained leaving the viewer with reams of exposition all of a confusing nature.

I'm trying to think of what would have improved the movie for me and actually I think it would have been better if they made Ellen Page more of a viewer stand-in, which she sort of was, but they could've went further with it. Start the movie with her being approached and then let us figure out the world as she does. I think Cobb would've benefitted more from this approach too as he would've come of as more mysterious and possibly shifty. Hmmm.

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to think of what would have improved the movie for me and actually I think it would have been better if they made Ellen Page more of a viewer stand-in, which she sort of was, but they could've went further with it. Start the movie with her being approached and then let us figure out the world as she does. I think Cobb would've benefitted more from this approach too as he would've come of as more mysterious and possibly shifty. Hmmm.

YESTHIS.

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

I had a detatchment to Inception that wsn't there with the other movies. I didn't really know or feel for these characters much because there was too much plot emphasis.
Yeah, that sums up my feelings exactly.

I can see that different approach working. Somehow the way Ariadne was the one who got Cobb to open up to her about everything seemed kind of forced, like that was almost her only role in the movie, and if she had actually been more of a lead character it would have seemed more natural.

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

I actually was disappointed in the movie, and I couldn't quite tell why, but when you mentioned that it didn't dig deep into the themes of deception and illusion, that made me realize what I was lacking from it. That's what I was looking for in Inception, but really what I saw was a thin veneer of potentially interesting themes, masking a shoot-em-up buildings-fall action movie. So thank you for helping me sort that out.

I would like to mention that I LOVED The Prestige and am looking forward to watching Momento.

stalled out on an escalator wishing, which way to return, up or down,

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

I think the reason I'm not having the "they could've done more with the themes" reaction? Dreams, on a philosophical level, when you're opening up the how-do-you-know-what's-real question, have never really interested me. I'm both cynical and apathetic about the question of reality, because there are so many lines of logic about it that lead to the end of the road where it doesn't matter because nothing other than what we've always perceived to be true can ever be real to us, and I think our minds are powerful enough for that to not undermine the value of any real or constructed reality. Which seems to be why I'm the only person who doesn't think the spinning top at the ending sets up a possibly unhappy ending. If Nolan had gone all out with the themes, it wouldn't have been a bad movie necessarily, but it would've felt like the special effects extravaganza translation of a bunch of weed smokers in somebody's basement and it wouldn't have been for me.

As for the emotional weight of the job, they probably could've improved that by making characters besides Cobb have something really important on the line. I do think it's easy to question why the characters care so much when we forget that none of them are in any actual risk of death, but there were still (supposedly?) psychological risks at stake. Though maybe a better understanding of every step of the plan would make me feel differently about that.

Re: stalled out on an escalator wishing, which way to return, up or down,

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

Well, that's not necessarily what I meant as far as where they could have gone philosophically. I also find the whole "How do you define what's real?" question a little boring and uselessly only theoretical to ponder, but idk...maybe there could have been more to explore with just the ideas of memory or the genesis of an idea or all the usually dormant potential of the brain.

[ophelietta.livejournal.com]

Apologies for spamming your journal with comments like a mother, but ummmm Joseph Gordon-Levitt caught my eye. Ahem.

Stop being in my brain. Or don't stop, because it's eerie and so absolutely cool to see someone with thoughts that are uncannily similar to mine, except more articulate. My thoughts being: not surreal-feeling enough*, could've delved more into character and the group dynamics (they had a pretty solid ensemble, and it seems like they could've had such fun and some intense interactions with that), and they could've pushed the envelope when it came to the questions of deceptions, illusions, reality, and dreams - which there is tons of really interesting literature on. Also, you seemed to share that vague feeling that I should re-watch it in order to give it the benefit of the doubt.

I'm a lot more attached to Memento than to The Prestige, and so I think I went in preparing to be absolutely confused by the first ten minutes; being thrown into the action wasn't that jarring or uncomfortable for me (but that's me, personally, after an unhealthy amount of viewings of Memento. Eugh, and after being forced to watch Primer, EVERYTHING seems laughably simplistic. If you haven't watched it, don't. The first twenty minutes is just... engineers talking. Anyway, I digress.) I thought the dream sequence was a very solid example of that heist movie device, with the heist-in-miniature as the opening, and the heist-in-full taking over the bulk of the movie. It's a shame you can't really get much mileage, once the initial surprise wears off, out of "Oooh, it's a dream-within-a-dream! Within a dream."

... Er, I was disappointed, though. I tried to come to the movie with an open mind - I was so ready to fall in love with it - but I think the hype really did kill something for me. I loved Marion Cotillard as Mal, but we're living in a post-Matrix (or post-Dark City, if you will) world where pretty much everyone is plagued by a vague paranoia that nothing is real. Most of us throw up our hands, pragmatically say, "It's unprovable either way" and get on with our lives. Her plight is sad, but (minus dream technology) not really that new. The high concept at the center of Inception is intensely cool, but they could've opened some much bigger cans of worms - and they didn't.

Also. I agree with taragel's comment that the movie would've been much more interesting if they had focused more on Ellen Page's POV, if we had seen this world through her. And, uh, agreement with your other comment that the "opening up" between Ariadne and Cobb seemed forced - I think they might've made more of the possible similarities between them, how they started off from the same place as cocky young Architects high on creation, so that it would make sense for him to open up to her. I think something like that would make her attraction/fascination with him more understandable, which would help to justify what I thought was a horrific violation of his privacy when she dove right into his memory dreams. (I don't feel the same moral squishiness when they go stealing things in other people's minds though, possibly because I'm not aware of dead wives in the basement level of their average mark's subconscious.)

Another thing that surprised me was that the two emotional arcs, that of Cillian Murphy and his father, and Cobb and Mal, weren't woven together more tightly as obvious parallels. Maybe it's just me who finds them oddly disconnected. Even Cillian Murphy's big blue eyes can't completely make up for it. :/

* My cousin and I played a game afterward, of who we would cast to direct a "remix" of Inception. Our favourite pick was Michel Gondry. :D