"Inception"

[Eriku]

Fantastic... I don't know about that... It didn't tell us anything we didn't know about dreams ("dreams always seem real until you wake-up" is not the huge nugget that it was scripted to be), it required huge leaps of faith in accepting the premise (the mechanics in a dream within a dream, etc), it was fairly trite in how it went towards the end with the clock ticking and the slow-mo action enveloping the main plot, and it utilised a super-typical ending... Not to mention the montage in the middle, where they're gearing up for the mission.

For many people these sort of things mean it's not fantastic... Fantastic films, to me, shouldn't make you roll your eyes at how typical certain elements in the film are.

 

[Nearco]

It's an absolutely fantastic movie, I get the feeling people who argue otherwise are doing it just for the sake of it, or don't like it because everyone else does.

Exactly. If The Web had been invented thirty years earlier you'd have had people on Internet forums saying The Godfather was overrated and overhyped.

 

[Randall Flagg]

Yeah its a cracking movie. Maybe a tad overrated but it got so much hype...

Who hates it out of interest?

 

[girish]

Pogue?

 

[Wibble]

It's an absolutely fantastic movie, I get the feeling people who argue otherwise are doing it just for the sake of it, or don't like it because everyone else does.

I didn't hate it. In fact I enjoyed it when I feared that I'd be annoyed by it. That the plot more or less came together and remained understandable throughout was a major achievement in of itself. Source Code was less complexly plotted yet more lazily scripted and executed and this told in the end products.

That said I almost instantly forgot about it and I have trouble remembering much more than the ending now. I also have no urge to watch it again. So I think of it as excellent popcorn type entertainment.

 

[RDCR07]

I don't think a lot of people hated it per say but a lot of them found the movie confusing and did not like the fact that they had to think during it.

 

[Wibble]

One of its strengths was that, despite the convoluted plot, it wasn't confusing. It did however suffer from being a bit too clever for its own good. A cloud of smug did hang over it a tad.

 

[Spoony]

I don't think a lot of people hated it per say but a lot of them found the movie confusing and did not like the fact that they had to think during it.

It wasn't particularly cerebral, in fact it wasn't at all. As Wibbs said popcorn entertainment.

 

[Sky1981]

It's not overhyped. The 9 / 10 they get is pure on the idea itself, not for the shootings etc.

It's quite a good action movie, but the main premise is the idea of life in dreams.

It's a ground breaking movie in that terms.

 

[Sky1981]

It got us thinking way ahead of the movie, the movie will be remembered as pop corn box office, but the idea of living inside your dreams will spark imaginations on many.

 

[Wibble]

It will? Why?

 

[Cina]

I thought it was a good film, just massively over hyped is all. Nolan has made better than it.

 

[Escobar]

I thought it was a good film, just massively over hyped is all. Nolan has made better than it.

Agreed. Good movie, but not the epic classic as some want to believe

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Pogue?

Heh. I didn't hate it. I just didn't think it was very good.

I watched the whole thing and did sort of enjoy it. In parts. Which wouldn't have happened if I'd actually hated it. It was very silly though and not half as clever as it seemed to think it was.

 

[Eyepopper]

I thought it was a brilliant film, clever idea and well put together story.

As a matter of interest, who goes to see a Leonardo Di Caprio film expecting anything other an popcorn entertainment? Thats exactly what its supposed to be isn't it?

 

[acnumber9]

Heh. I didn't hate it. I just didn't think it was very good.

I watched the whole thing and did sort of enjoy it. In parts. Which wouldn't have happened if I'd actually hated it. It was very silly though and not half as clever as it seemed to think it was.

To be fair you criticised it for not doing something it never tried to and was very early on in the film explained. I think it's fair to say you didn't pay much attention to it. It's easy to see why people thought you hated it.

 

[Red Pavan]

After watching the film for the first time yesterday, i did think it was excellent. But Dark Knight was even better if we are talking about Nolan's films.

 

[BAMSOLA]

I do actually hear part of what Pogue is saying as I thought that despite the praise it mostly deservedly gets its flaws are still masked by the critical acclaim.

For my money the first half of the movie is bursting with genius ideas that work brilliantly, the last half hour is infinately less interesting as soon as it becomes about guns and explosions.

And I get that Nolan was diliberately trying to go for an inteligent blockbuster but he has done it in essentially a very simplistic way by making the the first 2/3rds of the movie cerebral and about ideas and the second half visceral and epic but lacking the complexity of ideas which made the first 2/3rds so enjoyable.

What was needed is more of the inventiveness of the first 2/3rds of the movie in the last part of the movie, and yes there are some good ideas in the last half but they seem to me to play second fiddle to guns and explosions.

Overall its an excellent and accomplished movie but there are parts of it as listed above which left me feeling a little disinterested as well as some of the characters including Cobb who left me feeling the same way.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

To be fair you criticised it for not doing something it never tried to and was very early on in the film explained. I think it's fair to say you didn't pay much attention to it. It's easy to see why people thought you hated it.

Yeah, that's right. The reason I didn't like it was because I didn't pay enough attention. My bad.

 

[R.N7]

It was by no means a bad film but not really a great one either, it's not hard to see why the popcorn audience who've not seen many films rate it so highly though.

 

[Neil_Buchanan]

I watched it once but it was too much hard work, good story and concept and all that but if you have to pause it everytime theres the slightest disturbance because you cant miss a second of it or you will be lost then its not a great film, its a test.

 

[acnumber9]

Yeah, that's right. The reason I didn't like it was because I didn't pay enough attention. My bad.

Sorry, I should've said you didn't understand what you were watching. My bad.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Sorry, I should've said you didn't understand what you were watching. My bad.

Heh. Hate to break it to you but Inception isn't the tortuous, densely plotted mind feck you seem to think it was. It's possible to follow a movie and still not like it. Mad, eh?

 

[Gambit]

Sorry, I should've said you didn't understand what you were watching. My bad.

Sorry as much as i dislike agreeing with Pogue and much prefer arguing with him, I have to agree. Inception was an incredibly easy film to understand and it's so called complex side was only complex to idiots. It was a heist film, pure and simple and a very dull one at that.

 

[acnumber9]

Heh. Hate to break it to you but Inception isn't the tortuous, densely plotted mind feck you seem to think it was. It's possible to follow a movie and still not like it. Mad, eh?

That's not the point I'm making though is it? You criticised the films dream sequences for not being dreamy enough despite it being explained early in the film they couldn't be. Like I said you either weren't paying attention or didn't understand it. Hate to break it to you but it's one or the other. You not being right about something, mad eh?

 

[acnumber9]

Soory as much as i dislike agreeing with Pogue and much prefer arguing with him, I have to agree. Inception was an incredibly easy film to understand and it's so called complex side was only complex to idiots. It was a heist film, pure and simple and a very dull one at that.

I'm not saying the film is hard to understand. I'm pointing out somebody here didn't understand why the dreams lacked a more dreamy effect. For a film he's at pains to point out how simple it is he's dropped a bit of a clanger.

 

[Spoony]

Soory as much as i dislike agreeing with Pogue and much prefer arguing with him, I have to agree. Inception was an incredibly easy film to understand and it's so called complex side was only complex to idiots. It was a heist film, pure and simple and a very dull one at that.

Imagine what they'd think of Inland Empire or anything by Miike. A dream within a dream within a dream within a dream - wow, groundbreaking and cerebral - even though it shamelessly ripped off Paprika. I think Lynch would've made it into a cracking film though....the dream sequences had so much potential but they were rather unimaginative and well....undreamlike. I suspect the protagonists didn't have much of an imagination. Oh and I had a waking dream the other day. Lights not switching on is such a trigger.

 

[acnumber9]

Imagine what they'd think of Inland Empire or anything by Miike. A dream within a dream within a dream within a dream - wow, groundbreaking and cerebral - even though it shamelessly ripped off Paprika. I think Lynch would've made it into a cracking film though....the dream sequences had so much potential but they were rather unimaginative and well....undreamlike. I suspect the protagonists didn't have much of an imagination. Oh and I had a waking dream the other day. Lights not switching on is such a trigger.

The dreams had to be as close to real life as possible. That was the point.

 

[Gambit]

Imagine what they'd think of Inland Empire or anything by Miike. A dream within a dream within a dream within a dream - wow, groundbreaking and cerebral - even though it shamelessly ripped off Paprika. I think Lynch would've made it into a cracking film though....the dream sequences had so much potential but they were rather unimaginative and well....undreamlike. I suspect the protagonists didn't have much of an imagination. Oh and I had a waking dream the other day. Lights not switching on is such a trigger.

My biggest problem was there was never any sense of danger for the protaganists, which removed all sense of drama out of the film, that and exccept for Tom Hardy's character the rest of them were douches that you wanted to actually die. I'd have loved to have seen a Cronenberg version.

 

[Spoony]

The dreams had to be as close to real life as possible. That was the point.

Why? Why? Why? when you're in a dream it's like real life because you don't realise you're dreaming, why on earth would you need it to be like real life? Watch Paprika, by the way, it's well....the...original.

 

[acnumber9]

Why? Why? Why? when you're in a dream it's like real life because you don't realise you're dream, why on earth would you need it to be like real life? Watch Paprika, by the way, it's well....the...original.

I don't know, there's been points in dreams were I've realised it was a dream and woke up.

 

[Spoony]

My biggest problem was there was never any sense of danger for the protaganists, which removed all sense of drama out of the film, that and exccept for Tom Hardy's character the rest of them were douches that you wanted to actually die. I'd have loved to have seen a Cronenberg version.

My other gripe was Nolan completely spoonfed the watcher. He should've had more faith with film-goers. Then again, I think it was never meant to be anything more than an accessible popcorn flick.

 

[Spoony]

I don't know, there's been points in dreams were I've realised it was a dream and woke up.

I have but only when I've noticed the triggers - like not being able to read the same word twice, read a digital clock, being able to switch the lights on and off, or seeing someone else's face in my reflection. But you can't do that in deep sleep. Seriously, it had so much potential, AC.

 

[acnumber9]

I have but only when I've noticed the triggers - like not being able to read the same word twice, read a digital clock, being able to switch the lights on and off, or seeing someone else's face in my reflection. But you can't do that in deep sleep. Seriously, it had so much potential, AC.

Your disappointment clearly comes from it not being what you wanted it to be about. You wanted a study on dreams when in reality all Inception tried to be was a heist film with a different spin.

 

[R.N7]

I refuse to believe that anyone could seriously believe it to be a very convoluted movie.

 

[hungrywing]

My biggest problem was there was never any sense of danger for the protaganists, which removed all sense of drama out of the film, that and exccept for Tom Hardy's character the rest of them were douches that you wanted to actually die. I'd have loved to have seen a Cronenberg version.

They actually filmed that.

In that version, one by one the protagonists actually do die during the third act assault on the fortress, with each death producing particular results regarding DiCaprio's self-image/perception of his surroundings. DiCaprio wakes up in line at immigration and passes through baggage claim where everyone is inexplicably still alive but shows no sign of recognizing him; he makes it home to be reunited with his kids, enjoys a moment of epiphany where he realizes the others (and particularly their deaths) were self-manifested metaphoric projections of his mind trying to shed to the late 20th early 21st century hyper-capitalistic pressures of sacrificing family values for the pursuit of social definition/status ("architect", "CEO", etc.) at which point his wife enters, shoots him, his son takes the top from him and spins it on the table and the film ends with his childrens' blue eyes watching the unseen top to see if it falls.

 

[Brwned]

It's an absolutely fantastic movie, I get the feeling people who argue otherwise are doing it just for the sake of it, or don't like it because everyone else does.

You don't think it's possible that people have a deeper appreciation of movies and thus were expecting more than just a popcorn flick?

I liked it though, kept me entertained. Not one of the best movies of the decade, never mind the last few decades...but if someone asked me if it's worth a watch I'd say yeah, easy entertainment. What other movies would you call fantastic, out of interest?

 

[Pogue Mahone]

The dreams had to be as close to real life as possible. That was the point.

Interesting. You accuse me of not understanding what went on and you've missed the point yourself. They need "architects" to manipulate the subconscious to meet their needs but ultimately there's a whole lot beyond their control. That's why they have to operate within certain constraints and run the risk of being turned into vegetables if it all goes tits up.

Because, ultimately, they're not hanging out in a computer simulation. It's a fecking dream. Existing entirely in the subconscious of a human brain. Which is a fairly whacky and surreal place. Hence my point about it not being "dream-like" enough.

Ho hum. If you think the only reason someone could fail to enjoy a not particularly complicated blockbuster is because they're not as astute as you then fair enough. That's your perogative.

 

[Minkaro]

My other gripe was Nolan completely spoonfed the watcher.

The scenes where Leonardo Di Caprio explains everything to Ellen Page are basically one step above Christopher Nolan just walking into the cinema and going "you all following this? anybody got any questions?"

 

[acnumber9]

Interesting. You accuse me of not understanding what went on and you've missed the point yourself. They need "architects" to manipulate the subconscious to meet their needs but ultimately there's a whole lot beyond their control. That's why they have to operate within certain constraints and run the risk of being turned into vegetables if it all goes tits up.

Because, ultimately, they're not hanging out in a computer simulation. It's a fecking dream. Existing entirely in the subconscious of a human brain. Which is a fairly whacky and surreal place. Hence my point about it not being "dream-like" enough.

Ho hum. If you think the only reason someone could fail to enjoy a not particularly complicated blockbuster is because they're not as astute as you then fair enough. That's your perogative.

You've just further proved you didn't grasp what was going on. The architects designed the environment, that is is why that was life like. The subject populated it. The subject was not aware it was a dream so that is why they were not dream like. That was the whole point. I've never said it was the reason you disliked it, I said you didn't pay attention or understand it. I also never said anything about me being astute or that the film was a mind feck or anything remotely like that. It was you who created that fictitious argument. It's something you're quite astute at.