TTK12G3 on 17/7/2010 at 20:46
Quote Posted by Sulphur
Some smartass in the left row filled in the dialogue for us MST3K style with the most feminine manly voice you've ever heard, complete with a very ladylike Wilhelm scream at the scene's climax. It was so good, half the the theatre applauded him, then threw popcorn at him before we all went back to cursing the film operator.
Sounds like that was a wonderful interlude.
SubJeff on 17/7/2010 at 22:15
From what I'm hearing this has a Primer-esk complexity to the plot. I don't know anything else about it though apart from it's Leo, it's Nolan, it's dreams and the all the promo music has been frakking awesomely ominous.
I'll be seeing it tomorrow and the only thing that will disappoint me, I think, is if - and there is a potential spoiler here so don't read if you haven't seen it - the whole thing is just in his head/a dream. Leo has already been in one film this year that looked quite good but which had the most predictable twist that was telegraphed in the damn trailer. However, I can deal with Philip K Dick level of reality layers, a la The 3 Sigmata of Palmer Eldritch (No, don't pretend you got it fully the first time. You didn't, mmmk?) or Ubik. If it's like that it'll be full of win.
N'Al on 17/7/2010 at 22:51
Never seen Primer, but I don't think the movie's too difficult to get, to be perfectly honest. It does leave you with a few questions - particularly about the ending (so, did he or did he not get out in the end?) - but otherwise it's pretty easy to grasp if you're paying attention. Yes, it will probably reveal new things upon repeat viewings, but they're certainly not essential.
I'm mostly with Sulphur. There is some awkward exposition dialogue in places, but otherwise it's very, very good.
Ko0K on 18/7/2010 at 04:30
Thought it was extremely well put together. Once again, Nolan manages the screen time very efficiently, and it is manifested by the way the characters seemed to develop effortlessly. As for the main plot... Meh.
Spiders on 18/7/2010 at 05:35
All things considered, I thought Inception delivered its convoluted plot in a very comprehensible, responsible way. It's fairly easy to follow, though it certainly requires a lot more close attention and engagement on the viewer's part than most movies out there right now. It's basically as deep as you're willing to let it be. Even if you don't catch all the layers, it comes across as just an awesome, magnificently-designed action movie with really staggering visuals.
Primer's been one of my all-time favorite movies since it came out, and I don't believe Inception is even a fraction as tortuous. Primer's all about insanely complex time travel and causality mayhem, whereas Inception has a very reasonable structure based around some simple rules that are quite well explained early on. If you pay attention, you're set. I don't think it's quite as impossibly deep and impenetrable as some people have been suggesting.
Scots Taffer on 18/7/2010 at 10:05
I want to see it again and will when I get back to Australia. I loved every second of the "heist" and the multilayered action was amazing, plus the practically-shot rotating/zero-g fight with Joseph Gordon-Levitt had me wanting more and more. Visually and pacing-wise its utterly propulsive and compelling. It's easily the best film I've seen all year and the best movie I've seen in cinemas since The Dark Knight.
I do love that closing shot - I had been starting to wonder since they pulled Di Caprio away from his spinning top more than once (in the bathroom by Watanabe), if we weren't actually still stuck in a dream from the very early going - there's also the question of whether inception truly worked, or if Leo was wrong and they were in a dream and only Moll got out. I also started to wonder, perhaps too cleverly, if the inception Leo had carried out was on himself... It may all be simpler than this, and at least on an initial runthrough it would seem that the easiest answer holds (inception worked, his wife went mad, the spinning top was falling over as the screen went dark), but I love that they opened the door to some ambiguity.
All that said, the script could have done with some work. The movie does break the cardinal show don't tell rule a few times, especially in cases where it may even have clearly benefited by using the former (such as the prior "inception", a scene that would have been very powerful I think, but this would remove any possibility of ambiguity perhaps). One thing I do like is how the script deftly sidesteps ever having to explain Inception's (or rather, Extraction's) place in The Real World, or how they achieve what they're doing technologically or how it was found in the first place.
Yes, definitely need to see it again.
Ko0K on 18/7/2010 at 18:45
I personally thought the ambiguous ending was rather familiar, and now I am curious as to whether that idea was borrowed from "The Thirteenth Floor." It's been years since I watched that film, but I do recall that it left a pretty strong impression in my mind.
Scots Taffer on 18/7/2010 at 21:50
Yes, there is an almost Rod Serling quality to the final shot and that can feel very familiar, however I still like the little "ahh" it caused to ripple through the multiplex.
SubJeff on 19/7/2010 at 00:20
Ha ha. Yes Scots, the "aaah" happened here too.
There are no out and out spoilers here, not in terms of plot or anything, but I am going to talk about the concept so I'll spoiler bits anyway.
I loved this. Its the best film I've seen for an age. In fact I stuggle to think of a film I've seen in the last 5 years that I've enjoyed so much. There were things it could improve on (the "show not tell" thing you mentioned Scots) but nothing I felt it actually lacked. The plot was great and by plot I mean the mechanic of what they were doing and how it had you wondering and trying to work it out all the time.
The "plot", the actual Inception, was just a Macguffin let's face it. It was about the experience, the layers, the not knowing and the trying to find out. It was about one thing, and here's the mother of all 4th wall breakers:
An idea.
I loved the idea. Very well constructed with so many layers of reference, self-reference and reference to us the viewers. It was almost blatant. The scenes were they are designing the dream layers and the construction of the Inception made me think of film producers discussing how they are going to lead the audience by the hand and down the rabbit hole. And then they did it for us but oh shi something gone a wrooong so you have to pay even more attention.
Looked great but more than that the music was faaaaaaantastic. I hope there is a soundtrack for this, it was crazy omi-epic.
Yes. I'll be watching this again for sure.
Scots - when Cobb is spinning the top with Satio it stops, doesn't it?
DDL on 19/7/2010 at 12:12
Was an ace film, though damn: my dreams are never that straightforward. Fewer cities, more great white sharks.
Also, re: the whole totem thing...I don't think the top would tell us anything, since: what use is a totem you implicitly know everything about...if you're in your own dream?
Plus why haven't his kids aged at all, or changed clothes, or even changed their location? And there was the whole bit with the chase in the market where dicaprio seemed incapable of squeezing through a clearly wide enough alleyway, while the bad guys got closer and closer....so I'm going with yeah: the whole thing's a dream.
