Sulphur on 27/7/2010 at 15:43
I saw The Prestige last night, and it ended not with a flourish, but a limp plot point telegraphed so far back that I'd started deconstructing the way the movie handled the build up to it from the halfway point. Which was, I'm sorry to say, not very impressive at all.
Shug might actually be right. Stitch may be caught in a feedback loop that's going to overload from the moment I start mentioning Memento.
DDL on 27/7/2010 at 15:48
And why didn't he just use the machine to duplicate fucking gold bars? Graaaaah.
I thought it was going to be something like: a clever con on the part of bale to trick jackman into buying a shitty lightning turret, followed by a frame up with the jackman double, followed by the (admittedly telegraphed) bale twin getting revenge...but no: replicator magic!
Sorry, needed to get that out.
Stitch on 27/7/2010 at 16:03
Quote Posted by Sulphur
Stitch may be caught in a feedback loop that's going to overload from the moment I start mentioning Memento.
Why would I disparage Nolan's best movie? :cool:
Scots Taffer on 27/7/2010 at 16:14
Quote Posted by Sulphur
I saw The Prestige last night, and it ended not with a flourish, but a limp plot point telegraphed so far back that I'd started deconstructing the way the movie handled the build up to it from the halfway point. Which was, I'm sorry to say, not very impressive at all.
The Prestige is my least favourite Nolan movie from my single viewing of it - I thought the central twist was telegraphed so clearly that it wasn't meant to be a twist and instead we should be focusing on the morality of the man who
kills himself over and over just for the joy of entertainment. It's a study in obsession, both in Bale and Hugh's characters, but it's a rather boring one in the end.
I still want to see Inception again in the cinema if only to see if it grows or shrinks for me upon a repeat viewing and also to see if I can puzzle out my own version of what went on.
Scots Taffer on 27/7/2010 at 16:15
Quote Posted by Stitch
Why would I disparage Nolan's best movie? :cool:
Word.
Stitch on 27/7/2010 at 18:19
Also: my opinion of Inception isn't exactly collapsing in upon itself, I'm merely countering absurd claims that the lack of character depth didn't matter. Without a heart beating at the center of a film the structure around it is nothing more than structure, although in the case of Inception said structure is pretty intriguing.
Sulphur on 27/7/2010 at 18:51
To be fair, Memento had almost exactly the same issues. It was cleverly pieced together, and while it played head-games with you about the characters, they weren't exactly what I'd call fleshed out. It didn't stand out then because the story required that sort of ambiguity to be effective. Plus, the hooks were the revenge plot and the perpetually twisting narrative, which also didn't call for much depth. In the end, I'd say people tend to go easier on Memento because it didn't suffer from Inception's burden of expectations since, having come first and out of nowhere, it was something wholly original and unique.
Quote Posted by Scots Taffer
The Prestige is my least favourite Nolan movie from my single viewing of it - I thought the central twist was telegraphed so clearly that it wasn't meant to be a twist and instead we should be focusing on the morality of the man who
kills himself over and over just for the joy of entertainment. It's a study in obsession, both in Bale and Hugh's characters, but it's a rather boring one in the end.
Indeed. I got that from the closing shot, but the movie's central motif didn't wrap back around that concept, which would have been far more clever. It seemed strangely empty for the missed potential that could have been realised.
The Alchemist on 27/7/2010 at 19:58
I loved The Prestige. =/ And Memento.
Stitch on 27/7/2010 at 21:44
Quote Posted by Sulphur
To be fair, Memento had almost exactly the same issues.
I disagree.
Memento isn't the deepest movie on the block, but it does focus on effectively telling one man's story. He's a sympathetic protagonist in a compelling scenario and you want to see where the story is going, and the fact that the structure is cool is merely icing on the cake. For comparison, I can't imagine that anyone watching
Inception really gives a shit whether or not Leo ever sees his kids again.
Memento is also a more inherently simple film, and because of this Nolan is able to let the film breathe and have a little fun.
Memento takes the premise and crafts a compelling whodunit in reverse, using the structure to place the audience into the protagonist's shoes for our own journey of mystery and discovery. We are forced to fill in the blanks ourselves based on what we are shown.
Inception is pretty much the opposite, a film so complicated that everything must be explicitly told to us.
Inception is largely made up of people explaining exactly what they're about to do and then doing it and then discussing what they just did. The structure is just too convoluted to allow for anything else.
Again, the fact that
Inception is all structure doesn't make it a bad movie, as there is a certain joy in untangling the mysteries of a labyrinthine narrative. I may be aware of how much better
Inception could have been, but at the same time I'm glad someone out there is making movies like this. Nolan is swinging for high-concept greatness and for that I applaud him.
SubJeff on 28/7/2010 at 00:02
The "problem" with Inception is that Nolan needs to explain the concepts so explicitly because in the final act it goes one step deeper than before and then it goes wrong. So you need to be up to speed or you'll be lost.
And then it goes not one but two levels deeper.
It's all well and good just having the setup without all the explanation, and thus having time to flesh the characters and emotional hooks, but the man ain't Lynch and seems to like his films convoluted but clear enough for mainstream audiences.
