The Alchemist on 1/10/2011 at 21:46
Spoilerific. Don't read if you haven't seen! Go see it first then come back. :)
I'm sorry about the terrible thread tittle but today I sat down and watched Shutter Island for the second time, and I'm reminded of how I felt the first time I watched it. I seem to recall wondering then, as I do now, why Inception was so popular and considered such a "mind-fuck" when Shutter Island is ten times better of a movie. Perhaps I am weak to the plight of those dealing with their sanity, I've been to far too many psych wards in my short life, but I find the way this movie evolves not just the characters, but how you feel about them to be terribly evocative. Basically, as an observer, you too have to succumb to the realization that your main character is in fact, insane, and that everything you've believed up until that point was nothing more than a hallucination. I love narratives that make you question the allegiances we make as observers/readers, much in the way A Song of Ice and Fire makes you rethink who is "good" and who is "evil", often portraying everyone is morally... human, with their strengths and their weaknesses, defined by their flaws of character, as we say in NA... They're all relatable, and depending on the drive of the narrative you are lead to question this relationship as the observer, which is terribly stimulating. I think this movie has great pace, great use of his "dreams", a simply stellar character development that puts you through the same dilemma as the main character. You go through accepting the truth at the same pace as he does, and I found that brilliant. So, do you agree? Shouldn't this film have received more attention? Or do you think Inception was more evocative?
Tocky on 2/10/2011 at 01:17
Exactly so. Inception merely redid a concept done twice already with two movies so memorable I can't think of eithers name. The first was one in the early 80's staring that bottle clicking guy from "Warriors" as the villain (Subjective Effect mentioned it in another thread) and the second starred bubblebutt JLo. Oh but they added extra layers to inception and more action zappy pow CGI. Yeah.
Shutter Island had a plot. A movie with an actual story not created to showcase bang-boom is just naturally going to be better. It's difficult to translate the total immersion of being crazy to those not so (praise jebus) but this managed to carry you along with the protagonist so that you also did not know where the line was or who was nuts and thus did so admirably. It also did not take a sunshiney robin tweeting on windowsill everybody farting roses Hollywood ending. It had the courage to break your heart.
icemann on 2/10/2011 at 04:45
I personally found Shutter Island to be one of the most boring movies I've ever seen. I am quite fond of the movie however as it was what got myself and my current girlfriend to hookup, due to being in the movies and being bored of it etc.
So for that I say thank you to Shutter Island. Very boring movie still however.
Inception in comparison was fantastic.
Tocky on 2/10/2011 at 05:12
Then I recommend the latest Conan movie for you. It too is all flash bang CGI with no substance.
Nicker on 2/10/2011 at 06:42
And so it begins...
Mr.Duck on 2/10/2011 at 06:56
I enjoyed both movies and await your judgement with eager anticipation :D
Yakoob on 2/10/2011 at 07:05
I agree, I found shutter island surprisingly good. What I liked about it is that, while on the surface it may seem like the typical "is he crazy or is everyone else?" psycho-thriller, it really isn't. It's pretty obvious from the start that the protagonist is crazy, and the movie does not try to re-create the trite cliche again of making the audience guess; instead, it focuses on how the insane patient's mind works from the inside, and how it slowly comes to discover its own insanity. Only to succumb to it once again at the very end.
nicked on 2/10/2011 at 07:35
Really? I thought Shutter Island was presented very much as a "Can you guess the plot twist?" movie, with a really obvious plot twist. I enjoyed it because it was good fun, but it was fairly predictable.
Inception on the other hand, I found to be well-constructed but so depressing that it was rarely enjoyable. It certainly doesn't deserve the huge amount of hype and praise it got, although I'm glad the "X within an X" meme came out of it.
Certainly there are many anime films that deal with the idea of dreams and the nature of reality far better (Perfect Blue, Paprika to name a couple)
I think the actual nature of the dreams in Inception was what didn't click for me. Very cold, sterile, often too logical. My dreams are usually organic, nonsensical quests of some kind. Inception's dreams felt barely more real than a Nightmare on Elm Street.
Thirith on 2/10/2011 at 10:08
Amiga vs Atari ST FTW...
I liked both Inception and Shutter Island. They do different things well. I don't think Inception is quite as clever as it's sometimes made out to be, but it's one of the smartest action movies in a long time and brilliantly made to boot. Shutter Island is brilliant in terms of atmosphere, but it's difficult to take its Grand Guignol neo-Gothic horror fully seriously. It telegraphs its plot twist early on, and its notion of mental health is defined more by insanity in the movies than by any real notion of insanity. Which is fair enough, because the film doesn't set out to be a realistic depiction of madness - but it diminishes the film IMO, because it focuses so much on its twist that there simply isn't that much there without it, other than atmosphere.
Kuuso on 2/10/2011 at 10:46
Inception is a good movie, but I don't think the characters are fleshed out enough and the emotional payoff it should have doesn't really work well enough. Too much flash instead of substance.
Shutter Island on the other hand is a well-rounded and complete movie. I think it's a marvellous example of proper cinematic storytelling. The plot twist was obvious, but it wasn't never meant to be a secret either, it was just meant to unravel slowly. The scene of revelation in the tower is superb, Dicaprio being fantastic in it. I'd gladly watch it again, since it's also shot lovely with good editing.
