inception
Man, Inception was a really cool movie. I haven’t seen a movie this creative since The Matrix. (By the way, I just found out last week that a lot of the youth I work with have no idea what The Matrix is and who Keanu Reeves is. Crazy, I know. It’s finally happened. I’ve stopped being pop culture relevant. I’m the old lady in the room now. I need to go listen to Gucci Mane or something. Or is he irrelevant already?)
***** Okay here’s my obligatory SPOILER ALERT WARNING. Stop reading if you haven’t seen Inception (or Shutter Island) yet. *****
Inception was so fun to watch and I really didn’t want it to end because I wanted to explore more possibilities in dream life and witness more jaw-dropping scenes! I don’t really want to spend this post discussing alternate explanations though. This other blog post I found lays it out pretty well.
For the record, I don’t think the whole thing was a dream because I feel like that would be a copout. I also don’t think it was real at the end because it would be too nicely buttoned of an ending. Aaaand not to mention too coincidental that his reunion with his kiddos was so much like his memory of leaving them. But none of the other explanations are perfect, there seems to be loopholes in all of them. The main problem I’m stuck at is what exactly limbo is and what are the different ways to get there and leave. It seems a bit inconsistent in the movie. And if Cobb was going to be stuck in Limbo, Arthur and Ariadne seemed pretty nonchalant about it when discussing it on the bank of the van crash. Anyway, we can chat explanations later. I do like how there are so many discussions that can come after the movie. A mark of a great movie, right?
Here are my comments (in no particular order):
- It was alarming how many similarities this movie had to Shutter Island. Leonardo is getting really good at questionable sanity roles! Haha, seriously. When he went to the bathroom to splash water on his face, I chuckled to myself. (I wanted to say, “Get it together, Teddy!”) And of course, let’s not forget the psycho wife. The general feeling of creepiness that stayed with me after the movie felt the same too. The main difference is that Shutter Island had a lot of harrowing images and is downright grotesque at times. And it wasn’t quite as cool. I’d watch Inception again but I really don’t want to watch Shutter Island ever again.
- Why didn’t they make all the characters more likable? Sanky made a comment about character development and I agree with her. I’m usually pretty generous with character development when it comes to movies, too! My imagination can carry me pretty far… I was sad for Kevin Costner’s character in The Bodyguard for days. But I don’t feel like Inception even made an attempt to get me to like the characters! I mean, I liked Eames and Arthur but I found myself questioning why they would risk their lives like this. I didn’t get the feeling that either was particularly attached to Cobb and it felt shallow if they were just mercs, doing it for the cash. I normally like Ellen Page, she’s a cool kid. But sometimes she could be annoying in the movie. When she ran into the elevator and snuck down to Cobb’s Basement Level of memories, I was horrified. Why would she do that?! And there were times where I was thinking, “Why does she have to go? Why does she have to go after Fischer with Cobb? Isn’t she kind of a liability?” It was like watching Bourne Identity, wondering why the CIA was relying on Julia Stiles in her one-bedroom apartment playing recon central. Cobb was pretty likable until we found out that he FAILED TO MENTION THE WHOLE LIMBO FOREVER RISK IF YOU DIE to his teammates. It’s great that he wanted to reunite with his kids but sheesh. I wouldn’t exactly call him a great leader. The worst part of all the unlikable characters was Cobb’s wife, Mal. I really think they should have softened her up instead of making her the SCARIEST PERSON IN THE ENTIRE MOVIE. It was hard to sympathize with Cobb’s conflicted heart of deciding between reality and being with her because every time she showed up on screen, instead of thinking, “Aww… there’s his beautiful wife,” I was thinking, “OH CRAP, GET AWAY FROM HER, SHE’S GOING TO STAB YOU, RUN AWAY NOW!” At least in Shutter Island they waited until the end to show you what a nut job she was so you could feel the emotional collapse that Teddy felt. By the way, I think one of the most well done, yearning-for-wife, movies has got to be Minority Report when they show Tom Cruise watching home movies over and over on his super high tech AV system.
- I really enjoyed Arthur’s character. I know Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s bandwagon has been pretty full since 500 Days of Summer but I’ve got to comment on the guy anyway. I like how he did everything in the movie with such a *shrug*, just-another-day-in-the-life-of-a-dream-invader attitude. His zero gravity fight scene was pretty sweet and he’s opened the door for all the skinny actors out there to wield a gun in an action movie more confidently. I also like that he’s not attractive.
- I think they did a great job with all of the action scenes. I had no idea the movie would be so action packed with so many chase scenes, gun fights, and hand-to-hand combat scenes and they were all surprisingly well done. When they were on their mission in the rain, I could sense the vulnerability and danger of the gun fights, which is usually hard to do when it comes to action movies. Usually the characters seem invincible but I was actually scared for the team. Even though I knew they were in a dream. And before I knew about the whole Limbo risk!
- I love that they created all these rules and consequences for the dream life. I think that’s the draw of a lot of sci-fi movies like Harry Potter, Twilight, etc. Rules. This group of people can do this, this other people can do this, but they can’t do this because if they do, this will happen. Advantages and disadvantages for certain people (or animal?) groups. Offenses and defenses. I think it’s the same reason why people like Pokemon, Magic Cards, Starcraft and the like. I think we’re naturally drawn towards these kinds of movies and ideas. A clear structure in an obvious fantasy. I especially liked how time was exponentially faster the deeper they went in dreams. Especially because it’s based on truth — we can definitely dream of days in one night.
- After the movie, I tried to think of whether or not I’ve ever gotten an idea from a dream before. The closest I could think of was being scared into remembering something because I dreamt I forgot something and it was disastrous (this happens a lot when packing for a trip).
- I like how they used Ariadne’s introduction to show us the dream world piece by piece. I always enjoy that part of a movie. When they show one character being trained up. That was my favorite part about watching Wanted.
- I like how they set up the planning at an abandoned warehouse with old lawn chairs. It was cool how gritty everything was. Seemingly high-tech but to the casual eye it just looked like a group of people taking naps on lawn chairs together. I also like how they didn’t try to explain the technology of connecting IVs to their arms and entering other people’s dreams.
- Cillian Murphy is still SUPER scary from Red Eye and The Dark Knight. I knew he was a harmless character in the movie but I kept getting the sneaky suspicion that he was going to become Dr. Jonathan Crane a.k.a. The Scarecrow at any given moment.
- I didn’t know anyone’s names until after the movie when I was reading online about alternate explanations. Right after the movie, the Husband and I discussed the movie by saying, “Ellen Page, Leo, Ken Watanabe, Funny Guy, etc.” Ariadne? How do you even pronounce that?!?
- I’m not sure how old Ken Watanabe was supposed to be in the opening and final scenes with Leo, but geez, I think they may have overdone the makeup job. He was waaay past old — he was in alien territory.
- The more I think about it, the more I think the movie was brilliant because it used so many tried and true devices. So let’s see: structured sci-fi world creation, apprentice training, team of people with various strengths/abilities, team heist premise, a connection to something we can relate to (dreams), visual entertainment, action sequences, creepy factor, and debatable ending. Well done, Christopher Nolan!
