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avreliaI went and watched Inception. The first movie I watched in 2010 and in USA. I need to find some company to go to movies together, because going alone is not the same, especially when I want to talk about it afterward.
Anyway, that’s what I have LJ for. I liked the movie well enough to watch it the second time some time in the future. I loved the actors involved and they did a great job. I don’t like much Christopher Nolan’s work, but this was probably most watchable of all. I wasn’t bored for two plus hours, the suspense was suspenseful enough to keep me on the edge of my seat literally, even though I knew it was a movie and not real. There were pieces of action that were too long - I think the chase in the snow plodded on meaninglessly, but the slow fall, the piece in the hotel starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and others were awesome. I realize I really like him - the more I see him the more the liking. And yes, it is kind of weird that the first and strongest impression is his work in Third rock from the sun (that I saw and adored in Russia), but thanks to IMDB I know he is two years older than my sister. Which makes it much less weird. I still feel old, but less weird. I love his slim and athletic physique that kind of reminds me of Peter O’Toole in How to Steal a Million. Interestingly, I like Leonardo Di Caprio without any, well, aesthetic appreciation. But my sister, who was fourteen when Titanic came out, fell to the same epidemic of Leo adoration that plagues fourteen y.olds all over the world... But I digressed. The action scenes in the hotel and the stunts JGL pulls in that sequence are probably my favourite part of the movie. So visually cool.
The dreams that were not as strange and dreamlike as real dreams - I had no problems with it. They were not real dreams - they were built to feel real and to answer a specific purpose. Of course, one might said that the dreamer’s subconscious should bring in more dreamy stuff, but it is a matter of personal vision, I guess, both viewers’ and creator’s.
The whole dream inside a dream thing necessarily bring a question to one’s mind - where does the dream ends and reality begins? And of course, the movie takes pains not to answer this question. For the two hours we follow Cobb, DiCaprio’s character through the maze of his pain and others’ dreams, and then suddenly everything works out just fine. The thing is, we want it to work out just fine - that’s why we go to movies, to invest in characters and follow their dreams. Not only watch things go “boom”, otherwise everyone just would watch demolition works. And the movie gives us the sound of totem. Which may or may not be falling. Which means we don’t know, and won’t ever know was that all a dream of Cobb or not. There are things that kind of point in the “it’s all a dream” theory: a perfectly good ending, and the fact that the helpers - Arthur, Ariadne, they have personality, but nothing of their own, no purpose but to help Cobb. And, seriously, Ariadne who is good with mazes? Of course, that maybe all Christopher Nolan’s dream, and he thinks he is very smart to throw around all these little moments. Just like having Edith Piaf as “wake-up song” and Marion Cotillard as Cobb’s dead wife. It might not mean anything, but it is another too smart moment - that I enjoyed by the way. The thing is, it all makes it quite okay to have it all end up just Cobb’s dream, but the movie wants to be even smarter than that and have it both ways, so we could argue one way another for eternity. Kind of like BtVS episode Normal Again, but there I could overlook it, because it was a fluke in the seven-year history of show, but here it all there is, and it is annoying. The audience in the theater, by the way, laughed at the end.
Anyway, that’s what I have LJ for. I liked the movie well enough to watch it the second time some time in the future. I loved the actors involved and they did a great job. I don’t like much Christopher Nolan’s work, but this was probably most watchable of all. I wasn’t bored for two plus hours, the suspense was suspenseful enough to keep me on the edge of my seat literally, even though I knew it was a movie and not real. There were pieces of action that were too long - I think the chase in the snow plodded on meaninglessly, but the slow fall, the piece in the hotel starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and others were awesome. I realize I really like him - the more I see him the more the liking. And yes, it is kind of weird that the first and strongest impression is his work in Third rock from the sun (that I saw and adored in Russia), but thanks to IMDB I know he is two years older than my sister. Which makes it much less weird. I still feel old, but less weird. I love his slim and athletic physique that kind of reminds me of Peter O’Toole in How to Steal a Million. Interestingly, I like Leonardo Di Caprio without any, well, aesthetic appreciation. But my sister, who was fourteen when Titanic came out, fell to the same epidemic of Leo adoration that plagues fourteen y.olds all over the world... But I digressed. The action scenes in the hotel and the stunts JGL pulls in that sequence are probably my favourite part of the movie. So visually cool.
The dreams that were not as strange and dreamlike as real dreams - I had no problems with it. They were not real dreams - they were built to feel real and to answer a specific purpose. Of course, one might said that the dreamer’s subconscious should bring in more dreamy stuff, but it is a matter of personal vision, I guess, both viewers’ and creator’s.
The whole dream inside a dream thing necessarily bring a question to one’s mind - where does the dream ends and reality begins? And of course, the movie takes pains not to answer this question. For the two hours we follow Cobb, DiCaprio’s character through the maze of his pain and others’ dreams, and then suddenly everything works out just fine. The thing is, we want it to work out just fine - that’s why we go to movies, to invest in characters and follow their dreams. Not only watch things go “boom”, otherwise everyone just would watch demolition works. And the movie gives us the sound of totem. Which may or may not be falling. Which means we don’t know, and won’t ever know was that all a dream of Cobb or not. There are things that kind of point in the “it’s all a dream” theory: a perfectly good ending, and the fact that the helpers - Arthur, Ariadne, they have personality, but nothing of their own, no purpose but to help Cobb. And, seriously, Ariadne who is good with mazes? Of course, that maybe all Christopher Nolan’s dream, and he thinks he is very smart to throw around all these little moments. Just like having Edith Piaf as “wake-up song” and Marion Cotillard as Cobb’s dead wife. It might not mean anything, but it is another too smart moment - that I enjoyed by the way. The thing is, it all makes it quite okay to have it all end up just Cobb’s dream, but the movie wants to be even smarter than that and have it both ways, so we could argue one way another for eternity. Kind of like BtVS episode Normal Again, but there I could overlook it, because it was a fluke in the seven-year history of show, but here it all there is, and it is annoying. The audience in the theater, by the way, laughed at the end.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-26 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-26 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-01 10:39 am (UTC)I liked that it was very suspenseful and entertaining (and visually - excellent), however I don't think its internal logic was consistent enough (people end up in "limbo" through a lot of different ways that aren't really consistent with the others - e.g. how did Ariadne and Cobb end up in limbo just by going to sleep in the snow field dream...etc)...
But it was definitely good entertainment! I wouldn't say that it was amazing though IMO.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 02:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-01 11:02 am (UTC)This, absolutely.
(I too remember JGL from 3rd Rock. Heh. Time flies.)
no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 02:12 am (UTC)I did read several interesting theories about the story, but I just don't feel the movie's deep enough to care.