GREAT movie. GO SEE IT NOW.


[Edited on July 17, 2010 at 1:33 AM. Reason : meh i'll leave this page spoiler free for now. GO SEE IT.]

7/17/2010 1:33:23 AM

Nolan's best.

[Edited on July 17, 2010 at 4:26 AM. Reason : although i don't remember Memento and should rewatch it. Incep>TDK,BB,Following,Prestige,Insomnia]

7/17/2010 4:24:56 AM

It's been forever since I saw "Memento" but I recall it was - IMO - a terrible movie. Maybe the whole "we have to rewind his day bit by bit to mysteriously reveal the plot" plot device was just not my cup o' tea. UGH

7/17/2010 6:19:17 AM

This movie was not better than the dark knight

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

7/17/2010 9:35:40 AM

^I'm actually beginning to think it was better than the Dark Knight. Although I did really enjoy TDK and thought it was an amazing movie, I was just completely blown away by Inception. I'm still thinking about it this morning.



Sidenote: Did anyone have any crazy Inception-fueled dreams last night? lol I dreamt that my cat was trying to get me to sign all of my house and assets over to her. I guess she is secretly an extractor, hahaha.

7/17/2010 1:38:35 PM

This movie was written and directed brilliantly. The CGI is incredible, it offers a very MATRIX like feel regarding an alternate world that anyone who has ever dreamed can immediately relate to. This movie was cast perfectly. DiCaprio definitely shines as the lead, but I was blown away by the supporting cast. Joseph Gordon-Levitt hits a grand slam as Arthur, he plays the role perfectly...I would never have seen him pulling that off before this.

I cannot wait to see this again, to re-examine everything that happens with a closer eye. Unless you have a personal movie theater in your house, I would advise that you really should see this at the cinemas...and sober. I love to catch a buzz before a movie (more than most), but this is not the one to attend if you don't have a clear mind. This movie challenges you to stay engaged with where it takes you...I was mentally exhausted at the end. And what an end it was.

This is the best movie experience I have had since The Matrix, and it absolutely rivals it in regards to sheer overall quality. Christopher Nolan has managed to raise the bar, again.

7/17/2010 1:46:07 PM

[Edited on July 17, 2010 at 2:15 PM. Reason : ]

7/17/2010 2:14:10 PM

spoilas































Who is the old man from the beginning and the end? I got the notion it was leo 50+ years into the dream.

7/17/2010 2:37:05 PM

SPOILER












It was Seito, the japanese guy. He died in the van dream world and thus was stuck in limbo for decades.











Spoilers

7/17/2010 3:02:36 PM

Spoilers relating to this^
















So just to be clear, the dream world where the old Seito was was not the same dream world as the crumbling city world that Cobb/Mol made right? Was that just Seito's subconscious that Cobb was able to make into to bring Seito back?















End spoiler

[Edited on July 17, 2010 at 3:18 PM. Reason : ]

7/17/2010 3:18:16 PM

want to see this flick

7/17/2010 3:20:08 PM

^^
Spoilers














That's where I got confused. When he was in the 4th layer down with Juno he said that he had to stay to find Seito and couldn't take the kick back up. But that didn't make sense to me because he was currently in dream layer 4 and Seito died in dream layer 1. But he must have been in dream layer 4 because he had been there for a very long time and if he'd been in limbo in dream layer 1 then he wouldn't have had so much time.

They said max time in dream layer 3 was about 10 years, so dream layer 4 would have had decades but I don't see how Seito would have been in layer 4 since he died in layer 3 without ever going into layer 4 in the first place.










Spoiler

7/17/2010 3:32:48 PM

Spoiler












I guess it's possible that Seito didn't actually die in layer 3, he just went unconscious like Fisher when he got shot. I remember at some point Cobb said something like "Seito is out. That means he is in layer 4 too".







end spoiler

7/17/2010 3:40:41 PM

spoiler












Maybe I missed that part. I can get why if you die in the dream you go another layer down into limbo but how did Cobb get into that specific layer when they went into his own dream for layer 4 with Fischer and Juno? Maybe the connection from the dream sharing machine in the plane?







end spoilers

7/17/2010 3:44:40 PM

batman begins was probably better than the dark knight, and inception most definitely was. tdk had some major issues.

7/17/2010 3:50:07 PM

sold out at imax for the rest of the day

7/17/2010 4:14:49 PM

Trying not to overhype this thing but I have to say it's one of the latest movies that actually had me thinking pretty hard and playing 'memory' about who's where and in what circumstance. The plot was fairly decent although with a movie like this it's easy to determine the final conundrum at the end. Regardless, for being a movie with a different background and complex plot fairly different than any other recent movie it's pretty badass and worth the see.

SPOILERS



I, too, thought it was odd that the kids at the end looked the exact same as in his past memories and was wondering what was the implications of seeing their faces finally and them looking identical to him in his past projections might lead to implications it was truly a dream or whether the dradle/top was finally about to fall.

I have to admit the scene with the van falling was almost laughable every time it flashed to it just because so much shit was going on down in the deeper layers during such a long span and the van was falling so slowly in the upper layer with everyone's smirks, buckled in, and hooked up they're dreaming.

One thing to note, in the hotel where everyone except Arthur (the slick-looking dude) was hooked up and dreaming; during all that shifting while he was battling it out in the hallway and before he came back to the room without gravity (during the van's freefall), wouldn't they have been all fucked up from bouncing around and being 'kicked'? Or was the chemist's drugs just that powerful?


END LOS SPOILERS

7/17/2010 4:38:45 PM

I think I got most of everything. Only thing I didn't really get was:

SPOILERS*****









How exactly Cobb was able to find Saito and how Cobb knew that Mol would have Fischer in the crumbling city layer of the dreams. I understand that Saito was in limbo and Cobb had to search for him by going deeper and deeper into Saito's dreams to find him, but how did Cobb go into Saito's unconscious - was it just the fact that they were hooked up together on the plane initially?

I guess that if Cobb went so deep into Saito's unconscious to find him once he was in limbo that when he brought him back they would just wake up on the plane? I think that explaining a bit more about how Cobb was able to get into the exact layer of dream Saito had fallen into and what type of series of kicks they had to go through to get back to real life would've made it more clear, but would've made it so that the ending couldn't have been waiting for the top to tip over.










SPOILER*******

7/17/2010 5:13:28 PM

It's a great movie, but definitely not Nolan's best. It's got some major flaws:


-95% of the dialogue is focused on complex dream logic. It's hard to follow and gets old after a while. Each time I hear them discussing ANOTHER LAYER, it seems like the film is going into self parody.
-At least 30 minutes of screen time is spent on the "kick." This was not fucking necessary. At all.
-The action is kind of uninspired. "Projections" are not interesting villains/baddies.


I'm started to see a pattern in that Nolan is reaaaaally obsessed with intricate rules/logic/setup (Prestige is a good example).

Quote :

"batman begins was probably better than the dark knight, and inception most definitely was. tdk had some major issues."

gtfo. batman begins was garbage in comparison to TDK

7/17/2010 7:16:08 PM

Guardians of the subconscious don't make for interesting movie villains?

I disagree.

7/17/2010 7:19:33 PM

they have no witty/villainy dialogue. they have no motivations outside of fucking shoot everything. they have no backstory. there are no super villains or "bosses" among them.

boring

there is a huge parallel between Agent Smith and the projections. but the difference is he was actually interesting (in the first movie at least)

7/17/2010 7:26:27 PM

I kinda feel like the guardians should have some kind of special powers or whatever. If they are in a "dream world" I don't see why they (and I guess the actual people too) would be bound by normal physics.

7/17/2010 8:03:57 PM

Yeah, I think they should've been able to fly and shoot lasers out of their eyes and they should've been invisible. Also, they should've been faster than the speeding bullet.

Also, they should've had some really badass catchphrase to say when they're out kicking ass, which is always.

The fact that they didn't do any of these things just held this movie back.

[Edited on July 17, 2010 at 8:21 PM. Reason : .]

7/17/2010 8:18:50 PM

Nice strawman bro.

Please let me know: what was the purpose of the projections besides looking mean all the time and spraying bullets.

[Edited on July 17, 2010 at 8:54 PM. Reason : f]

7/17/2010 8:50:29 PM

If someone was in your mind, would you prefer your self-conscious spray bullets or drop a couple of witty one-liners? Why would your mind send nameless faceless foot soldiers if it did have some sort of big boss?

The projections were bound by the mind of the person dreaming (who, keep in mind didn't know he was dreaming) and would presumably be limited to the way they perceive reality.

On top of that, if someone had "training" on how to defend their mind, chances are they'd carry the same concept of defense (heavily armed SWAT team) into their sub-conscious, because that's what the person would define as defense.

[Edited on July 17, 2010 at 9:08 PM. Reason : .]

7/17/2010 9:06:51 PM

other than some cool effects, i thought the plot was pretty weak, and basically took the one cool part of the matrix and left out the whole machines-rule-the-world-and-enslave-humans-as-cattle-batteries parts

it's like they put way more focus on explaining and showing how the dream logic and operations worked more than they cared about the actual characters or plot lines.

the dream rules were kind of iffy and it seemed they were making them up as they went...and they kept breaking the established dream rules with weak excuses (if you die in your dream you wake up...unless you're heavily sedated or if you're heavily sedated and you die in the dream then you go to dream limbo, which is actually cobb's dream world after being in 3 levels of dreams...). and apparently, if you need more time just dream of the briefcase of drugs you need, just plug yourself in jump to the next level... and you don't have to get kicked out of the 4th level to get back to reality...

the snow fortress came straight out of goldeneye 64

why would you design the first dream to have everyone jump into the next dream while driving in a van?

also, ellen page is really annoying.

Michael Caine's character was the most interesting

3rd rock from the sun kid and the british guy were good. wantanabe and the scarecrow guy's characters were flat and their stories/dynamics under developed. leo's character, though the main character, seemed just to be there. the story was obviously about him, but it was so convoluted that i lost interest and found myself just wanting the damn van to fall into the water

also, tops do not perpetually spin



[Edited on July 17, 2010 at 11:46 PM. Reason : favorite part: JGL in an airplane spinning around in the hotel]

7/17/2010 11:44:04 PM

(SPOILERS)


I was completely blown away.

I came away from it feeling that the film was not fueled by action, nor by rules or regulations of the dreamworld......but the complex character development (particularly of Cobb) was so rich and deep that I was moved in the ending shots between him and Mal and the life they had spent together and the guilt he felt in his own unintended inception he planted in her that caused her death.

The gravity of emotion was even furthered and underlined when he finally saw the faces of his children; they were the true things that proved to be more of a "totem" than the metal top he so readily trusted in the past......left to spin on the table behind him as he went to his children. At that point, it didn't matter if it was a dream or not.

What a wonderful movie.

7/17/2010 11:52:50 PM

snow fortress was the first level of metal gear solid

7/18/2010 12:49:46 AM

^ The director said he was paying homage to the George Lazenby Bond film, On Her Majesties Secret Service. It was pretty damn similar with the layout of the guards and stuff.

7/18/2010 1:19:43 AM

Quote :

"also, tops do not perpetually spin"

they do in dreams apparently.

[Edited on July 18, 2010 at 1:25 AM. Reason : .]

7/18/2010 1:23:14 AM

Quote :

"gtfo. batman begins was garbage in comparison to TDK"

TDK had hype and heath ledger on its side.

It also had absurd plot deficiencies on its side.

7/18/2010 4:14:51 AM

Quote :

"Michael Caine's character was the most interesting "

This is just kind of laughable.

Like, I know it sounds cool to say this and all, since he was in like 2 scenes.

But no.

7/18/2010 6:08:20 AM

Quote :

"also, tops do not perpetually spin"

Yeah, man.

That's kind of the point.

7/18/2010 6:35:20 AM

Quote :

"it's like they put way more focus on explaining and showing how the dream logic and operations worked more than they cared about the actual characters or plot lines. "

this


I'm wondering if there are some deleted scenes where Cobb does some more extractions in the beginning. It's kind of hard to believe that Cobb is the best extractor in the world when all we see is one failed attempt. Oh well, no room in 148 minutes for that; we need more slow motion van falling into water shots.

7/18/2010 8:55:50 AM

Spoilers!



My only problem was when Cobb told Juno the secret of his totem (that it would never stop spinning in a dream). Isn't the whole point of the totem that nobody else knows the secret? Like the weight of the die or the design on the bottom of the chess piece. Someone says something along the lines of "Cobb is always doing things he tells us never to do," which might explain it.

My interpretation of the end is that by leaving the top, Cobb no longer cared if he was dreaming or not. The rest of the movie he was super paranoid, always spinning the top and watching it. But when he finally saw his kids he turned his back on it. Also I think that in dreams the top never even wobbled. It just spun perfectly (like when he spins Mol's top in limbo). I wasn't paying attention closely though so this may be wrong.

7/18/2010 10:48:58 AM

If the first layer (the van) is making the second layer(the hotel) spin shouldn't that make the 3rd layer(the fortress) spin or have gravity altering effects.


just sayin

GREAT MOVIE!

7/18/2010 11:39:41 AM

At some point something like that happens and they have a brief (like two lines) conversation about the "proximity" of the shift. Basically, it seems like the forces are dampened the deeper down you go.

7/18/2010 12:09:46 PM

when you guys saw this did everyone in the theater go, "AAAAAWWWWWWW" at the end? what a perfect ending.

7/18/2010 12:16:51 PM

^yea of course

personally, I thought it was rather predictable. I mean, did the audience really think christopher nolan was going to give them a happy fucking ending?

7/18/2010 1:06:10 PM

So I am the guy that has already seen this twice...yeah, it was that good to me. That being said, I had a chance to take a closer look..

Quote :

"Maybe I missed that part. I can get why if you die in the dream you go another layer down into limbo but how did Cobb get into that specific layer when they went into his own dream for layer 4 with Fischer and Juno? Maybe the connection from the dream sharing machine in the plane?"

JGL states that "limbo" is a place so deep that it is unconstructed dream space. Saito was linked to Cobb (who was the only one who had been there previously - so they share this together via the dream machine link) , which is why they were so similar...i/e washing up on the shore. It was Saitos subconscious that finds him on the beach. The totem reminds him that the world is not real, which is why he grabs Cobbs gun and they are able to wake up on the plane. He obviously spent decades in that level, and Cobb managed to find him in his constructed limbo, where Juno left him with Mol, who was no longer there. Juno shot her - "improvising" scene. Cobb was familiar with his own limbo, so you have to assume, in time he could find Saito who was stuck there with no totem to realize he wasn't in reality.

Quote :

"I, too, thought it was odd that the kids at the end looked the exact same as in his past memories and was wondering what was the implications of seeing their faces finally and them looking identical to him in his past projections might lead to implications it was truly a dream or whether the dradle/top was finally about to fall."

this is what is still messing with me. This is a very good point for consideration that the top doesn't fall, and that Cobb is still in a level of dreaming...although he leaves the top, much the way that Mol did previously....he no longer needs to care because he has found his ultimate goal. No need for a totem.

Quote :

"-At least 30 minutes of screen time is spent on the "kick." This was not fucking necessary. At all."

This was absolutely necessary to show that time was running out. I loved the cutback scenes to the van falling, because you realize that only seconds remain, which as you go deeper into the layers, that they HAVE to work fast. Remember that the plan is fucked from the beginning because Fischer's subconscious realizes his mind is being hacked. That was never planned for. They were supposed to have days to plant the idea. "Time" was the real antagonist here. They never could plant the idea, unless they went 3 levels down. They had to do this in an unplanned, stressful situation - a moving van being shot at which had to "kick" them back at just the right time as the first layer.

Quote :

"they have no witty/villainy dialogue. they have no motivations outside of fucking shoot everything. they have no backstory. there are no super villains or "bosses" among them. boring"

This is a heist movie. Not a movie about a good guy trying to beat a bad guy. In the traditional sense, it didn't require an antagonist "boss". It only required the characters to overcome the obstacles in their way to accomplish their goal. DiCaprio had an alternate goal from all the other characters, but had to accomplish this in order to achieve his ultimate goal, of reuniting with his family. If he hadn't saved Saito, all would have been for nothing, as he had to come back and make the call.

Quote :

"the snow fortress came straight out of goldeneye 64"

This level was so badass. I'm not sure why it matters if it reminds you of something else completely badass. All I could think of was how awesome it was they wrote the story to include something this off the hook. I was happy the did that, not upset. Eames was so badass. I loved that he dominated this level, much like Arthur dominated the Hotel level.


Alright, that's enough. Again, I loved this movie. I will probably see it again before it's all said and done. Sorry for the long post. I will understand if TL;DR.

[Edited on July 18, 2010 at 1:59 PM. Reason : fixed it.]

7/18/2010 1:48:14 PM

Quote :

"why would you design the first dream to have everyone jump into the next dream while driving in a van?"

i think being in the van was mostly improvisation. cobb says if they stay in that warehouse, fischer's subconscious will break in and kill them, so if they stayed there to go deeper, only the chemist can protect them. so mostly for that, and also so they could have a synchronized jump.

7/18/2010 2:36:32 PM

the credits have 2 different actors for each kid for the different ages

the reason its bothering everyone is because the audience, like cobb, doesn't see the kids faces until the end either so they have nothing to compare the kids ages to. plus they always show them in the same position so you get used to seeing them that way.

this is also not a heist movie, but an anti-heist movie. its not about stealing but putting something new in place. the whole movie was an anti-movie--even the story itself couldn't decide what it wanted to be about.

[Edited on July 18, 2010 at 2:55 PM. Reason : ghj]

7/18/2010 2:51:05 PM

excellent film, I need to watch it again when I'm slightly more sober.

7/18/2010 3:51:07 PM

I actually went and saw it again. I get the limbo stuff now, it was explained when they first talked about limbo. They actually mention that if you go into limbo it's the same limbo that anyone you are dream sharing with has been in.

7/18/2010 5:20:02 PM

The chase scene in Africa is very dreamy. VERY DREAMY.

Because the british guy creates a diversion, like he does in the dreams.

and the chasers act a whole lot like the subconscious defenders we see later. and just keep coming, and coming.

and the terrain is very mazey, especially when leo squeezes through that tight place.

and the asian comes out of nowhere.

god what a frustratingly good movie. I do not know if the whole thing was a dream or not and I don't think I care.

7/18/2010 5:39:53 PM

SPOILER

I feel as if Leo's totem never even existed in the real world and the whole perpetual spinning thing was there to throw us off. If you recall he first discovered it deep within the safe inside Mol's subconscious. So OK, maybe it did once exist in reality in Mol's childhood but it was long gone and only a distant memory of Mol's when Leo obtained it. Therefore every scene that shows Leo with his totem IS a dream imo because its not a physical object, but rather its his continuation of Mol's most secret memory long after she had died.

I just thought about it and this also implies that Mol died within a dream layer so she may still be alive higher up.

7/18/2010 6:36:25 PM

http://halphillips.tumblr.com/post/822919795/inception

7/18/2010 7:32:19 PM

That's an interesting take on things.

7/18/2010 7:41:14 PM

^^ i totally called a weird hidden link to shutter island after i saw the movie!

the dreams, the fucked up wife, the whole not who you seem, seemed very shutter island to me

i really enjoyed the movie

[Edited on July 18, 2010 at 9:07 PM. Reason : ksdjhjdhf]

7/18/2010 9:07:08 PM

^^so basically that guy thinks its Shutter Island part deux

7/18/2010 9:08:37 PM