INCEPTION; SURE, OKAY
It's all spoilers and shit, don't click the cut if you haven't seen it or want to see it.
The build up;
Okay, so I have been hanging out for this film for what, since before Christmas? That's like, an eight month period of OMG THIS IS GOING TO BE SO GOOD, FINALLY AN INTELLIGENT LOOKING SCI-FI. It took me months to remember what the film was called, months of seeing the teaser-trailer over and over every time I went and saw a movie at the cinema. And you know what, I didn't go looking for a synopsis on it, I didn't go looking for anything for it. I was content to just wait and wait and wait for a release date.
I went and saw it last night. And you know what, it was good, but I still feel like I have been cheated.
It's not the mind-fuck I was expecting; it was so easy, it was too easy. What with Ellen Page being all 'Let me explain this concept to you by voicing my internal dialogue' cut in with some of Leonardo's 'You don't know me, I don't know you, but I feel like I should divulge this personal information to you, so let me tell you a story from my past.' monologue.
Umm, what?
Why, the premise was so good. Why did they dumb it down for the audience? Seriously, the only thing that left me hanging at the end of it was how the fuck they got involved with that Japanese guy in the first place. The only real conclusion I could come to there was
Leo is hired by Japanese Company X to steal secrets from Japanese Guy -> Japanese Guy is able to thwart Leo and his gang -> Leo and his gang go to flee cause Japanese Company X is going to be shitty that they failed -> Japanese Guy offers them a new job instead of killing them, which is kind of what I figured he was about to do -> Leo ends up working for the Japanese Guy. JAPANESE GUY IS HELL BENT ON DESTROYING THE POWER COMPANY EMPIRE OF A GUY WHO LIVES IN AUSTRALIA?
I spent half the film trying to figure out Why some Australian had a monopoly on Japanese power companies. Oh but wait, it wasn't a Japanese monopoly, it was a global monopoly.
WHAT? IT WAS A GLOBAL POWER COMPANY EMPIRE? I spent half the film trying to figure out WHAT THE FUCK was going on there. But did it matter?
NO, NO IT DIDN'T MATTER, THAT WHOLE PREMISE WAS AN UNIMPORTANT DETAIL. WHO CARES IF CILLIAN MURPHY WAS THE SON OF THE RUPERT MURDOCH OF THE POWER COMPANY WORLD, THEY JUST NEEDED HIM AS A PLOT DEVICE IN ORDER TO EXPLAIN THE WHOLE STORY THAT LEO HAD GOING ON WITH HIS CHARACTER.
Um, okay. I'm just so Really? about the whole film. It could be because I was expecting it to one-up Shutter Island, but it didn't really come close.
And that whole bit at the end with the totem? The cinema I was in exploded with a WHAT? NO, DON'T STOP THERE! and I lol'd at them, because really? He was back in the real world for that end scene, I thought it was pretty obvious. I was more interested in why he had his wifes' totem in the first place. Because when he takes it from her vault and then puts it back, I was thinking Oh Yeah, that sets the idea in place. But what, he abandons his own totem and takes hers after she is dead? Creepy, much? Or are they suggesting that You Never See His Totem Because He Has Been Dreaming This Entire Time..? Because I'm really not buying into that. There wasn't enough to suggest something like that anyway.
I just, I wanted it to be So Good. I wanted it to leave me thinking. I wanted half of the story to be inferred and not explained in obvious terms. I wanted to get to the end of it and be left hanging, like, really hanging, like the first time I saw BladeRunner and turned to my dad and was all 'Wait, he was a robot? He couldn't have been a robot.. was he a robot? D:' there was no mind-fucking in Inception. There is no way you could go back to it like The Sixth Sense or Shutter Island or even The Others and pick apart the layers there. There aren't any layers.
And don't get me wrong, I liked it, but it was too easy. It wasn't like A Scanner Darkly where I sat around thinking about it for days after I saw it, and I wanted it to be amazing So Badly, too.
I just found Inception to be very linear. To the point where maybe the plot twist at the end of Supernatural was better. Because at least there I could fight with April for days on the basis of CHUCK WAS GOD THE ENTIRE TIME//CHUCK WAS NOT GOD, YOU'RE A FUCKING IDIOT. Like, we're still on uneasy terms with that issue. But Inception? Could anyone argue that he was still dreaming there? I mean except for the fact that his father was strangely British and his kids didn't seem to age..?
It's just.. yeah, not important. I want to sit down and try and have a discussion about this film with someone, like an objective discussion.
In closing, I liked it but it's not a movie I would buy on DVD. It was clever, sure, but too mainstream to be intelligent.
The build up;
Okay, so I have been hanging out for this film for what, since before Christmas? That's like, an eight month period of OMG THIS IS GOING TO BE SO GOOD, FINALLY AN INTELLIGENT LOOKING SCI-FI. It took me months to remember what the film was called, months of seeing the teaser-trailer over and over every time I went and saw a movie at the cinema. And you know what, I didn't go looking for a synopsis on it, I didn't go looking for anything for it. I was content to just wait and wait and wait for a release date.
I went and saw it last night. And you know what, it was good, but I still feel like I have been cheated.
It's not the mind-fuck I was expecting; it was so easy, it was too easy. What with Ellen Page being all 'Let me explain this concept to you by voicing my internal dialogue' cut in with some of Leonardo's 'You don't know me, I don't know you, but I feel like I should divulge this personal information to you, so let me tell you a story from my past.' monologue.
Umm, what?
Why, the premise was so good. Why did they dumb it down for the audience? Seriously, the only thing that left me hanging at the end of it was how the fuck they got involved with that Japanese guy in the first place. The only real conclusion I could come to there was
Leo is hired by Japanese Company X to steal secrets from Japanese Guy -> Japanese Guy is able to thwart Leo and his gang -> Leo and his gang go to flee cause Japanese Company X is going to be shitty that they failed -> Japanese Guy offers them a new job instead of killing them, which is kind of what I figured he was about to do -> Leo ends up working for the Japanese Guy. JAPANESE GUY IS HELL BENT ON DESTROYING THE POWER COMPANY EMPIRE OF A GUY WHO LIVES IN AUSTRALIA?
I spent half the film trying to figure out Why some Australian had a monopoly on Japanese power companies. Oh but wait, it wasn't a Japanese monopoly, it was a global monopoly.
WHAT? IT WAS A GLOBAL POWER COMPANY EMPIRE? I spent half the film trying to figure out WHAT THE FUCK was going on there. But did it matter?
NO, NO IT DIDN'T MATTER, THAT WHOLE PREMISE WAS AN UNIMPORTANT DETAIL. WHO CARES IF CILLIAN MURPHY WAS THE SON OF THE RUPERT MURDOCH OF THE POWER COMPANY WORLD, THEY JUST NEEDED HIM AS A PLOT DEVICE IN ORDER TO EXPLAIN THE WHOLE STORY THAT LEO HAD GOING ON WITH HIS CHARACTER.
Um, okay. I'm just so Really? about the whole film. It could be because I was expecting it to one-up Shutter Island, but it didn't really come close.
And that whole bit at the end with the totem? The cinema I was in exploded with a WHAT? NO, DON'T STOP THERE! and I lol'd at them, because really? He was back in the real world for that end scene, I thought it was pretty obvious. I was more interested in why he had his wifes' totem in the first place. Because when he takes it from her vault and then puts it back, I was thinking Oh Yeah, that sets the idea in place. But what, he abandons his own totem and takes hers after she is dead? Creepy, much? Or are they suggesting that You Never See His Totem Because He Has Been Dreaming This Entire Time..? Because I'm really not buying into that. There wasn't enough to suggest something like that anyway.
I just, I wanted it to be So Good. I wanted it to leave me thinking. I wanted half of the story to be inferred and not explained in obvious terms. I wanted to get to the end of it and be left hanging, like, really hanging, like the first time I saw BladeRunner and turned to my dad and was all 'Wait, he was a robot? He couldn't have been a robot.. was he a robot? D:' there was no mind-fucking in Inception. There is no way you could go back to it like The Sixth Sense or Shutter Island or even The Others and pick apart the layers there. There aren't any layers.
And don't get me wrong, I liked it, but it was too easy. It wasn't like A Scanner Darkly where I sat around thinking about it for days after I saw it, and I wanted it to be amazing So Badly, too.
I just found Inception to be very linear. To the point where maybe the plot twist at the end of Supernatural was better. Because at least there I could fight with April for days on the basis of CHUCK WAS GOD THE ENTIRE TIME//CHUCK WAS NOT GOD, YOU'RE A FUCKING IDIOT. Like, we're still on uneasy terms with that issue. But Inception? Could anyone argue that he was still dreaming there? I mean except for the fact that his father was strangely British and his kids didn't seem to age..?
It's just.. yeah, not important. I want to sit down and try and have a discussion about this film with someone, like an objective discussion.
In closing, I liked it but it's not a movie I would buy on DVD. It was clever, sure, but too mainstream to be intelligent.