plant the seed
First things first,
I feel like all summer I’ve been eating what’s been put in front of me, but for the first time, I feel full. This movie was spectacular. It was amazing. It was everything that everyone has been telling you it is, and you should go see it now. Seriously, if you’re reading this and you haven’t seen it, this post will be here when you get back. Go now.
I’m going to start with my one negative in an uncharted land mass of positive, and that is Mal. Not the character because I loved her and Marion Cotillard was amazing as usual, but I just felt there was too much of her. I loved what the character represented in Cobb’s mind and the purpose she served, but I could have done without some of her and Cobb’s scenes. At a certain point, they were distracting and felt just a little indulgent.
Now, the positive. I think my favorite thing about this movie has to be that 99% of it was truly surprising. That 1% comprised the only things I knew for sure from the trailer which were, a) Mal was dead*, and b) I would probably ship Arthur/Cobb (I definitely do. And though I can remember a time when RPF was not even something I thought of seriously, much less would read or write, I’m not opposed to a little Leo DiCaprio/Joseph Gordon-Levitt).
None of my theories came to pass, and that was really refreshing. It wasn’t obvious at any point, and I think that’s largely due to those things that were revealed. Arthur and Cobb told us so much, that I didn’t even realize how much I didn’t know until I started to think about it. And I have been thinking about it.
Now everyone’s got their theories about the end, and here are mine: it had to be a dream. I wanted Cobb to get his happy ending, I did, but the more I think about it, the more it doesn’t make sense. The way they traveled from place to place with no explanation of how they got there. How easily he was able to convince Ariadne to join them, how easily she managed to grasp control of his dream, how everyone was always available when he needed them. I give so much credit to Nolan because he used common film techniques to really push our acceptance of these moments. How often have you seen a film and had a character mention something or someone, and in the next scene they had that thing or was with that person? But in a film like this, where the process and the choices made are so important, you have to question everything.
More than that, people could live years in a dream in a few hours. Who was watching their kids while they were building a life (without the children, I must add) that spanned a lifetime? This movie makes you think, and that’s the best thing about it.
*I have a theory about this, and when I see the film again, it’ll hopefully maybe become more fully formed. I think Cobb never really woke up from that time that he and Mal entered their dream world. I believe he kept pushing to go deeper, and the deeper he went the more lost he got until he ended up in the dream limbo. And I think he’s been fighting his way upward and out of it ever since, with the occasional backslide. Mal, on the other hand, got out. Maybe when she jumped off the building, maybe at the tracks, but she managed to make her way out and back into the real world. And ever since she’s been fighting to get him back, destroying his dreamscapes at every opportunity, trying to give him that kick. But it never works, maybe because his mind is stronger than hers, maybe because he’s just too far gone.
I also wondered if Arthur and Ariadne were Mal and Cobb’s kids, all grown up and trying to bring their dad back, but then they kissed and that theory got chucked out the window.
I have been feeling the urge to do fannish things for things I am not fannish about. Like a Blair/Chuck fanmix. It wouldn’t be positive, of course, but I can’t get the idea out of my head. And Twilight fic, specifically of the Emmett/Bella variety. Also, Carlisle. I have so many ideas about him as a person/vampire and his motives, but all of this would require me to delve into the source material, and those are just places I do not want to go again.
On a possibly more positive note, I’ve signed up for kissbingo . Between now and January, I will write at least 5 fics featuring kissing. It should be fun, and I’ve already started my first.
I need Inception icons. Someone point me in the right direction, please.
I feel like all summer I’ve been eating what’s been put in front of me, but for the first time, I feel full. This movie was spectacular. It was amazing. It was everything that everyone has been telling you it is, and you should go see it now. Seriously, if you’re reading this and you haven’t seen it, this post will be here when you get back. Go now.
I’m going to start with my one negative in an uncharted land mass of positive, and that is Mal. Not the character because I loved her and Marion Cotillard was amazing as usual, but I just felt there was too much of her. I loved what the character represented in Cobb’s mind and the purpose she served, but I could have done without some of her and Cobb’s scenes. At a certain point, they were distracting and felt just a little indulgent.
Now, the positive. I think my favorite thing about this movie has to be that 99% of it was truly surprising. That 1% comprised the only things I knew for sure from the trailer which were, a) Mal was dead*, and b) I would probably ship Arthur/Cobb (I definitely do. And though I can remember a time when RPF was not even something I thought of seriously, much less would read or write, I’m not opposed to a little Leo DiCaprio/Joseph Gordon-Levitt).
None of my theories came to pass, and that was really refreshing. It wasn’t obvious at any point, and I think that’s largely due to those things that were revealed. Arthur and Cobb told us so much, that I didn’t even realize how much I didn’t know until I started to think about it. And I have been thinking about it.
Now everyone’s got their theories about the end, and here are mine: it had to be a dream. I wanted Cobb to get his happy ending, I did, but the more I think about it, the more it doesn’t make sense. The way they traveled from place to place with no explanation of how they got there. How easily he was able to convince Ariadne to join them, how easily she managed to grasp control of his dream, how everyone was always available when he needed them. I give so much credit to Nolan because he used common film techniques to really push our acceptance of these moments. How often have you seen a film and had a character mention something or someone, and in the next scene they had that thing or was with that person? But in a film like this, where the process and the choices made are so important, you have to question everything.
More than that, people could live years in a dream in a few hours. Who was watching their kids while they were building a life (without the children, I must add) that spanned a lifetime? This movie makes you think, and that’s the best thing about it.
*I have a theory about this, and when I see the film again, it’ll hopefully maybe become more fully formed. I think Cobb never really woke up from that time that he and Mal entered their dream world. I believe he kept pushing to go deeper, and the deeper he went the more lost he got until he ended up in the dream limbo. And I think he’s been fighting his way upward and out of it ever since, with the occasional backslide. Mal, on the other hand, got out. Maybe when she jumped off the building, maybe at the tracks, but she managed to make her way out and back into the real world. And ever since she’s been fighting to get him back, destroying his dreamscapes at every opportunity, trying to give him that kick. But it never works, maybe because his mind is stronger than hers, maybe because he’s just too far gone.
I also wondered if Arthur and Ariadne were Mal and Cobb’s kids, all grown up and trying to bring their dad back, but then they kissed and that theory got chucked out the window.
I have been feeling the urge to do fannish things for things I am not fannish about. Like a Blair/Chuck fanmix. It wouldn’t be positive, of course, but I can’t get the idea out of my head. And Twilight fic, specifically of the Emmett/Bella variety. Also, Carlisle. I have so many ideas about him as a person/vampire and his motives, but all of this would require me to delve into the source material, and those are just places I do not want to go again.
On a possibly more positive note, I’ve signed up for kissbingo . Between now and January, I will write at least 5 fics featuring kissing. It should be fun, and I’ve already started my first.
I need Inception icons. Someone point me in the right direction, please.