Back Again (with Inception)
Hey guys. lol It's been forever. Twitter and my book blog have apparently been keeping me occupied, plus I just got finished with a ten day-long visit with my boyfriend. Trying not to think about that, cause I'm still sore about his leaving, so instead I'm gonna bitch about the movie we saw together, Inception. YAY MOVIE BITCHING!
Yeah so...I'm a fan of Nolan's, I really am, but I'm not really sure why anymore. I haven't really liked any of his non-Batman movies, aside from Memento, and his films are just continually OVERRATED. They are nowhere near as smart as everyone seems to think they are, and while I can respect him for trying something unconventional with every movie (as far as concepts go), with Inception...could he have found ANY way to make a cool concept more boring?
I mean, that is my biggest issue with this movie. He took a nifty, Matrix-like concept and setting (and really, for all it's 'uniqueness', the idea of this dream reality and the ways in which it can be manipulated are pretty much a straight Matrix-rip), and makes it about CORPORATE ESPIONAGE. REALLY? REALLY? That's the best you have? They're using this miraculous, sci-fi technology to steal BUSINESS SECRETS? How utterly common.
So, not only is this technology being utterly wasted, but all the risks being taken by the characters involved in this movie are being taken for no compelling reason. I mean, why should I, as a viewer, care about the outcome of this movie if there are no real stakes involved? It's not national security, it's not world security, it's not the continued existence of the human race that we're playing for, it's convincing one business man to dissolve his father's corporate empire. I mean, okay, we're told by Watanabe's character that this man's company is bad and he'll have a monopoly and no one can compete and blah blah blah, but this is never really expanded on or proven. For all we know, Watanabe could have just been lying to ease DiCaprio's fears.
And for that matter, even if he wasn't, what a clunky, insulting, and lame way to try and make Watanabe's character a 'good guy'. We're just supposed to accept that? One line of dialogue and this guy who's basically blackmailing Leo into doing his dirty work is, no really, doing it all for the greater good. Fuck off. I cannot believe you just did that and thought it would actually work.
Actually, Nolan did that a lot, upon reflection. He tells us a lot of hard-to-swallow, near-impossible things, and we're just supposed to accept them because that's how it is. Like the excuse for this whole caper, that Watanabe could make One Phone Call and make it so that DiCaprio was no longer a wanted man. Really? You're a business man from JAPAN, and you have so much power that you could make charges against a man just disappear in AMERICA? Really?
And that in itself- DiCaprio at one point talks about extradition between one country and America, and someone mentions that they don't usually extradite American criminals from that country, and DiCaprio says "Oh, I think they'll make an exception for me." WHY? Because you killed your wife? Do you know how many men kill their wives in this country? Why, why, why is you killing your wife just SO BAD that America will go out of their way to bring you back? Why are you so special? Talking like that, he made me think he performed some sort of terrorist attack or mass murder, but nope, he just offed his wife. Yeah, okay.
Then again, I guess you could argue that these issues are evidence of 'dream logic', and are therefore proof that, yes, the ending was a twist ending. But I'm not sure whether or not to give Nolan credit for being smart or just be accept that his writing's logic is seriously flawed.
Then there's the format of the film itself - again, we've got this awesome sci-fi premise filled with possibility and potential, and you make it into a HEIST FLICK? SERIOUSLY? A HEIST MOVIE? I mean, I don't mind heist movies; in fact, I love them, especially with the ridiculous, over-the-top, Ocean's Eleven-type capers, but WHAT THE HELL? DUDE. Your premise has you INFILTRATING PEOPLE'S DREAMS, why am I forced to watch you Italian Job us FOR LIKE AN HOUR? Even to the point where we have to recruit a newbie, train everyone, and then explain the over-complicated plan for twenty minutes. WHY ARE YOU SABOTAGING YOUR OWN IDEAS AND MAKING THEM BORING, NOLAN? Is your dead wife in there fucking about with your brain? Is that it?
The caper itself was boring. Honest to God, I heard someone behind me snoring. It was interesting, I suppose, when something was happening, but there were WAY WAY WAY too many scenes of the bus falling and time-lapse shit happening in the various levels of dreaming. You cut those out and I swear it could have been twenty minutes shorter. Every time one of those shots came up, I wanted to scream "GET ON WITH IT".
As to the whole inner-conflict, guilt-ridden conflict that is really what the movie is all about...meh. I mean, the idea of someone's own subconscious sabotaging itself out of guilt is a nifty idea, but I found it hard to believe or relate to. It all felt very forced. And very pretentious. I didn't feel any sincerity in that whole plot line at all, I just felt Nolan trying to make us think he was doing something deep. The last scene between DiCaprio and his wife was another one I wanted to yell "GET ON WITH IT" in. We know what's going to happen, what he's saying and why, you don't need to dwell on it and fill it with redundant bullshit. JUST. GET. ON. WITH. IT.
That being said, the effects were nice. I think, especially in the beginning, in the scene with Ellen Page (who I did not believe in her role AT ALL, which was seriously distracting), A LOT, if not all of it were effects for the sake of effects. Just scenes they could put in the trailer to catch people's attention. But the zero-g fight with Joseph Gordon-Levitt was cool. Aaaaand that's about it.
All in all, it was a huge disappointment for me. I was filled with hope that it was going to be something cool and new and it was fucking Ocean's Eleven in The Matrix. Way to ruin your own movie, Nolan.
I honestly don't see what everyone sees in it, especially people who are supposed to be 'critics' and able to see through this pretentious bullshit. DAMN YOU OVERRATED MOVIES THAT AREN'T AS GOOD AS EVERYONE APPARENTLY THINKS. /dies
I appreciated the ambiguous ending though. I am all about ambiguity in an ending.
Yeah so...I'm a fan of Nolan's, I really am, but I'm not really sure why anymore. I haven't really liked any of his non-Batman movies, aside from Memento, and his films are just continually OVERRATED. They are nowhere near as smart as everyone seems to think they are, and while I can respect him for trying something unconventional with every movie (as far as concepts go), with Inception...could he have found ANY way to make a cool concept more boring?
I mean, that is my biggest issue with this movie. He took a nifty, Matrix-like concept and setting (and really, for all it's 'uniqueness', the idea of this dream reality and the ways in which it can be manipulated are pretty much a straight Matrix-rip), and makes it about CORPORATE ESPIONAGE. REALLY? REALLY? That's the best you have? They're using this miraculous, sci-fi technology to steal BUSINESS SECRETS? How utterly common.
So, not only is this technology being utterly wasted, but all the risks being taken by the characters involved in this movie are being taken for no compelling reason. I mean, why should I, as a viewer, care about the outcome of this movie if there are no real stakes involved? It's not national security, it's not world security, it's not the continued existence of the human race that we're playing for, it's convincing one business man to dissolve his father's corporate empire. I mean, okay, we're told by Watanabe's character that this man's company is bad and he'll have a monopoly and no one can compete and blah blah blah, but this is never really expanded on or proven. For all we know, Watanabe could have just been lying to ease DiCaprio's fears.
And for that matter, even if he wasn't, what a clunky, insulting, and lame way to try and make Watanabe's character a 'good guy'. We're just supposed to accept that? One line of dialogue and this guy who's basically blackmailing Leo into doing his dirty work is, no really, doing it all for the greater good. Fuck off. I cannot believe you just did that and thought it would actually work.
Actually, Nolan did that a lot, upon reflection. He tells us a lot of hard-to-swallow, near-impossible things, and we're just supposed to accept them because that's how it is. Like the excuse for this whole caper, that Watanabe could make One Phone Call and make it so that DiCaprio was no longer a wanted man. Really? You're a business man from JAPAN, and you have so much power that you could make charges against a man just disappear in AMERICA? Really?
And that in itself- DiCaprio at one point talks about extradition between one country and America, and someone mentions that they don't usually extradite American criminals from that country, and DiCaprio says "Oh, I think they'll make an exception for me." WHY? Because you killed your wife? Do you know how many men kill their wives in this country? Why, why, why is you killing your wife just SO BAD that America will go out of their way to bring you back? Why are you so special? Talking like that, he made me think he performed some sort of terrorist attack or mass murder, but nope, he just offed his wife. Yeah, okay.
Then again, I guess you could argue that these issues are evidence of 'dream logic', and are therefore proof that, yes, the ending was a twist ending. But I'm not sure whether or not to give Nolan credit for being smart or just be accept that his writing's logic is seriously flawed.
Then there's the format of the film itself - again, we've got this awesome sci-fi premise filled with possibility and potential, and you make it into a HEIST FLICK? SERIOUSLY? A HEIST MOVIE? I mean, I don't mind heist movies; in fact, I love them, especially with the ridiculous, over-the-top, Ocean's Eleven-type capers, but WHAT THE HELL? DUDE. Your premise has you INFILTRATING PEOPLE'S DREAMS, why am I forced to watch you Italian Job us FOR LIKE AN HOUR? Even to the point where we have to recruit a newbie, train everyone, and then explain the over-complicated plan for twenty minutes. WHY ARE YOU SABOTAGING YOUR OWN IDEAS AND MAKING THEM BORING, NOLAN? Is your dead wife in there fucking about with your brain? Is that it?
The caper itself was boring. Honest to God, I heard someone behind me snoring. It was interesting, I suppose, when something was happening, but there were WAY WAY WAY too many scenes of the bus falling and time-lapse shit happening in the various levels of dreaming. You cut those out and I swear it could have been twenty minutes shorter. Every time one of those shots came up, I wanted to scream "GET ON WITH IT".
As to the whole inner-conflict, guilt-ridden conflict that is really what the movie is all about...meh. I mean, the idea of someone's own subconscious sabotaging itself out of guilt is a nifty idea, but I found it hard to believe or relate to. It all felt very forced. And very pretentious. I didn't feel any sincerity in that whole plot line at all, I just felt Nolan trying to make us think he was doing something deep. The last scene between DiCaprio and his wife was another one I wanted to yell "GET ON WITH IT" in. We know what's going to happen, what he's saying and why, you don't need to dwell on it and fill it with redundant bullshit. JUST. GET. ON. WITH. IT.
That being said, the effects were nice. I think, especially in the beginning, in the scene with Ellen Page (who I did not believe in her role AT ALL, which was seriously distracting), A LOT, if not all of it were effects for the sake of effects. Just scenes they could put in the trailer to catch people's attention. But the zero-g fight with Joseph Gordon-Levitt was cool. Aaaaand that's about it.
All in all, it was a huge disappointment for me. I was filled with hope that it was going to be something cool and new and it was fucking Ocean's Eleven in The Matrix. Way to ruin your own movie, Nolan.
I honestly don't see what everyone sees in it, especially people who are supposed to be 'critics' and able to see through this pretentious bullshit. DAMN YOU OVERRATED MOVIES THAT AREN'T AS GOOD AS EVERYONE APPARENTLY THINKS. /dies
I appreciated the ambiguous ending though. I am all about ambiguity in an ending.