DUNNNN... DUNNNNNNNNN... DUNNNNNNNNNNN...
That was a lot of movie to digest. I definitely enjoyed it. But that's because I enjoy all things in the genre of mindfuck. Any movie that makes me pay attention continuously instead of sitting back to vegetate is a good movie.
I didn't really want it to be longer than it already was, but I wish they'd taken more time to introduce us to the characters near the beginning. I felt like we were pretty well thrown into PLOT PLOT PLOT. IT'S LIKE A FREIGHT TRAIN, THIS INCESSANTLY MOVING PLOT. OH SHIT IT REALLY IS A FREIGHT TRAIN.
Not that a constantly moving plot is bad. It keeps you from checking your watch and realizing that there's an entire hour left to go. I just wish they'd kept the pace a bit slower at the beginning because all the characters seemed really intriguing, but we only got hints of why. I would have liked the opportunity to get to know them better before dropping them into peril, because then I probably would have been way more invested in it. Not that I wasn't already, just moreso. I guess that's what fanfic is for.
Maybe they could have cut out a few of the many scenes wherein the subconscious lackeys shoot at or get shot to make some room. They were plentiful.
For the record, it did not pass the Bechdel test. I'm not sure you can even have a Bechdel test when one of the two women in the movie is already dead. And even if you ruled that part out, I'm pretty sure Mal was threatening to kill Ariadne during the one scene where they did talk. So there were definitely too many dicks on the dancefloor. I would have liked another competent female character or two somewhere.
Ariadne was quite competent! I liked her a lot. Again, though, I wish she'd been given more of an introduction so we could have gotten to know her. I thought at some point she might go all damsel in distress, but no. She held her own and aside from the weird kiss scene, wasn't anyone's love interest.
I thought it was just me and my obsession lately, but I was not the only one who noticed, so I will say that this was almost a heist movie. You had a team of people working to con this guy into thinking what he wants is to divide up his company. They've got their roles that they specialize in: Architect, Forger... and, um. Client. And, uhhh... whatever it is that Cobb and Arthur do. But it wasn't quite so. Having a difficult time putting my finger on why, but with heist movies/shows, the con artists are usually on top of things, even when you don't think that they are, and do things with flare. Inception was more of a plan spiraling out of control and being salvaged. That's about as close as I get to being able to describe the difference.
Speaking of Arthur, I spent half the movie trying to figure out if Ken Watanabe's character name was Saito or Sedo/Seido. I'm sorry, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but you need some help with your pronunciation.
I also spent half the movie worrying that Saito was going to die horribly. He didn't, aside from the mental instability after effects. So that was good.
The big "BUT IS IT ALL A DREEEAAAAAMM?!" twist at the end was unsurprising, but well executed.
I don't know that this is "the next Blade Runner" or anything quite so dramatic, but it was a good movie. I have to think about it some more yet.