Inception
So! My cousin bailed on me when it came to movie-going. :( So I saw Inception on Saturday night, instead of something anyone else is interested in watching with me. (Aunt thinks it looked "weird", cousin thinks it looked "too smart".) So I left dirty dishes on the counter (omg such a rebel) and trip-tropped my way down to the theater. My reaction to the movie?
Ow. Thinky thing hurting now.
When the credits rolled, I yell, "Oh, that's Evil!" at the screen. It's like that.
Not gonna lie, I walked out of the movie and watched raindrops for a few minutes to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Also, I have a compass on my keyring that doesn't actually point north, which freaked me out for a minute until I remembered that it's broken. I love the idea of recursive dreaming, and using dream symbolism against itself-create a "safe place" and the mind will automatically put things in it that need to be kept safe. Also, the maze-style architecture works so well. I can't even argue with the complaint that dreams aren't usually that simple, because the dream wasn't designed for the target. It was designed so the Extraction team can work inside of it. You can't do that when a room leads into itself and people are speaking an unfamiliar language that you somehow understand anyway. Yes, it would be more authentic, but it would be harder for a lucid mind to navigate. Meanwhile, the dreamer's projections would be one-up, because they would be in their natural setting.
The characters kind of left me cold. I was sadpanda for Cobb and Mal, and kind of adored Fischer Jr., but overall I just didn't feel very in touch with any of them. Which sort of goes as a new check in the column for "it was all a dream". They were so very much cardboard in a lot of ways; easy to summarize, except for Cobb, and maybe it was my imagination, but they got more like themselves the deeper they went. Ariadne became quieter (could be because Audience Stand In was no longer needed), Arther became more snarky and badass, Eames became more "action" and less "thought", Fischer Jr. became more heartbroke son and Yusuf became more "hardcore". Yusef's difference isn't very notable, because he's only one layer down, but Ariadne? I could have sworn that she wouldn't have shot Mal or think of actually going into Limbo deliberately.
Speaking of Limbo, I don't think we actually see it. Limbo is a state of the mind. It's forgetting the difference between reality and dreaming. Mal was in Limbo, and I really think that Cobb was in Limbo in that last scene. But the point where they rescue Fischer Jr.? Not Limbo. I can't see how you can go to Limbo deliberately. They were just another layer down. Death is like sleep, after all, which means that the afterlife would be like a dream. So, following dream logic, you would just go another layer down. Neither Ariadne or Cobb seemed to lose themselves immediately, and neither did Fischer Jr. So. Not Limbo. Just Dream Level 4.
I really, really want fic where Ariadne goes after Cobb and convinces him to do one last job, but it's all a Sekrit Plot to bring him out of the last layer of dream that he's in. Based on the idea that it was all a dream, Ariadne would be a projection of Cobb's, and it would totally be like her to keep going after him.
Which, if it was all a dream, begs the question of what's happening in Meatspace. Did Mal really die, or is she waiting for him? Are the other cast members even real, or just well-fleshed projections? Going by their own rules, Mal shouldn't have been able to show up in anyone's dream except Cobb's. IDC how strong his issues are, he's not the one populating the dream. It's one thing to change the dream-world, it would be another thing to make a projection, I would think. Otherwise, they would have created projections to work as decoys-part of the Architecture, so to speak.
Gah. I need a totem now. ._. I am paranoid of someone breaking into my brain.
Crossposted to Dreamwidths ohnoz!
Ow. Thinky thing hurting now.
When the credits rolled, I yell, "Oh, that's Evil!" at the screen. It's like that.
Not gonna lie, I walked out of the movie and watched raindrops for a few minutes to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Also, I have a compass on my keyring that doesn't actually point north, which freaked me out for a minute until I remembered that it's broken. I love the idea of recursive dreaming, and using dream symbolism against itself-create a "safe place" and the mind will automatically put things in it that need to be kept safe. Also, the maze-style architecture works so well. I can't even argue with the complaint that dreams aren't usually that simple, because the dream wasn't designed for the target. It was designed so the Extraction team can work inside of it. You can't do that when a room leads into itself and people are speaking an unfamiliar language that you somehow understand anyway. Yes, it would be more authentic, but it would be harder for a lucid mind to navigate. Meanwhile, the dreamer's projections would be one-up, because they would be in their natural setting.
The characters kind of left me cold. I was sadpanda for Cobb and Mal, and kind of adored Fischer Jr., but overall I just didn't feel very in touch with any of them. Which sort of goes as a new check in the column for "it was all a dream". They were so very much cardboard in a lot of ways; easy to summarize, except for Cobb, and maybe it was my imagination, but they got more like themselves the deeper they went. Ariadne became quieter (could be because Audience Stand In was no longer needed), Arther became more snarky and badass, Eames became more "action" and less "thought", Fischer Jr. became more heartbroke son and Yusuf became more "hardcore". Yusef's difference isn't very notable, because he's only one layer down, but Ariadne? I could have sworn that she wouldn't have shot Mal or think of actually going into Limbo deliberately.
Speaking of Limbo, I don't think we actually see it. Limbo is a state of the mind. It's forgetting the difference between reality and dreaming. Mal was in Limbo, and I really think that Cobb was in Limbo in that last scene. But the point where they rescue Fischer Jr.? Not Limbo. I can't see how you can go to Limbo deliberately. They were just another layer down. Death is like sleep, after all, which means that the afterlife would be like a dream. So, following dream logic, you would just go another layer down. Neither Ariadne or Cobb seemed to lose themselves immediately, and neither did Fischer Jr. So. Not Limbo. Just Dream Level 4.
I really, really want fic where Ariadne goes after Cobb and convinces him to do one last job, but it's all a Sekrit Plot to bring him out of the last layer of dream that he's in. Based on the idea that it was all a dream, Ariadne would be a projection of Cobb's, and it would totally be like her to keep going after him.
Which, if it was all a dream, begs the question of what's happening in Meatspace. Did Mal really die, or is she waiting for him? Are the other cast members even real, or just well-fleshed projections? Going by their own rules, Mal shouldn't have been able to show up in anyone's dream except Cobb's. IDC how strong his issues are, he's not the one populating the dream. It's one thing to change the dream-world, it would be another thing to make a projection, I would think. Otherwise, they would have created projections to work as decoys-part of the Architecture, so to speak.
Gah. I need a totem now. ._. I am paranoid of someone breaking into my brain.
Crossposted to Dreamwidths ohnoz!