My wife and I went to see Inception Saturday afternoon. I don’t have much ‘good’ to say about the film other than I liked it. It was way to long, and the film itself seemed intent on providing images of some college sophomore’s perspective of T.S Eliot’s “Waste Land.” No one involved with the production seems to have really explored the idea of a nonexistent reality whether one is explicating the various “levels” of a dream, or a second reality where both are a unique phenomena defined by the original experience, the dogmatic exposition, and finally, skepticism. I couldn’t help but think that if the dude who did the screen play for The Book of Eli had written this, it would have been a whole lot better. I did like, for the first time, young Mr. DeCaprio in the lead and his excellent portrayal of a young man who loved a young woman so much he was willing to do anything to exist in that love. Sadly, it never occurred to anyone involved with the film to move that concept toward the transcendent. Had they done that, they would have produced a film that would have challenged The Book of Eli as the finest film ever made. And, finally having sacrificed my ear in years of “hard service,” I have trouble with films where the background music raises to a crescendo during a crucial explanation, in this case of the dream phenomenon. Add to that the fact the actors inevitably begin to whisper at this time and bingo-bango I miss stuff. So I have to confess I’ll have to buy the film and watch it at home.
Monday, July 19, 2010, 1:56 PM
Robert Cheeks
July 19th, 2010 | 4:48 pm
Sorry, can’t take anyone seriously who thinks The Book of Eli is “the finest film ever made.”
Inception is certainly not the finest film ever made, but it is a very fine film. I will be seeing it again later this week.
July 19th, 2010 | 6:48 pm
It’s not your fault having trouble following dialog. There is so much spent on how a film looks and so little on how it sounds.
July 20th, 2010 | 10:43 am
I liked it too. But I think you’re right about the apparent absence of transcendence. The film seems entirely unaware that the disaster of the first inception should lead to serious questioning of this second inception. This lack perhaps reflects the assumption that there’s no need to question the innocuous inception that one should become a ‘self-made man’. We are asked to assume that this is wholly good. I think that betrays that this really is just another summer blockbuster, albeit a really fun one!
July 20th, 2010 | 7:33 pm
I’ll probably wait to see Inception on video – because of the sound issue I rarely watch anything but special effects movies in the theater. At home I can turn on the letterbox and subtitles.
As for DeCaprio, the only lead I ever really liked him in was The Beach, which received poor reviews, but I thought was worth watching a second time in the theater.
July 22nd, 2010 | 10:25 am
Alright guys we are going to plant am idea within a dream within a dream within a dream and it’s going to work perfectly. Oh and btw if you die then you go to this place and we find you and when you wake up you’ll be fine! Oh except for my wife who will kill herself. Oh one more thing dreaming is not random at all because we build the dream! How? Oh it doesn’t matter. And this device thing ya it uh does stuff also. I thought it tried to do too much and didn’t really do anything!
July 23rd, 2010 | 2:13 pm
I’ll probably take a look-see myself, once I clear the hurdle of watching DiCaprio on the big screen. (What else am I going to do, go watch B.B. Thornton’s ex in Salt?) My question to those of you have seen it is do the special effects achieve anything like our actual dreamstates? That would seem to be the first objective of the effects and nothing I’ve seen of the previews tells me they’ve done that.
July 23rd, 2010 | 5:58 pm
Wow, I had no idea that “the dude who did the screen play for The Book of Eli” was Gary Whitta. He was the editor in chief of PC Gamer for like a decade. I must have read hundreds of his columns growing up. That’s nuts.
I wouldn’t have bothered to look it up except that he’s writing the Penny Arcade comics for this week.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/
July 23rd, 2010 | 11:12 pm
Thanks guys, for the comments. D-rock, frankly, I don’t take myself all that seriously either. Bill, well see the movie but don’t get your expectations up and I look forward to your comments. Ben, I believe that’s the best review of the movie I’ve read. Andrew, Gary Whitta is the man…sadly I’m a Luddite and don’t do games but the dude can write a screen play.
July 24th, 2010 | 5:12 pm
Bill Parsons:
“…do the special effects achieve anything like our dreamstates?”
Hmmm, difficult question, because I’m not sure what a “normal” dreamstate consists of. I’m not trying to be glib. Some of the critics of the film have said that the dreams are too much like reality, too choreographed, and overdetermined. They are not absurdist or surreal if that’s what you are looking for. But see, I bought into the dreams because I don’t really have bizarre ones. I mean, I may be in unique situations, but I don’t have ones where I’m, for example, floating on the end of a string like a kite (to cite 8 1/2). But what the movie does achieve, I think, is make the line between the dreams and what is supposed to be “reality” sufficiently confusing that it’s difficult to decide which are which. I don’t want to give anything away, but the ending is ambiguous, and a second viewing may make you question what is supposed to be real or not. Go see it.
July 29th, 2010 | 11:38 pm
The Book of Eli is the greatest film ever? Really? I admit it was kind of interesting but not even close to the best ever. Not even of the last year. Try watching a film done by Billy Wilder, Jean-Luc Godard, or Terrence Malick.
October 6th, 2011 | 4:36 am
thank you for the info, I was looking for details on it here since last weekend !
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