INCEPTION Review Thread (SPOILERS!!)

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by ArmyOfDarknessAW

Just got back from seeing this in my local Cinemark XD theater and i loved it. I give it a 4.5/5 it was just fantastic. It was such a mind trip with some of the best special effects i have ever seen. I must say Nolan made me even more of a fan after seeing this. He did an amazing job sucking me in for 2 1/2 hours and told an amazing story. I want to go see it again already and it has been awhile since a movie made me want to see it again so quick.

Forgot how much of it was SPX. I know most of it was visuals

[Batman1980]

[Show spoiler]Count me among those now that think that maybe Cobb's totem was tampered with at some point, causing him to lose his ability to differentiate between the dream world and the real world.

[RAZGRIZ-1]

I just came back from the theater. This movie blew my mind! Without a doubt one of the best films I have ever seen! Everything about it is outstanding! I can't gush over it enough! Bravo Nolan! Bravo!

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by Kakashi Sensai

I just came back from the theater. This movie blew my mind! Without a doubt one of the best films I have ever seen! Everything about it is outstanding! I can't gush over it enough! Bravo Nolan! Bravo!

Nolan claims another victim, thanks for going into detail about what you thought, Sensai.

[RAZGRIZ-1]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Stormcrow

Nolan claims another victim, thanks for going into detail about what you thought, Sensai.

Well I can't really think straight right now so I'll reserve my thoughts for tomorrow.

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by Kakashi Sensai

Well I can't really think straight right now so I'll reserve my thoughts for tomorrow.

You do realize this movie is supposed to expand your horizons and foster creative thinking, not stifle intelligent thoughts, right?

[RAZGRIZ-1]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Stormcrow

You do realize this movie is supposed to expand your horizons and foster creative thinking, not stifle intelligent thoughts, right?

Yeah but I'm on a fanboy high right now. After I sleep on it and think about it more than I will share my thoughts.

[mjbethancourt]

Holy crap!!! This thread is already HUGE! Too huge for me to attempt to read it. So, I don't know if this has been discussed already, but this is my assessment of 'Inception':

This is the best movie I have seen in several years. In particular, it is one of the most literarily profound movies I have seen in a long time. If you haven't read Dante Alighieri's 'The Divine Comedy', then you will not understand the literary subtext and reference: 'Inception' is the techno-psycho-thriller adaptation of Dante's 'The Divine Comedy'. I could explain this in extensive detail, but that is for another time. This movie was so good, that it made me dig up my old school-notes on TDC, and amazingly, it is because of this movie that I finally GET 'The Divine Comedy'. Dante was trying to say something about life, and heaven and hell: that contrary to what the Catholic church was teaching at that time, heaven and hell are not places out there in the cosmos, but rather places in the mind (which does not make them any less "real"); because the mind and all of its memories are simultaneously a prison of guilt and regret, but also a paradise of our warmest, most cherished moments... and sometimes those same memories are both at the same time.

[mjbethancourt]

Originally Posted by Buddy Christ

2 things

[Show spoiler] All of the totems were game pieces. Not sure of relevance.
and the music at the kick is a french song about regret.

[Show spoiler]The top was Mal's totem. Cobb's totem was his children, which is why he could not look at them.

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by mjbethancourt

[Show spoiler]The top was Mal's totem. Cobb's totem was his children, which is why he could not look at them.

[Show spoiler]
I seriously doubt projections were his totem since you have to be able to see the totem in the real world. Also, totems have to be able to drop or fall onto a surface to let you know you're grounded in reality, his children were either on a loop or at other times acting randomly.

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by Diesel

IMDB's list is irrelevant...as is any other list to me.

I agree with you, the only top ten list worth anything to me, is my own

[D-Blitz]

I just saw this film again - in IMAX this time. I can definitely say the movie was 10 times more satisfying in this second viewing, as I was able to connect all the points together. I am still at awe at this movie. It is the movie of the year hands down so far.

[mjbethancourt]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Stormcrow

[Show spoiler]
I seriously doubt projections were his totem since you have to be able to see the totem in the real world. Also, totems have to be able to drop or fall onto a surface to let you know you're grounded in reality, his children were either on a loop or at other times acting randomly.

You're fixating too hard on "rules".

[Show spoiler]His children do exist in the real world, which is why seeing them in the dream world would totally sever his last connection with the "real" world, and so he refuses to even look at the projections of them. The whole point of a totem is that it can exist either as a projection, or as its original referent in reality, and only the original observer can tell the difference. I didn't say "the projection of his children", I said "his children". So, his children absolutely fit that parameter. I think you may have missed one of the subtle points of the ending of the movie, which is that not only do we not know conclusively as viewers what was real and what was a dream, but rather that in the end it does not matter, because as far as this movie is concerned, reality is transitory and relative.

This movie is meant to bend your mind, and it seems that you are trying to force it to make logical sense, when it is meant to defy logical sense at some level.

[mjbethancourt]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

I agree with you, the only top ten list worth anything to me, is my own

Considering that any "hot" new release immediately rockets into the top 50 ('Inglorious Basterds' a top film? Really?), then yeah, I'd say that the IMDb top 250 needs to be taken with a grain of salt and an understanding of how release-hype effects the rating of a movie.

All that notwithstanding, this really is an incredible movie.

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by mjbethancourt

Considering that any "hot" new release immediately rockets into the top 50 ('Inglorious Basterds' a top film? Really?), then yeah, I'd say that the IMDb top 250 needs to be taken with a grain of salt and an understanding of how release-hype effects the rating of a movie.

All that notwithstanding, this really is an incredible movie.

My greatest problem these days is the "greatest movie ever comments " we keep seeing as soon as a movie everyone things is "great" is out. Then if you dare say "ok its alright but not really that incredible to me, I've seen it and that is enough for me" they jump on you like you have no taste in movies or a troll or want to hate anything that is popular or whatever. I just find the enthusiams of some people rather funny as every other movie they see is the greatest movie ever and now that movie they love so much as to win a best picture It's funny but sad for them cause I think their enthusiams basicly kill the need to see this movie for many years as they see it so much in the first 18 months that I wonder if they actually watch it again years after it was release. I might be wrong I am sure but I wonder?

[mjbethancourt]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

My greatest problem these days is the "greatest movie ever comments " we keep seeing as soon as a movie everyone things is "great" is out. Then if you dare say "ok its alright but not really that incredible to me, I've seen it and that is enough for me" they jump on you like you have no taste in movies or a troll or want to hate anything that is popular or whatever. I just find the enthusiams of some people rather funny as every other movie they see is the greatest movie ever and now that movie they love so much as to win a best picture It's funny but sad for them cause I think their enthusiams basicly kill the need to see this movie for many years as they see it so much in the first 18 months that I wonder if they actually watch it again years after it was release. I might be wrong I am sure but I wonder?

We need only remember 'The Dark Knight', which toyed with top 3 status for weeks and top 5 status for months before coming back down to earth.

Inception really is that good, though: last I checked, I thought IMDb was actually rating it a little low (on opening weekend). I'll have to check on where it stands now.

The IMDb list is hype-driven, which is why there are 5 Tarantino films in the top 250, yet only one Peckinpah film, in spite of the fact that all Tarantino films are stolen from Peckinpah films.

Edit: Never mind: amazing how fast things change on that chart. On Sunday it was like #60, Now it's #3?!!! Seriously? #3?! Jeezus, people get caught up in hype! I thought IMDb wasn't supposed to count your rating unless you were a regular film-rater? That rating can only come from a plethora of first-time raters giving it a 10. People really need a lesson in perspective. I've rated at least 300 films on IMDb, and only my very few favorites ever got anything over an eight. VERY few. The scale is 1-10 for a reason, it's not 7-10, as so many people apparently think it is.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Stormcrow

I've said that before, more blow the spoiler tag.

[Show spoiler]Mal IS Cobb, she's all his dark feelings, guilt, depression, anger, etc. She still defines who he is and drives him to act the way he does as well.

Originally Posted by Buddy Christ

[Show spoiler] so when he confronts her at the end he is really confronting himself

I've been saying that for 5 days!!! It's bad enough nobody listens to me in my real life...

Originally Posted by Gandalf Stormcrow

[Show spoiler]Yes when he confronts the projection at the end, he's really arguing with himself. Does he want to stay in limbo forever and find his wife or does he want to take a chance and live life without her. Surprisingly he chose the latter. Not sure how he would've found his dead wife but still.

His arguements with

[Show spoiler]the Mal projection are not based on him trying to find and stay with his wife. You have to think a bit more abstractly with regards to the relationship Cobb and the Mal projection have. Mal is a representation of his guilt. Guilt, by its nature, WANTS TO THRIVE! It wants to fester and grow. Essentially, it wants to make the conscious individual suffer. So, the Mal projection wanting Cobb to go to limbo with her is actually his own way of trying to opt for eternal punishment for what he has done. Part of him feels like he needs to be punished. And what better way than to live out eternity with a mental projection of someone whose death you feel responsible for? It has nothing to do with "wanting to find his wife or living without her." He already knows that there is no choice but to live without her. He has to choose whether to continue punishing himself or to accept that his actions were meant to be innocent and that he shouldn't feel that responsibility.

Originally Posted by Jmills

I understood everything and absolutely loved it...

[Show spoiler]but I was a bit confused in the 2nd level when the uncle showed up in the room (was that part of Fischer's subconcious? Or was that the Forger? I know the Forger was him leading up to that point right?)

They explained this clearly in the film while planning the inception job.

[Show spoiler]They say that they could impersonate the uncle and use his image/relationship with Fischer to plant feelings of betrayal, as well as the idea that his father wasn't ashamed of him. Then, in the next level, Fischer's subconscious would create the projection of the uncle in order to continue with the setup. They then said that they would be able to tell if the plan was working based on how that projection of the uncle behaved in the 2nd level since that behaviour would be dictated by Fischer's subconscious. Essentially, the uncle in the 2nd level was the litmus paper to inform Cobb's team as to whether Fischer was believing that he was on his own in discovering that his father wanted him to dissolve the family empire, or if Fischer's subconscious was rejecting the notion because it realized that the idea had been planted there.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Well now... Nolan has impressed me once again. I just found out something interesting about the name Ariadne!

[Show spoiler]

Since ancient Greek myths were passed down through oral tradition, many variations of this and other myths exist. According to an Athenian version of the legend, Minos attacked Athens after his son was killed there. The Athenians asked for terms, and were required to sacrifice seven young men and seven maidens every nine years to the Minotaur. One year, the sacrificial party included Theseus, a young man who volunteered to come and kill the Minotaur. Ariadne fell in love at first sight, and helped him by giving him a sword and a ball of red fleece thread that she was spinning, so that he could find his way out of the Minotaur's labyrinth.

Of course, I don't see the love aspect being associated, but the underlined part really made me go .

[Show spoiler]And since Ariadne helped Cobb find his way out of the maze of his guilt,

I think that is a brilliant associative bit on Nolan's part!

[ScarredLungs]

Has this continued to make 10+ million each day this week?

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by cvm

Has this continued to make 10+ million each day this week?

not sure. Haven't seen any numbers from Tuesday.