INCEPTION REVIEW: $200 Million Well Spent, Chris!
After pulling in over $1Billion for Warner Brothers with the Dark Knight, it was pretty nice of them to give $200Million of it back to Christopher Nolan for a little movie he called Inception. Especially since it’s probably Nolan’s finest work, and on its way to possibly being the biggest movie of the summer. The only question is: what happened at the end?
July 20th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
First of all guys, great review.
Matt- Despite the fact that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has the face, I don’t know how well he could possibly fit the role. I recommend you check out The Joker Blogs. This guy not only got the face, but the personality of Ledger’s Joker down pat. This is the link to the first video (Therapy Begins). The series itself has officially wrapped, but you should watch each one. You’ll definitely enjoy the performances: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJtIPi0Nb60
July 21st, 2010 at 12:23 am
Funny you should mention Joseph Gordon-Levitt for a new joker, rumor has it he’s actually a candidate for the riddler in the next batman film. Only rumor, but still…
July 21st, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Matt,
I do not agree with you that this is an “original” idea of Nolan’s. Haven’t you seen the anime film, “Paprika?” And what about “The Matrix”? Those movies, to me, did a MUCH BETTER job in dealing with the concept of dreams and the distortion between them as far as what exactly ARE dreams and what exactly IS reality? IMHO, “INCEPTION” was a mess. To me, and to a lot of other people, it was ambiguous just for the sake of being ambiguous.
Just one of my many beefs about this movie was that dreams should be amorphic. People’s faces, especially those in the background, should’ve been blank or at least blurry. Things should not have been so artfully contrived. Most if not ALL dreams, are not so well crafted or constructed down to the last detail. All we got with “INCEPTION” was falling buildings??! Really? There was NOTHING dream-like about ANY of those scenes. Even when Ellen Page “oh-so-perfectly” designed, maneuvered and constructed bridges and mirrors and other crap. Gimme a break! Everything was just WAAAYY too convenient and perfectly timed down to the minute. And what the hell is “LIMBO”??? What, we’re all just supposed to accept this kind of crappy so-called science-fiction? And even though some things don’t always HAVE to be explained, the mystery surrounding the dream “device” and the dream “drug” wasn’t all that interesting. I was able to suspend my disbelief in movies like “Paprika” and “The Matrix” because not only were those storylines just way more brilliant, I was also given enough exposition to actually care about some of the characters. I didn’t get to that point with “INCEPTION”. Even though I really liked Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s characters, I didn’t really give a crap if they got sent to…wait for it….the limbo of no return. God. It actually made me wince to type that.
Like many reviews so aptly and succinctly stated, this movie simply hobbled along due to a seriously weak exposition and atrocious plot pacing. It was self-indulgent. And the ending was not only predictable, it insulted my intelligence. Nolan is one of the most overrated directors out there, and this movie is just another vehicle for his enormous ego to perpetuate the notion that he’s a genius when he’s really a hack. He may have some really good ideas and concepts, but he SUCKS on his follow through. He knows how to generate the hype machine, which makes people feel like, if they didn’t “get” or “like” one of his movies, then they’re not part of the really “cool” and “in” sub-culture of our times. Just like with TDK, which I think was and still is the most overrated movie of our time.
Don’t buy into the hype. Stop letting ol’ Nolan boy pull the strings. If one of his movies suck, then it sucks. There’s nothing apocryphal about that. It just IS.
July 21st, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Hey! The thing in the opium den DID topple, remember he said if it’ a dream it’d spin all the time? Well, he tried spinning it in the den and it toppled on the sink, now it wouldn’t do that if it was dream (like in the end) – my theory; he never made it out of level-whatever but he cleared his (sub)conscious, so he allowed himself to see his kids..
July 22nd, 2010 at 4:29 pm
*lol* why can he make Christian Bale good *lol* good one
July 23rd, 2010 at 8:32 pm
just saw it and…… what just happened??? did he got out of limbo or not? half of the movie never happened in reality?? did the other characters got to the u.s.a safe? did the son destroyed the company? did they succeeded in incepting/planting the idea in the son mind?
July 24th, 2010 at 3:32 am
and yes, I also think TBK is the most overrated movie ever?
July 24th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Well I though it was great. It was just like a heist movie without the actually heist. Leo picked his team of specialists and planned and timed the events to perfection. It was just like a more complicated Italian Job. It even had Michael Caine in it and it had a simliar ending in that it let the viewer decide what happened next. Did the top stop spinning? Did the gold fall over the cliff? Brill. P.S I think Joseph Gordon Levitt is ace.
July 25th, 2010 at 4:53 am
I’m sorry Matt how can anyone take you seriously after you gave thumbs upto the Eclipse Twlight movie? My god man have you no scruples? I demand an immediate retraction of your Twlight Eclipse review!
July 25th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
TBK? Are you referring to The Burger King? And are you sure it’s overrated judging by the question mark at the end? LOL (Sorry, I couldn’t resist, gilad. No hard feelings).
July 27th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
INCEPTION was amazing. I have never been so amazed by a movie in a long time. Loved the story, the acting, the effects, the soundtrack… Everything was brilliant
August 1st, 2010 at 12:56 am
I just saw it. To me, the movie was okay, but it wasn’t great.
My ranking of Christopher Nolan Films (as I’ve seen them), from greatest to okay.
1. Memento
2. Insomnia
3. The Dark Knight
4. Batman Begins
5. Inception
August 3rd, 2010 at 11:28 am
Just saw this movie last night, AMAZING! I love the entire movie, the cinematography, the action, the dedication. Perfect in my opinion.
Also to go with some other theories and just “proof” from the movie:
http://blastr.com/2010/08/spoiler-costume-designer.php
I love how he ended up actually getting what the movie set out to do.
August 14th, 2010 at 3:51 am
There is of course the obvious yet virtually completely overlooked thing about the totem in that it would not work as an accurate way of gauging weather or not you’re asleep if it’s YOUR dream, because of course you would already know it’s dimensions and so forth. …and so, whether or not the totem fell at the end, it doesn’t matter, he could still be in his own private limbo because his totem was USLESS to determine if HE was the one tricking HIMSELF, as he knows how his tests are supposed to turn out- that kind of test would ONLY work in detecting whether or not you were in SOMEONE ELSE’S dream, and thus a totem would be completely useless in your own.
His wife was totally right all along.
“…The movie “Inception” was an inception into the brains of the movie audience that the (main)events in “Inception” were real.”
Remember, YOUR mind -is- the scene of the crime. >.>
(And you, sir, Nolan, are a master criminal! >:D)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/board/nest/168071360?d=168071360&p=1#168071360
August 20th, 2010 at 8:56 pm
Ah, no. It’s not the opium den scene, that’s left unclear…
The ambiguity comes much, much more later…
Sitting opposite of Watanabe, silently laddling his soup, listening to Watanabe’s “old men full of regrets” monologue. _That’s_ when we are left without an actual scene of the suicide, the actual picking up and firing the gun. Notice how Nolan left out the transition up through all the layers – back to the ice fortress, the hotel room, the van… He just ends up in the plane. Just like he told Ellen Page earlier: in a dream you just jump around without a feeling of how you got there…
IF – and it is a big IF – the final home coming is a dream, DiCaprio is still trapped in the Limbo!
Keep up making good reviews, but try to keep attention to the details.
September 4th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
I’m surprised to see Inception haters on here. You people really thought this film was ‘just ok’? I thought the movie was wholly captivating and unique, with great acting & mind-blowing cinematography. I’m always in awe of a flick that can create so much tension in an ‘otherworld’ that on paper might seem a bit hard to relate to for the viewer. I’m sure almost everybody was gripped by this tension during various moments in the film, especially the sequence where we watched their van falling off a bridge in slow motion. As far as I’m concerned Inception deserves its #4 spot on the imdb all-time top 250 list.
September 21st, 2010 at 5:40 am
To answer the OP’s question – yes I think Nolan was trying to show a bit of chemistry (not a lot) between the 2 characters. Ellen and Joe had quite a few interviews and photo shoots together after the film and it looked like they were pretty good friends.
October 24th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
What happened at the end?
I want away a little bit confused unable to decide if I had just wasted two hours of my life. At the same time I might have to put aside another two hours to watch it again and try to work out what’s going on….