I get what you're saying planet news: often times an opinion doesn't matter as much as the decisions someone takes to formulate it. But what people are trying to tell you is, on this forum, negative repping is an action reserved for an extremely negative post, in which the poster attacks another poster instead of addressing the post itself, or says something that's in general inconsiderate, or continuously, annoyingly interjects with posts that add nothing to the discussion. Positive rep is awarded for a number of reasons: a funny or clever post will usually get one or two, giving one's own honest opinion on a movie with no strings attached will normally get more, and offering a well thought-out, mature, and respectful response in support of or in opposition to another post will get you the most. They aren't just a gimmick. They are a way of telling people that this is a post worth reading. For example, I always look at the posts with the most positive rep because I'm sure that person had something worth my time.
Anyway, I agree that some of the less important action in this film did not live up to the smart action of The Dark Knight. I think in particular of the first time they are attacked in Yusuf's dream (the first level). Arthur, Eames, Saito, and Fischer Jr. are in a car and people in front of them shoot at the car with automatic weapons; Arthur drives in reverse, hits some cars, and people behind them shoot the car with automatic weapons. He shifts back into drive, and the people in front of them shoot them again. This continues, noisily for about four minutes until Cobb swoops in and hits a guy, rather inelegantly, with the side of his car. It's boring, but I think Nolan did it with a purpose. The group did not expect Fischer to have been trained to defend his subconscious, they are ambushed and figuratively and literally have no way out. I think that scene was just trying to illustrate that.
But, again, I agree that it failed to excite me. In The Dark Knight, every action sequence was choreographed so beautifully that it flowed into the picture naturally. For example, Nolan didn't linger on the truck flipping over; it made for an amazing stunt for about five seconds, and immediately segued into Batman driving toward the Joker, resisting hitting him. This led directly to the Joker's capture. The scene wasn't made to stand alone. It astounded, but it was relevant and moved the story forward. A similar scene was the one in the under-construction skyscraper, where the guards were disguised as doctors and the hostages were made to look like bad guys. It was a fine example of how Batman's always right, always serving justice, and always at odds with the cops who make him out to be the bad guy. Inception had several shootout scenes that just distracted from the driving narrative. They did not tell us anything about the characters, except that they knew how to ride snowmobiles or shoot huge guns. I agree with your sentiment that Nolan could have found a more clever, dynamic way of showing Fischer's projections.
But to dismiss all the action in this movie as being distractions from the originality of the story is kind of stubborn. You want Inception to be a sophisticated thinking man's science fiction movie with no time for fun. But Nolan's goal from the start was to make a film that dealt with these huge ideas of inspiration and dreaming in a heist movie setting, with homages to James Bond films and The Matrix. Long, senseless shootouts and fight sequences were inevitable. But that doesn't mean all the action detracted from the movie.
We agree that the zero gravity and tumbling hallway scenes were excellent action scenes. But what about the tension created in synchronizing events on four different levels of consciousness, each with differing laws of time and space? This is about as good an example of cross-cutting as I can find in a movie, and if cross-cutting between this many narratives this quickly does not equate to action for you, I don't know what does. On the first level, we have a speeding car being assailed on all sides, while Yusuf struggles to keep the car from tipping over, and getting rid of Fischer's projections. This directly effects the people in Arthur's dream, leading to that hallway sequence. There are many more examples of 'smart' action in the movie that, as genesis pig says, keeps the viewers fully engaged, but this post is already long enough.
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I something in your general direction if you believe otherwise. Unless you hate the show as a whole, in which case, there is no talking to you, sir, and we must part ways.
