Inception. Or how to make dumb people feel smart...?

It was shot in 3D, my friend. No up-converting, or whatever crap they're calling it.

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Couldn't agree more...but on with the discussion.

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It certainly didn't look like it was shot in 3D.
Tron: Legacy had some potential to be one of the most entertianing films if done right in 3D... The theme of the film demanded a 3D experience.

Too bad, they didn't do a good job.

I hope this 3d thing goes away. Putting glasses on top of my glasses at the movie theater is very uncomfortable.

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Then why not watch the movies in 2D?
I personally think we should be blaming ourselves for making the decision to watch a film in 3D rather than the alternate 2D option.

I chose to watch Tron: Legacy in 3D, it was disappointing.

If a film is legitimately shot in 3D, might as well see it the way the director wants you to. As for the rush job, aka Clash of the Titans, I knew to stay far away of the 3D version. I think it all depends, though.

Yes, the paying audience will always be to blame. Case in point, Scary Movie 25. Hollywood sees the trend, and jumps aboard the gravy train. They're simply going where the "gold" is.

I loved the whole Tron Legacy experience partly because had a hard on for the sublime Daft Punk soundtrack which made the film

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I;ve also been drinking

LoL.. I love the track that is played when the kid walks into the arcade after a long time.

I think Daft Punk should release an album reworking popular 8-bit videogame tunes.

There are always going to be people who criticise a popular film for the mere fact that they feel it gets more recognition than it should, but Inception should not be one of those films. I vaguely remember The Matrix getting similar criticism, all because most people couldn't stop talking about it and complaining that films like Ghost In The Shell are as thought provoking but didn't get the same recognition. This is where big budgets come in handy because if you're going to make a film that has a philosophical weight to it, surely you want it to be seen by the widest audience possible? The original post almost implies that it's a bad thing if it appeals beyond 'cultured viewers', which I think is really unfair.


With Inception, Nolan has shown that you can make a very expensive and very entertaining summer film without coming across as silly. At the end of the day, Christopher Nolan is going out of his way in not just proving a lot of Hollywood producers/directors wrong, but those outside the mainstream as well. Nolan doesn't really believe in treating mainstream audiences differently from the indy types, and Inception's feedback is solid proof of that. It's essentially the same kind of feedback he got from Memento. The small minority of us who managed to see that probably argued about it for months seeing it. His films best films tend to do that a lot and that's part of his charm.

I actually really like how i'm not one of the few who are raving about a Nolan film anymore because it kinda got lonely there for a bit. It's nice that people are actually able to engage in a thoughtful discussion about a big budget film even if it isn't as convoluted as many would have you believe. The themes ARE deep though, and I don't see how that can be disputed. The nature of dreams and the way dreams are constructed is something I have always been interested in, so for The Magacian to use that as his base and milk it out the way he did with this project spoke a lot of volumnes to me. The questions Nolan highlighted are similar to the ones that popped up in my head when watching the film on my 3 occasions. I never realised it before watching the film, but every dream we have is something that we alone have constructed. The world of the dream is what WE build, which I find a bit disturbing given some of the type of dreams I have had.

Each to their own though, IM cool with people not liking the film much though, and in some aspects, I can understand why. The characterisation you highlighted, Pyro, is somewhat weak, I will admit. In fact, I will say that the character development in the film is probably the weakest out of any Nolan film, but I put that down to the fact that Nolan spent so much time on a 3 dimensional plot structure which makes up for it a bit.

I don't especially think that the character development in Inception is weak. Rather, I find most of it to be irrelevant. There should be character development between the husband and the wife, and there should be some between the team members when it clarifies their past experiences and why they've been chosen for their jobs. For the most part, I believe that Inception deserves a passing to better than average grade for character development, especially when you consider that we are talking about dreams here.

I'll admit that this is just a coincidence, but I've been dreaming a lot lately, and it almost all has to do with my fearing that I've broken some kind of law and that I have to pay for my crimes. This makes it seem that I'm feeling very guilty about something and I should expect the real-life authorities to raid my house and arrest me for something I've gotten away with. What's so eerie and pervasive is that even after I wake up, I'm convinced that I really did get away with something I should be locked up for, but it's not even remotely the case. It's only the next morning when I realize that the dream is just some action thriller where I'm being chased for something I either never did or already have paid the price for. However, it does make me appreciate dreams more. I started a dream thread here and probably like you, my dreams are floridly cinematic. As I grow older, I seem to sleep less and less, but what little I do sleep does seem to involve strong dreams and I can wake from one and get back into it almost immediately, even when I'm not even sure that I'm really asleep.

You ask, "What does this have with Inception?" I'm not totally sure, but one thing which Inception does seem to feed off is that dreams are pumped-up reality and somehow more realistic (to the dreamer) than reality. In Inception, there are many levels of dreams and "realities", and I believe that Nolan kept everything pretty much clear, especially within a thriller/mystery plot. My dreams don't especially cry out to me for a specific answer. They seem to cry out to just be experienced and experienced HARD. I'm sure if Nolan wants to craft a deeper, more-esoteric study about dreams, then he probably could do it. He just may have to move at a quick pace because I think that Sarah and I can get a(n albeit low-budget) flick on the subject out rather quickly which might appeal to some dreamers and "elitists" (HA!) equally. It'll probably gross about $12.95 but somebody will champion it anyway, and Underachieving Bums don't care about Big Bucks anyway.

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I like the title of this thread because it's true. Inception made me feel smart!

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I don't really disagree with what you've said, just don't find it that thought provoking or philosophical. All the ideas are just handed as fact- this is this and this is how it works. Then jumbles it around a bit. It didn't really have anything to say about anything, it didn't question the morality of going into someones mind and completely changing their entire nature of being. It had a few interesting observations like not realising when a dream starts and some nice visual flair but aside from trying to keep track of the narrative, there wasn't much to engage with.

Look, it's a heist movie set in someone's head, ok. It's a good film, but it's really not anything special. Yes, it's one of the best films of the year, but that's not really saying much.

Well said HK

Yeah, in one way "we" construct our dreams, but in a broader sense, "we" don't--not in the sense that most of us conciously think, "this is what I'm going to dream about tonight." True, we can sometimes comprehend afterward what may have set off a particular dream--we may run across an old photo or get an unexpected telephone call or think about a person who then shows up in a dream that night. Or there is some job or task we've been working on, and that night you have dreams of some job or mission or journey that you feel compelled to complete.

But sometimes the cause of our dreams can take different forms we don't necessarily recognize or connect the dream to. Instead of working at an endless task, our anxiety may convert our on-the-job pressures into an image of being bogged down in the mud unable to move or drowning or some other problem--lost and searching for an escape or rescue.

Point being that our minds build our dreams, sometimes into structures we can't realize. There also is a theory that dreams occur as our minds sort out and deal with various anxieties of our day. Some of us remember our dreams vividly; some claim they never dream at all.

Based on my own experience, I think our unconcious minds may have a sort of "central casting" bin from which is pulled interchangible elements that appear in multiple dreams. For instance, there are a couple of buildings and even scenes that show up from time to time in my various dreams. I always recognize the buildings when they appear although when I wake it's hard to describe them exactly. Not like a haunted house or anything--sometimes it's a house, sometimes part of a hotel, but the features are always familar. Trouble is that, asleep or awake, I can never remember having seen anything resembling it in real life. I have no control over the appearance of that building--my unconciousness just occasionally pulls it out its toy box and plugs it into a dream from time to time.

Another part of Inception that made it a failure was Leo's acting. This movie is a perfect example of how he no longer has those boyish looks to rely on. Couple that with the fact he's packed on some pounds and it means he has to rely on pure acting skills which he has little.

Don't worry. He'll still get roles based solely on his name. He's not going to starve to death any time soon.

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"Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and like it, never really care for anything else thereafter." - Ernest Hemingway

And I stopped reading...

I stopped when he said DiCaprio had "little" acting skills. I'm not going to be able to put together a better argument than letting that speak for itself.

Oh he said that as well?! I am so glad I stopped reading.

These old people!