Wednesday 24 August 2011

Devouring Films: Inception

I watched Inception again last night, and I definitely don't even want to attempt to review it (just know that I basically think about it in exclamations and squeals) but just know that I'm actually now slightly more confused about the entire thing than I was when I first watched it. Also, that van takes a really long time to fall, which is something I always forget when I watch it.

There are just three things I want to say about Inception, one of which is completely snarky, but is said with utter love. Firstly, though, allow me to point out, as I do to everyone who is going to watch it/has watched it/doesn't even care about watching it, that, even though the concepts are completely and utterly mind-bending and difficult to even consider at all, the actual plot of the movie is really straightforward- they go through the dreams methodically, it is clear that everyone knows what their job is, and no one is too freaked out about the dream layers, and it all works itself out in the end anyway. Or does it? Here's the second thing that annoys me: the uncertainty of the ending drives me utterly insane- I can't even count the times I have thought about it, alternately dismissing one possibility and accepting the other, then switching again; but for me there is only one option that allows me to sleep at night, so that's the version I choose to accept. (If you haven't seen the film and this makes no sense, then GO AND WATCH THE FILM).

Here's the third thing:

I saw this last year, and it made me go 'yeah, why didn't he actually?!' This has not affected my love for the film one iota, I just want to point out. But still. Lol. 

5 comments:

  1. Haha that made me laugh, especially Leo Decaprio's face in that last pic!

    I love this movie but everytime I think about it too closely it makes my brain explode! Personally I think he's dreaming but it'd take a couple of thousand reasons to describe why I think that and at the end I'll probabably have decided he's awake afterall!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh no, don't say that you think he's dreaming, because that's the ending I can't deal with! Because that means that the whole thing is just a dream and makes it completely irrelevant really! I do still think that one question is a really important one though... lol! I read a really mean review of it yesterday that made me all angry and grr-ish though- mainly because its author was really arrogant and awful, and I was just thinking how easy it is to criticise something rather than create something... you know?!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Haha, yes totally! I remember thinking about the movie a few days after seeing it (it really sticks with you, doesn't it?) and thinking "hey, why don't his kids just come to him?" I mean, yes, if they thought of that then the movie would have been 5 minutes long. Or rather, they probably did think of it but whatever

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have seen a few things talking about it where people have said 'Well, Michael Caine didnmt have custody of the kids and wouldn't have been able to take them' etc, but its so much more fun just to go 'wow, it was pretty pointless doing all those dream layers and stuff when he could have just had his kids sent to him' hehe

    ReplyDelete
  5. I really hate when you read those sorts of nasty reviews. I saw Inception with a group of friends and one came out not liking it. When we asked what he didn't like he said that he didn't think it was 'creative' enough because "no one dreams that normally, it should have had giant horses or pink water or something". No matter how much I tried to explain that they'd explained that dreams seem normal until they don't and that pink water would have been a pretty obvious indicator of a dream he wouldn't listen and just rampaged about how crap a movie it was and anytime we tried to rave about it on the bus home he'd just cut us off to complain.

    As for the dreaming thing. I don't think it makes it irrelevant because it's hard to say when exactly he started dreaming (it could be from the beginning but it could be after all the screw-ups mid-inception dream) but it definitely makes it sadder to think that he still hasn't got what he so desperately wanted.

    Really great movie

    ReplyDelete