Inception

[certainthings]

I watched Inception today. I don't get it.

I mean, it was a good movie ... I guess. And the actors did a good job and the effects/graphics were uh, cool?

But I don't get why people were and maybe still are so flaily over this movie.

Please tell me what I didn't get, what I failed to understand ... what I missed.

Comments

[irishcookie.livejournal.com]

I flail over this movie.

I love many in the cast, I love the director.

And in the end, for me, I think it just struck me as very original in the age of sequels, remakes and rehashed ideas. I enjoyed having my mind screwed with.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the cast a lot.

Erm, I don't actually remember the ending. I guess that's how much I liked the movie?

[irishcookie.livejournal.com]

LOL Well, it's not for everyone. It's probably my favorite movie (but that changes every other year it seems). I know there are flaws but I'm going to ignore them.

[je-suis.livejournal.com]

For me, it was their take on dreaming and the question about reality VS dreaming. I'm huge on dreams and I love the idea that you could be in a dream and never know it, that you could be thinking something is reality and it's actually a dream. Plus the visual aspect of the movie was amazing, when they were building the dream worlds and when things began to crumble. But mostly it was the cast. One of the strongest ensembles I've seen in a long time.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

When you're dreaming do you often know that you're dreaming?

The cast was pretty damn good.

[je-suis.livejournal.com]

If it's a lucid dream, yes. I used to be very good at lucid dreaming but I got lazy and let my skills slip, so mostly I just have dreams and don't realize they're dreams until I wake up. But on the occasion that I do become lucid in a dream, it's so much fun because then you really can do some of the things they did in the film, like building these crazy worlds and making things defy physics.

[je-suis.livejournal.com]

I will admit that it was always going to be appealing to me because I'm obsessed with that stuff. "Waking Life" was one of my favorite movies for years and other people find it incredibly boring. But Inception is one of those movies you can enjoy on a surface level just as being quality work and a great cast, etc, but if you're into the nature of dreaming, you get a whole new level of enjoyment from it!

[solookup.livejournal.com]

I'm in the same boat. It's a good movie, but half the time I was ehhh, while the other half I went 'oh cool'.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up

[lavendergaia]

I agree with you. I wanted to love it, but it was just likeable. Nothing too epic. :\

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

I wanted to be blown away by the epic amazingness that was this oh so perfect movie but all I got was ehhhh.

[spinfrog.livejournal.com]

I suspect most of the people are flailing because they find the cast irresistibly attractive? I haven't seen it (and probably won't) because the trailers annoyed me :|

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

That could be some of it but I think it was the actual storyline.

[stonewallriots.livejournal.com]

I thought it was really predictable? And, I mean, it was good, but it was overrated? People hyped it up too much.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was expecting a lot more because of all the hype.

[onelittlesleep.livejournal.com]

I didn't like the movie at ALL. ...But for a while, I REALLY liked Tom Hardy.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

I like you.

[paperscout.livejournal.com]

I agree with you SO MUCH. It's a cool idea, but not so original that it's OMG worthy. I found it all incredibly predictable, but even that can be enjoyable sometimes. However, basically the entire movie was really poorly integrated exposition. It's like, "Let's just spend the whole time telling you what happens...before it happens...as it happens...after it happens..." *yawn* And the only character that was remotely developed was Leo's. And he wasn't that interesting. The others...were paper thin. I was really disappointed by the movie as a whole. That having been said, I'm still glad it's done so well just because it's actually an original movie and not a remake/adaptation/etc.

//rant

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

just because it's actually an original movie and not a remake/adaptation/etc.

That there is a good point.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to have to rewatch to see if I can understand why people love it so much.

Did you ever watch Roswell?

[crystalchain.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't really get how this movie's gotten so big either *shrugs* it was good, but yeah.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

it was good, but yeah.

That right there.

[hamarakissa.livejournal.com]

I LOVE this movie! Then again - I flail over the cast and how epic they are together <3 I love Ellen Page and Leonardo DiCaprio though - I've followed every movie they've been in - plus MANY others :)

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed all the actors and thought they did a great job ... And the movie was enjoyable I just don't get the big deal. What made you LOVE the movie?

[hamarakissa.livejournal.com]

From a theater perspective and critiquing everything and seeing what they did, etc made me Love the movie. It's highly complex but the director did an amazing job - plus the cast... I can't even begin to say how much I LOVE that whole cast <33 I have a bit of fangirling going on :p

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed it and bought it on Blu-ray, but about a week after I saw it in the theatre, I was over it. Also, I think it loses a lot in the translation from big screen to small. There are just some movies that need to be seen on a big screen.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

Huh, perhaps that was what I missed. Seeing it on the big screen.

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

I've noticed I don't find movies like that as enjoyable when they hit DVD. I felt the same way about most big budget action movies. Iron Man and Iron Man II, while both good movies, seemed to lose something when I saw them on DVD.

I liked the dream world concept, it's something that's fascinating to me and I've used it in fan fic a few times, but I felt myself comparing the movie constantly to a flick that came out in the late 90s called The Thirteenth Floor. I know they were totally different ideas, but I couldn't stop thinking about it either way.

[goonies-nsd.livejournal.com]

It's been awhile since I saw it & fell in love. It's not perfect, but it's visually stunning and really... with all the actiony-type movies that get overdone with special effects, I've always thought that a dreamworld was a place where too much is not enough.

I didn't think it was perfect... I could've done without the 3rd layer. I, my friend that went with me, and others in the theater started laughing at the van falling scene after about the 3rd time.

I'm not sure if I liked or didn't like that Ellen Page's character could've been replaced by a man. On one hand, it was refreshing to not see a female lead be romanticized, but on the other... she lacked some femininity.

I did a write-up of this defending it to a friend of mine. Unfortunately, it was on Facebook & the comment thread is long gone. :/ and now I can't recall my favorite points. Balls.

I won't try to convince you to like it if you already don't. I think it's just a matter of opinion. Sometimes if something gets built up like that, expectations might be too high at the outset.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's not that I didn't like it, I just don't get what the HOMG BIG DEAL was over this movie.

[goonies-nsd.livejournal.com]

Oh! Perhaps it was the visuals on the big screen and just the surrealism of it all. Everyone has different reasons, I suppose.

[gretazreta.livejournal.com]

I liked it a lot when I saw it at the cinema, I liked how thinky it was and the blur between reality and dreaming. I actually liked it BETTER the second time, because I could appreciate how everything fitted together whereas at the cinema I had anxiety that I wasn't fully getting it.

I think as well that as a writing premise it's really cool. Not only are there lots of interesting, attractive, potentially slashable characters, but the whole concept of the dream layers and architecture and yadda yadda is a real invitation to write fanfiction about it. So not only are people all excited about the film itself, but about its fandom potential. I think it's a stimulus for lots of good writing online, potentially, by all sorts of people. Which I will love to read.

I'm not sure if I will be writing though. But I love the potential in the movie.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to watch again because I definitely missed things.

If you were going to write fanfiction who would be your main character(s)?

[gretazreta.livejournal.com]

Hee I've been thinking about this a lot (although I haven't been online). There are several characters that interest me, based on what I think are pivotal moments in the film.

First up, Eames. I know he's popular because Tom Hardy is really attractive and he calls people "Darling" but I think what's really interesting to me about him is the idea of the forger - that he makes his living by being the embodiment of what other people want or need. What would that do to a person? I think you'd very rarely be yourself. I also like it that on some levels he's really full-on tough-guy James Bond thing, but also he's got an aura of sensitivity/niceness about him. I like the quick smile he gives to Taito (sp?) when he's dying in the snow level, a really NICE warm one, but also I liked his face when he's hearing the dying father say he wasn't disappointed, right at the end. There's not THAT MUCH of him in the film, but there's CLUES that you could write more of. About how he's an actor. About HIS relationship with his father.

The thing I like about Arthur, apart from the fact that he's so immaculat and controlled, is the moment when Leonardo DiCaprio shoots him in the head and he looks at him and KNOWS he's going to do it. You get the sense that he's almost devoted, loyally, to Dominic Cobb, but that Cobb doesn't think twice about shooting him. Sure, it's in a dream, but I found that kind of sad. Because it would hurt, I think. Also I think he's got an obsessive compulsive attention to detail, which I found quite compelling. And I love that bit when he's fighting in the toppling room. That calls out for a pornographic reinterpretation, but I'm not the person to do that.

They're probably the two I'd write about the most. :)

I have this idea wherein Arthur's is in Eame's subconscious and the projections don't attack him, they kind of come and love on him. And Eames is all - aren't these supposed to be trying to kill me, and Arthur is all... well, I can't control my own subconscious, and tries to pretend it didn't happen.

:)

[thekatcameback.livejournal.com]

For me, movies are escapist. I normally, have trouble sitting through them, but I saw Inception three times in theatres. money, ugh. Um, and normally I go all out on fantasy and sci fi, but I actually didn't want to see this until my little sister "said, "you have to, you'll love it. It just didn't even feel like I was sitting and watching a movie, every time I finish watching I feel charged and like... the world is bigger than the world I live in. Plus, every time I watch I notice something new, and I LOVE that.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

I do think I'm definitely going to have to watch it again.

[agt-league.livejournal.com]

I love most Christopher Nolan movies and this movie was such an original concept with a fantastic cast and the ending was amazing.

That's why I liked it. :)

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

It was all a dream, right? Was that the ending? Or he's staying stuck in a dream?

[agt-league.livejournal.com]

From what I know Christopher Nolan actually didn't explain the ending cause he wants it to be up to the viewers - they can either believe it was all a dream or he actually returned to reality.

I still don't know what I think! LOL.

[annapeace.livejournal.com]

The movie had a few plotholey things. But mostly I watched it so many times for the Arthur/Eames because Tom Hardy and JGL, GOD.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

Did you slash them before the movie or just liked the both of them and then while watching thought they'd be quite lovely together?

[annapeace.livejournal.com]

I liked the two of them in the movie and thought they'd be quite lovely together, and then I found fandom and they confirmed my decision. :)

[kellifer-fic.livejournal.com]

I think the cast yes, but I also think fandom-wise because the canon is so open people have a larger than normal sandbox to play in.

I like that when I saw it with my flatmate she saw an entirely different movie to what I saw and when she explained what she thought was going on I was like, wow, I didn't even see it like that.

Plus, yes, I finally felt like I saw something creative and that had a little... wonder in it.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

I like that when I saw it with my flatmate she saw an entirely different movie to what I saw and when she explained what she thought was going on I was like, wow, I didn't even see it like that.

Gosh, that's really interesting.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. That's so awesome.

[heartsonwings.livejournal.com]

Um, I don't know XD
Well I liked it, and it's a brilliant film...not my favourite thing ever though. But then again I say that with an Inception wallpaper on my laptop and an Inception theme on my Firefox so yeah :P I don't know why it's so flail inducing, it's a good movie that a lot of people happen to like and the more people who like it the more you can flail over it with so it stays in people's minds longer? IDK

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

and the more people who like it the more you can flail over it with so it stays in people's minds longer?

Maybe that's it? Hmmm.