Sunday, September 5, 2010

Movie Review: Inception

See the movie inception, you'll have more vivid dreams. That's what it did for me. I had a dream about a guy in a yellow jump suit trying to sell me something as my girlfriend and I got off of a tram. This was not a scene in the movie, and that is what makes this a great science fiction film: inception successfully plants the idea, or rather reminds us of the fact, that we are the architects of our dream worlds, which are amazing and paradoxical places.

The biggest problem with the movie is that time perception in a dream is no different from waking. Experiments with lucid dreamers have shown this. Your mind may see you without a beard ... and then with one, so you think weeks have passed, but your actual experience is the same amount of time. This is a major flaw in the plot, and this movie will thus spread a common misconception, but hey, it is only a movie.

Are you missing some fun every night?

Frankly, I-robot is more memorable and a better film in terms of visuals, but inception goes a level deeper.

Inception gave me the intention to remember my dreams again.

( We all dream every night, roughly every 90 minutes while asleep, and each dream is a little longer. After 8 hrs we can have 30 to 45 minute long dreams.)

I've been avoiding lucid dreams because there are things in my mind I do not want to face. Inception nails it: disappointment. It is funny that my real subconscious demons are not monsters, deformed beasts, people with guns, or nuclear war, but, this: I've been let down. Big time. I've let people down. Big time. Letting that go means accepting things I do not want to, at my core, accept: That my parents are imperfect, that I sometimes repeat the same stupid mistakes, that I'm not always true to my ideals, and so on.

Accepting this and speaking the truth to the projections of people in dreams can set you free.

Or are you still just dreaming? Does the top fall at the end? I'd vote no.



6 comments:

Joachim Boaz said...

Unimpressed with this movie -- I'll quote a fellow reviewer (hehe) -- "Christopher Nolan's dreams are directed by Michael Bay" -- that is so true. The only truly dreamlike aspect of this film was the surreal hallway scene with the people bundled together. Christopher Nolan shows his visual cards WAY to early (folding Paris) and leaves us with a visually boring final dream vista -- the ice flow land fort thing.

The labyrinth concept is played up as a major aspect of the film, what do we get? Uh, ONE element of the labyrinth in a stairway -- Boring. So, perhaps is Nolan saved folding Paris to the end (seems labyrinthine to me!) I might have been slightly more satisfied. Oh, and if one had virtually forever to design a city, would you design a cookie cutter block city? the Future Suburb. Yuck.

Sorry for the rant -- but, I expected more from the director of the masterful The Prestige.

Mirlen101 said...

Haven't seen it yet . Sounds interesting though . I just wanted to give my theory on dreams . Basically I think dreams are the minds attempt at rationalizing . It attempts to put forth scenarios and then give as many answers or variations of an ending or resolution . To see what works and what doesn't and to prepare one for the waking world . So if you have a nightmare it is usually based on something that happened recently or in the past . It could be some simple thought . That thought is the seed of the nightmare or dream . Your brain takes that seed and throws almost random scenarios at the situation . So later when you encounter something in your waking hours . Like a bear for instance . Your brain acts as though it knows something about the situation because it had prepared for it in a dream or nightmare at some point . A dream is a "what if" scenario . A virtual simulation for the preparation of life's experience known and unknown .So if you avoid some thought or dream it's likely to come back to bite you in a nightmare or intense dream . It is the avoidance that spurns it . You are essentially unintentionally setting up a scenario to solve ( in your sleep ) .BTW Melatonin can bring on Lucidity .

Lim jucas said...

To xeno..
I would first like to say I absolutely love your site, and come here often. This is my first post here, and I felt the need because I feel like if you saw the movie again, you would understand it much better and be able to appreciate it more. The top spinning at the end of the movie doesnt matter. The spinning top is not his totem at all. His totem was his family, (his kids' faces, and mol's presence.) After seeing the movie a few times and analyzing it extensively, I am under the impression he is asleep for the whole movie until he wakes on the plane. He had the dream with these people because he had recently seen them in life. Things happen throughout that suggest this, but I dont want to ruin it for you, because it was fun for me to pick that stuff out. Most people would be frustrated in finding out that the whole movie was a dream, because they,feel that it would be a waste of time to watch, but I think one of the messages of the movie is that the cartharsis you experience from a dream is the same of that experienced in a movie, which is the same as a catharsis experienced in life. After seeing many of Nolan's films, Inception sort of seemed like a movie about his process of making movies, or just the film making process in general. You create a world for someone to step into and you need to plant an idea into their heads. Isn't that what the industry is all about? Every writer wants to communicate their idea to the masses. I think too many people focus on certain things in movies these days and don't appreciate them for what they are as a whole. I suggest seeing it one, maybe two more times and paying very close attention to detail. It certainly isn't worth going a few more times at a price of 14 dollars (which is the going rate of a ticket in my area) but no movie really is in my opinion.

Joachim Boaz said...

Lim Jucas -- what led you to believe that his totem was his family or that he was asleep for the whole movie?

Lim jucas said...

first of all, the top was his wife's totem. This is clearly stated in the movie. Througout the movie there are things that happen that would suggest he was dreaming. These things happened before he actually went into the known, layered dreamworld. One example.of this is when he was on the run in the streets of...(i forget where) but the agents are chasing him. And he runs down an alley way which shrinks. Then when he gets to the over side the asian guy is basically there waiting for him. Leo's character was not even aware of his presence in this city. Another example is when he remembers the experience with mol at the hotel. She is across the street on the ledge of a different building. These are things that a dreamer would be dismissed as normal in a dream. You don't even bother to question the occurence. When the architects are all together discussing building dreamwords, it sounds very much like an explanation of the process of making movies and sets. See the movie at least one more time before judging it. You notice much more the second time around. Mol says to him at one point something along the lines of 'how real is your reality, on the run from corporate agents.' Mold presence let's him know he is dreaming, while him not being able to see his kid's face is the true totem i believe. He sees them multiple times throughout the movie but never their faces. His kids had not aged at all when he saw them at the end of the movie. At another point, in the one basement where all the people were sharing a dream, the wiseman talked of them coming together to share the dream. (Theater experience.) Even down to the details of the inception and dreamworlds, cobb was indeed rather vague as you had said, but i don't think it was nolan keeping the story streamlined, but rather cobb's unconscious mind filling things in. It was a great movie when seen with an open mind and great attention to detail. And as i had heard a different critic say, 'If you didn't enjoy the movie, see it again. If you still don't like it, chances are you're an idiot.'
I agree with xeno when he said that it was great because it reminds you that you are the dreamer and can control them in lucidity. This was a great psychological movie and I am sure we will be seeing more and more of the genre. I hope they aren't ruined though, because the genre has great potential.

Lim jucas said...

Sorry if that is jumbled at all. I am writing it from my phone whilst on the bus on my way to class and kinda just started going and went back and forth between ideas.