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Christopher Nolan's Inception

Oooh, gravity has gone all wrong! :roll:

meh... takes a bit more to get me excited. Plus I don't rate old Leonard as much of an actor, really.

So inception isn't Batman 3 then? That's a shame actually
 
FRENCH TEASER!

Up until now, we hadn’t seen much on the movie since August when we got a look at the Inception teaser trailer. The teaser didn’t show much other a few intense Leonardo DiCaprio shots and a few strange visuals. The notable part of the teaser was the brief look at a Matrix-style hallway fight sequence which looked pretty cool but there was little revealed in the video.

The long-awaited full trailer for Inception comes out this week attached to Sherlock Holmes and although what we have here is not in English, there is no lack of intensity and it may be the same footage we see later in the week.
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I really can't believe I'm the first to start this thread. If I'm not, I'm sorry. I went back a couple of pages and saw nothing on it.

The film.

Seen it?

Love it?

Hate it?

Thoughts?
 
Love it!

Great to see such a blockbuster getting things right. Its identity crisis and reality questioning as Philip K. Dick ordained it should be.

What a cast and how well they work together. What effects. What a scvript. What direction. What production design.

As Leo and his team sink through layer after layer of dreams they even end up fighting a Bond villians henchmen.

Oh, the echoes ofBlade Runner! It has influences but is original in its execution!

SEE IT!
 
I am so envious! I have not yet seen it!

The reviews for the most part are quite good. Nolan is a terrific director, hooked me with Memento.

I'm going to see it this weekend!

I hope others will also.
 
Mission Impossible (the TV series) as scripted by Philip K Dick. What the Matrix promised at the start before it turned into a dumb shoot-em-up.
 
Well there's my Friday night sorted out.

Straight up, three good recommendations. Not had that about a filum since Four Lions
 
Saw it at the weekend and was wholly disappointed.

I don't mind a mindfuck of a movie, things like 12 Monkeys for example can be really captivating, but this just did nothing for me.

The premise was good, if a little over-complicated for what it actually was, but I just felt no investment with the characters, found long stretches of it quite dull and generally thought it was very poorly pulled off.

It looked impressive but the main effect that was hyped up in the trailers was thrown away on a nothing scene that added nothing to the plot.

And Marion Cotillard's weird French/Irish accent really grated on me. Plus there were more than a few plot holes that made no sense when you step back and think.

Final shot was good though, redeemed itself slightly with that...

No doubt though it will be one that critics jerk off over and smug fanboys will condemn anyone who didn't enjoy it with 'That's cos you didn't understand it...'
 
I'm late to this party, but I've just returned from the cinema. I thought it was a first-class film, certainly better than anything I've seen for a long, long while. It's not perfect - few films are - but it kept me focused throughout its considerable (but appropriate) duration.

To add spoilers would be criminal, but if you can hold together a bundle of ideas and don't mind using your brain to follow a plot, you most probably won't be disappointed. Makes The Matrix look like Where's Spot in terms of sophistication of the ideas.

There's a lot of famous actors in their, too.

(Wish they hadn't called the 'architect' Ariadne: too cheesy)
 
Questions have been raised, as to whether the basic premise behind, 'Inception', was lifted, consciously, or unconsciously, from a 2002 story in, 'Donald Duck', comic.
http://videogum.com/208132/caught-inception-ripped-off-scrooge-mcduck/remakes-and-spinoffs/

Inception Ripped-Off Scrooge McDuck & The Beagle Boys!

Videogum. Posted on Aug 3rd by Gabe

Holy cow. CAUGHT! Christopher Nolan should go for a swim in a giant vault filled with gold JAIL CELLS! (Huh?) The point is: this is an incredible rip-off! (And apparently, the awesome floating hallway fight-scene that everyone loves so much was taken directly from a GummiBears Christmas Special.) In the original comic from which Christopher Nolan wholesale stole his idea, Scrooge McDuck’s totem is a 25-pound bar of solid gold. His limbo is an endless desert where each grain of sand is actually a microscopic gold coin. “All I want to do is go home and see my nephews and make sure they aren’t touching any of my stuff, I hate them, and this is my chance.” Your duck-mind is the scene of the duck-crime! And other cross-over Inception/Scrooge McDuck jokes. You can read the full comic here, or download a PDF here. (Via IWatchStuff.)
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:lol:
 
In seriousness, it lifted tons from a variety of sources. Strangely, I'm not reading the name Jorge Luis Borges in many reviews, but that was what the whole thing screamed to me throughout. The important fact, however, is that it stole well: it was a great collage in many different senses.

One caveat to my enthusiasm, the film is good if you accept it on its own terms; if, however, you pick enough, you'll find a hole or three in the layers of story/dream. In that respects, it's like Donnie Darko x10.

edit: anyone fascinated should google 'Inception and wedding ring' for more confusion.
 
Googling Inception and Wedding Ring now.

I saw this last Friday evening-I had to be dragged to the cinema.

Having seen a preview, I thought my intelligence would be insulted by dumbed down concepts. It was however, an extremely enjoyable film. One of those Hollywood type films that delivers much much more than expected. Very rare these days.

It didn't blow my mind, however.

Of note, the day after I rented "Moon", which dealt with many similar issues in a different way and which I found terribly interesting. I love Tarkofsky, Lem, & Solaris, so I was a little worried, but Moon and Sam Rockwell were fantastic. This is now one of my favorite films.
 
I apologize about that-It was an image from a Godzilla film and I have no idea what happened. I just deleted it.
 
theyithian said:
In seriousness, it lifted tons from a variety of sources. Strangely, I'm not reading the name Jorge Luis Borges in many reviews, but that was what the whole thing screamed to me throughout. The important fact, however, is that it stole well: it was a great collage in many different senses.
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I think a lot of the best films have lifted some of the best ideas from other films and books. The Matrix and Avatar are just 2 examples of films that have pinched ideas without apology (e.g. in The Matrix, the red and blue pills were inspired by a scene in Total Recall; in Avatar, the floating rocks were inspired by Roger Dean's Yes album art).
 
Bear with me, this is relevant...

It took me a while to join up the dots regarding the recent Cunard adverts, and figure out what they reminded me of. You know, the ones that start with a Richard Burton-like voice, saying "I wonder, I wonder, what you would do, if you could dream any dream you wanted to dream..."

So, I looked it up, and it's not Richard Burton, it's the late writer and philosopher Alan Watts, musing on the reality of dreams. This speech was called... "Inception". Which, presumably if I Googled some more, I would find is where the title of the film came from.
 
Peripart said:
Bear with me, this is relevant...

It took me a while to join up the dots regarding the recent Cunard adverts, and figure out what they reminded me of. You know, the ones that start with a Richard Burton-like voice, saying "I wonder, I wonder, what you would do, if you could dream any dream you wanted to dream..."

So, I looked it up, and it's not Richard Burton, it's the late writer and philosopher Alan Watts, musing on the reality of dreams. This speech was called... "Inception". Which, presumably if I Googled some more, I would find is where the title of the film came from.
Click to expand...
It’s an inspirational bit of lecturing which actually focuses on the Hindu view of creation as a play, or drama. Everyone should listen to it through. I regularly pop it on in the car. Get something from it every time I hear it.
 
I watched Nolan’s Oppenheimer a couple of weeks ago and was very impressed. Do we have any responses around the joint? I’d be interested to hear what others think of it.
 
skinny said:
I watched Nolan’s Oppenheimer a couple of weeks ago and was very impressed. Do we have any responses around the joint? I’d be interested to hear what others think of it.
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My review,

Oppenheimer: The Manhattan Project is central to this film but it is also about how Oppenheimer's intellectual development, his life and loves. Cillian Murphy is devastating in his portrayal of the great scientist whose mind was wracked with strange thoughts of the stars and of the Quantum World, a womaniser, drinker, chain smoker. Great luminaries like Heisenberg (Matthias Schweighöfer), Nils Bohr (Kenneth Branagh) and Einstein (Tom Conti) have walk on parts or cameos. The Einstein cameo proves to be central to the films narrative though. The film unfolds through two hearing and Oppenheimer's career progression on to being Director of the Manhattan Project. The hearing on Oppenheimer's security clearance in 1954 shows how he was deserted by many friends and colleagues but also uncovers the Iago behind this assault on his integrity. In ways Oppenheimer was his own worst enemy, careless in his choice of friends and too quick to make enemies. There are too many characters to cover in any one review but Emily Blunt puts in a creditable performance as Kitty Oppenheimer, having to hold things together, putting her life as a botanist on hold. General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) stood by Oppenheimer in 1954 but their relationship is portrayed as being stormy during the Los Alamos years, fights over security clearances for other scientists and even Oppenheimer himself due to past political associations. We even get to see Oppenheimer's involvement in unionising scientists. Even though we know the outcome the tension builds as the Trinity Test approaches. Fermi (Danny Deferrari) makes book on how may kilotonnes the explosion will be with a side bet on the atmosphere igniting. A tale of victory, betrayal but also of how scientists had differing opinions on the use of atomic weapons and the post war use of atomic energy. The two hearings head towards a conclusion just as the Manhattan Project does, all three resulting in different levels of destruction. Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan. 9/10.
 
Thanks, RM. I rate it very highly also. Why not a ten? I can't think of any reason why it shouldn't get the score. The run time was long but it flew by because I was so inside the whole story. It kept me on for the whole three hours, so it did. The last time I recall being so engaged for so long was Wim Wenders' Until The End Of The World (1991).

I went in loving both Nolan and Murphy. The Blunt performance was right on. In fact, I don't think there was a dud character portrayal. That's Nolan. He's got something I haven't seen in a very long time as a director.

I saw vague shades of Stone's JFK here and there, mainly in the tone, but Oppenheimer is vastly superior as a study of the events. At least that's how I'm feeling about it now after first viewing. I'm'a see it again on the big screen before the season ends. It is awesome in so many ways. A must see.
5/5
 
There's something about Nolan.
Here LSOO posits that Nolan thematically portrays characters whose pursuit of total control leads inevitably to pure chaos. There's more to the video, as always. He's a fine distiller essence is our host.
 
Can we change the thread title? I keep glancing at it and misreading it as 'Christopher Nolan's Conception' and wondering why that's a case of interest...
 
Yeah. He's a bona fide auteur.

Perhaps
The Films of Christopher Nolan
or
Nolanography
 
Have to agree here.
I think Nolan is probably the most engaging, cerebral film maker in Hollywood at the moment. Oppenheimer is going to have a long tail, becoming a classic over time.
 
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