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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board    Reviews    Movie, Television and DVD Reviews  ›  Inception Moderators: Nixon
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  Author    Inception  (currently 7220 views)
jwent6688
Posted: July 25th, 2010, 8:49pm Report to Moderator
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I agree clorox. You know I've come at you before. I just hold reviews from those who've posted work to a higher, or lower standard. depending on how they write.

The world is full of movie critics who are so proud of themselves when they sum up years worth of work in their three word caption. I fucken loathe critics. Make a living watching film??? Wish I could. Just jealous I guess

James


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Heretic
Posted: July 26th, 2010, 10:36pm Report to Moderator
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Hey James (McClung),

I guess that makes sense!  I really enjoyed the film as well...I'm just continually confused by the words "thought-provoking", "intelligent", and "mind-blowing" (in the context of the ideas) being thrown around so liberally by reviewers.  Which, I might add, are words that you didn't use.  To a certain extent I did go in expecting a science fiction picture so that may have been part of my problem.  I mostly avoided trailers for this as I wanted to go in blind; on the other hand, this was billed as a sci-fi movie.

I did think this was the best blockbuster we've had in a long time, I just didn't think it was anything more than a...well, an action blockbuster.

When you say "one of the few blockbusters that wasn't completely stupid or pandering..." I assume you're talking about recent years, right?  Alien, Close Encounters, Shawshank, Cape Fear '91, Se7en, Blade Runner...all highly entertaining and, while certainly big obvious movies, not ones I suspect one would accuse of being stupid or pandering!  Even more recently we've had The Sixth Sense, Minority Report, Solaris, The Fountain, and (though I hesitate to mention it) Knowing...I suppose, to be fair, none of those were releases quite of Inception's size though.  Except, ooh ooh!  Lord of the Rings!

Haha anyway, I guess I just missed something with Inception.  Perhaps I will go see it again before its theatrical run is finished.  Frankly, just hearing that Zimmer score in a theatre is worth the price of admission!
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pippalee
Posted: July 28th, 2010, 6:55am Report to Moderator
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OH come on. It's not that great. Almost run of the mill, I'd say. Here's a more objective assessment: http://www.clickok.co.uk/Screenwriting%20Inception.pdf
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Heretic
Posted: July 28th, 2010, 10:02pm Report to Moderator
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Yes.  Odd to offer a list of a film's similarities to one of the greatest blockbusters of recent years as evidence that it's not good...
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jwent6688
Posted: July 29th, 2010, 1:06am Report to Moderator
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Now I've got three ritards to argue with. Good fun.

Cobb and Neo comparison? Terrible. On one hand a guy finds that he's the second coming of Jesus and must come to terms with it. On the other, A guy is tortured by the guilt of incepting an idea on his own wife who kills herself because of it. Umm, not close. Not close at all.

States of imperfection? Neo did not choose his world. Was born into it. Cobb chose his. A gifted architect of dreams. Make money digging answers of the subconscious.

Sorry Pipp. But I disagree with every point in that blog. Also, the matrix was a world that could be bent. Neo could fly. They could jump off walls. Not in Inception. They had to adhere to the dream's owners rules. They could die at any minute. But just wake up.

The fact that we're all talking about it proves my point. It's thought provoking. People think about it for days after its over. That, in my mind, makes it intelligent.

Be looking forward to a more intelligent script from any of ya's. Not gonna hold my breath though. I know that's not gonna happen.

I love MOVIE CRITICS!!!!

I'll be here all week. And the next.

James


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Scar Tissue Films
Posted: July 29th, 2010, 11:10am Report to Moderator
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Saw this yesterday.

First the good:

Interesting concept, good cast, good cinematography and visuals...particularly the zero grav scenes.

The bad:

Ultimately, regardless of what genre or type of film the thing that kills a film for me is if it's boring and this was a snoozefest.

It suffers from two fundamental problems, the Quantum of Solace effect and the Matrix 2 conundrum.

The former is that the story itself is deeply dull and uninteresting. It's about planting an idea in someone's head to prevent a monoploy of an energy company.

No doubt a serious concern in real life but deeply dull on film as the last James Bond showed...oh no...Not British Gas!!! So the whole narrative drive of the film was limp and pointless and no amount of James Bond rip off action could disguise that.

The second problem was the Neo/superman problem. It was a dream, they were invincible. Result? Zero tension throughout the entire film. It doesn't matter what you throw at them, they are all superheroes and so all the money spent on huge action scenes was entirely pointless as the basics weren't there.

Other problems were the clunking pace of the exposition. Every time something had to happen Di Caprio had to explain what was going on to the "character" whose only dramatic function was to be there as a soundboard.

The characters were all two dimensional card board cut outs. The actors did their best to inject a bit of life into them, but they were non-descript and instantly forgettable.

Another huge problem was just how dull everything was. This is a dream world right? In the universe that Cobb and his wife creates from scratch all they could come up with was skyscrapers? Dull, dull, dull.

Only the first introduction to the world when he shows the young girl the ropes and the zero g scene had any kind of flair, the rest was just a standard James Bond style action.


All in all a hugely underwhelming film. Very disappointing. It was the first film of the year I was really looking forward to but the implemetation of the idea was as flat as a pancake.

A four out of ten film bumped up to 6 out of ten...one for the concept and one for the technical skill.

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Scar Tissue Films  -  July 29th, 2010, 11:31am
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JCShadow
Posted: July 29th, 2010, 11:11am Report to Moderator
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While I respect peoples opinion, I have to say that there seems to be a bizarre need to sweep this picture under the rug as a simplistic hack of The Matrix. It is anything BUT.

For those saying that there is nothing intelligent and thought provoking in this film, I would like to know what you think IS or has been. I won't go so far as to say the movie was brilliant, but it came pretty damn close. I am a huge fan of The Matrix and I feel that as good as Inception was it never quite reaches the mark or caliber of the Wachowski brothers film.

To respond to a few of the posts, here is something to think about. (on a side note, I only viewed the film once and need to do so again for obvious reasons)

For those who are saying the film was straight forward, with no possible chance of opposing interpretations, proves Christopher Nolans ability as a director to satisfy those who don't think during a movie and those who do. And before anyone starts crying, I don't refer to intelligence. There are just those who are deep cerebral thinkers and those who are not. Anyways...

1. I think the science and the "how it works" of the movie was intentionally left out. Why? BECAUSE THAT IS NOT WHAT THE STORY IS ABOUT. A board with a bunch of writers on it should know this.

2. Was the ending still in the dream? I very much think it could have been and for anyone to give a definitive "no it wasn't" is simply ridiculous. There are far more indicators that he WAS still in a dream than not. That most logical is the very presence of his father in law who picked him up at the airport. How, or to what logical purpose, would he go from or completely drop his job as a teacher, grading papers in his classroom in France, to trying to beat his son in law back to the United States just to pick him up at the airport, all while never thinking to change his clothes.

There is also the fact that he was never seen to experience "the fall" that was supposed to wake them from the deeper levels of the dream world.

There is also the matter of how important his kids where to him or at least his memory of them. Did anyone notice how they didn't look like they ever aged, yet when he talked to his daughter on the phone she sounded MUCH older than the daughter we are presented with in the end (which happens to match perfectly with his memory).

3. Also there is the whole "totem" thing. Is it not conceivable that the inconclusive ending might MEAN something. I find it completely absurd, that on a board of screenwriters, anyone would even think that the writer or director would add that JUST for a cheap gimmick and for absolutely no reason at all. I think the ambiguity of that final scene is anything but. Otherwise the whole spiel about NOT having a totem to let you know where you are becomes superfluous. I think it quite possible that he let go of that totem, which was really his wifes anyway, and gave that role to his children. Hence the wobble as he turns his back on it and goes to reunite with his children, who again haven't aged a day OR EVER CHANGED THEIR CLOTHES as they were wearing the same thing they were in his memories.

4. Why wouldn't he bring his hot french wife into the dream too? Because she was freaking crazy, even his memory of her was so crazy he had to try and keep her locked up in the basement of his subconscious. Even though the memory of her tortured him, actually he was torturing himself through quilt, I think he desperately wanted to let it go and get past it. Who wants someone in their dream that just the very sight of them constantly reminds you of what you did and how it caused their death.

Again, I don't care if you liked it or not, everyone has their opinion, but to pass this movie up as a WYSIWYG movie is simply and completely ridiculous.

I look forward to a second viewing soon and perhaps a little deeper thought into the matter.


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Scar Tissue Films
Posted: July 29th, 2010, 11:30am Report to Moderator
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I agree that he's still in a dream, the two reasons you mention are pretty much incontrovertible as far as I can see. Michael Caine lived in Paris and yet met him in the US...the time frame from the Asian guy making the phone-call to him being there is impossible.

The scene is the exact same one as his memories as well. Do people think he was only banned from the US for a hour or so? Plus we were shown them simply appearing at the house which was in keeping with what they kept insisting throughout the film..that you don't remember how you got somewhere, you just are there.

PS: What's a wysiwyg movie?
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JCShadow
Posted: July 29th, 2010, 11:35am Report to Moderator
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What You See Is What You Get

which this film is definitely not.



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Scar Tissue Films
Posted: July 29th, 2010, 11:54am Report to Moderator
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Quoted from JCShadow
What You See Is What You Get

which this film is definitely not.



Fair enough. I haven't read what other people have to say about it, but it was as predictable as it gets for me. I knew what was going to happen from about twenty minutes in. The film didn't even make a single attempt at a twist. Once you'd seen the wife you and Di Caprio said he'd done the Inception before the whole film was revealed. The default of a dream film is always "Is it a dream?" as well, so, for me it was what you see is what you get to some degree.

It was a very rigid film. A very tight story-line about a very small matter with one subplot and it was handled very rigidly. Despite it being set in a dreamscape the logic of the world was even more rigid than real-life.

It was an intelligent concept though, I just don't think that they followed interesting avenues of discussion within the film itslef. It was just a standard corporate espionage flick dressed up in a brilliant concept.

The idea of implanting an idea in someone's head has such strong legs that for me it was a shame that it was wasted on a storyline about an energy company lead by what seemed to be a very gentle young man with issues about his father. It was just an incredibly weak throughline for such a potentially interesting concept.

But as ever, films are nothing if not subjective.
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JCShadow
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Quoted from Scar Tissue Films

The idea of implanting an idea in someone's head has such strong legs that for me it was a shame that it was wasted on a storyline about an energy company lead by what seemed to be a very gentle young man with issues about his father. It was just an incredibly weak throughline for such a potentially interesting concept.

But as ever, films are nothing if not subjective.


I agree... There are definitely some things I did not like about the movie and that right there has to be my #1 complaint. What a boring use of the films concept.

Like mentioned earlier, I too felt some of the characters were a tad shallow and 2 dimensional. This is especially directed towards Ellen Page's character. She seemed thrown into the film for sake of explaining the concept behind the film. I was a little surprised by it but what can you do. I still thoroughly enjoyed the film.


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Scar Tissue Films
Posted: July 29th, 2010, 12:48pm Report to Moderator
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It killed it for me, unfortunately. Not only was it incredibly weak, even the implemtation of it was poor. Cobb was hired by a vicious mobster type to stop a guy who just wanted his father to love him. Even reversing their two roles would have brought slightly more of a point to it all, but as it was it just fell completely flat. I hoped that there would be some twist and that intial setup would evolve into a far bigger story, but it never did.

The biggest problem for me though was what I mentioned before: The Neo effect. The completely unstoppable hero. If you're going down that route you at least need him to have companions who are vulnerable. In this they were all invincible. That destroyed it completely. Even getting shot in the heart is irrelevant. Made it a complete snoozefest for me.

I wish I could be more complimentary about it to be honest. I'm pleased that Nolan got the money to make a film like this and technically it was very adept indeed. Unfortunatley on every other level it was a complete turkey....and the major disappointment for me was just how bland the dreamworld was. The trailer sent shivers down my spine when the world folded in half. Unfortunately that was the lot in terms of inventiveness.

A real shame.

Still, at least a lot of other people seem to have enjoyed it.
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RayW
Posted: July 29th, 2010, 12:49pm Report to Moderator
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Quoted Text
Like mentioned earlier, I too felt some of the characters were a tad shallow and 2 dimensional. This is especially directed towards Ellen Page's character. She seemed thrown into the film for sake of explaining the concept behind the film. I was a little surprised by it but what can you do.


I think this is one of the true challenges a screenwriter faces and perhaps where directors drop the ball; to invent non-primary characters that BOTH present as being poly-dimensional WHILE not detracting from the primary characters.
We have X number of descriptions, actions and dialog to invent someone "flavorful" enough to not be just a tool.
Every line we spend expanding them is subtracted from the story and primaries.

From original screenplay or adaptation to shooting script to editing room a perfectly good Ellen Page/Ariadne can get totally goobered-up.

On the flip side, the character of Captain Jack Sparrow, I understand, was originally written as pretty much a straight forward rogue that only Johnny Depp transmuted into the wildly popular character loved by many to Eisner's horror.

The challenge eternally draws me in.



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sniper
Posted: July 29th, 2010, 3:33pm Report to Moderator
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Oh. My. God.

Absolutely loved it. What a ride. What a scene (the one with the truck falling). What an ending. What a mind on Christopher Nolan. This is the sort of film that makes me wanna give up writing. A homerun.


Down in the hole / Jesus tries to crack a smile / Beneath another shovel load
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RunningFox
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Quoted from Scar Tissue Films

The second problem was the Neo/superman problem. It was a dream, they were invincible. Result? Zero tension throughout the entire film. It doesn't matter what you throw at them, they are all superheroes and so all the money spent on huge action scenes was entirely pointless as the basics weren't there.



"They were invincible"? - Were you even paying attention?  And because of this there was zero tension?  What a ridiculous argument.



"We're gonna need to watch that again..."
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