The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

Surprised nobody has started a thread on the year's biggest SF film so far.

I finally caught up with it this weekend. It's good, but hardly great. (IMdB currently has it as the 4th best movie OF ALL TIME!)

The ideas are good, the visuals are fantastic but it's lacking in human drama despite the attempts to make DiCaprio's backstory compelling.

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Biggest issue was that the dream sequences largely were these huge SFX and stunt sequences. One reviewer aptly put it by saying that it seemed like they were from a Michael Bay movie. And, the CITIZEN KANE by way of 2001 setpiece with the son and the father was laughable.

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Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas

I would hardly call anything about the film "laughable." I labeled it as Very Good, but overrated. I'd say Nolan's third best film at most, probably fourth. My biggest problem is that Nolan still does not have a clue how to write parts for women. I had a few nitpicky concerns with changing the logic of the dreamworld on a whim for plot convenience (like why certain events were "kickers" and others were not), but within the overall parameters of the film, I accepted it. The pacing was excellent and I certainly wasn't bored. Plus the climax deserved to be something not cliched and straight out of a Bond film.
I want to commend Mr. Nolan as well for making most of the stuntwork PRACTICAL, or so at least I have heard. The minimal computer effects were seamless, as they are with all great storytellers, a'la Fincher and (most of) Spielberg.

Mild spoilers follow....


My other complaint is that I don't think that the much talked about final shot was significant of any far-reaching thematic reveal. It feels kind of cheap and "thrown in." Some say that it made you think, in a Sixth Sense kind of way, about certain earlier scenes being more meaningful or significant. That may be true, but personally I was thinking that anyway. There was something "off" about a few scenes inferred to be set in the "real" world (especially those involving Michael Caine), but I think that was intentional and not necessarily brought full circle with the ending.

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Aliens? Us?
Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"

Yes, quite laughable.




Again,

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Oh, come on!!! A pinwheel (Sleigh) from the photo and the large empty room pulled from a memory (2001)? I just laughed at the ripoff - oh, sorry, "hommage"............

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Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas

Well, I'm happy that you enjoyed yourself.

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Aliens? Us?
Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"

Gotta chime in as the Advocate here and say that I thought it was not only good, not only great, but qualified as brilliant.

But hey, to each their own.

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David A. Zecchini; Creature of the Wheel, Lord of the Infernal Engines
"Damnati Im Ludum" (VitruvianZeke@att.net)

I am with VitruvianZeke on this one. In the past I was not much of a Leonardo DiCaprio fan but he has proven to be an A lister and his recent movie choices have been well brilliant. In an age of remakes and reimaginings I am glad to see movies like INCEPTION making it to the big screen...and since I saw INCEPTION on the IMAX it was on the really Big Screen

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I still say DiCaprio's entire existence in this movie was in a dream state and his wife had it right. The line would get so blurred the only way to really know if your awake or a sleep would be to keep killing yourself until you actually died.

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Jaws3dfan®
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I did say I enjoyed the film and the fact that it had some thoughtful ideas. Still, I contend that the over-the-top action and effects actually dilutes the heart of the storytelling. Here's one example where if the budget were cut in half, it would had twice the impact for Nolan would have had to be more creative in telling his tale rather than just showing one more chase and/or one more huge Sfx setpiece.

Frankly, I got bored at times with all the visual overload, and looked forward to the quieter character moments. I also got more than a little frustrated by all the new "rules" of dreaming that seemed to keep popping up long after the initial set-up. It reminded me of one of those crackpot guests on Art Bell's radio show, who, when caught in an apparent contradiction in their bizarro conspiracy theories - all of a sudden come up with an out of left-field new rule explaining that contradiction. Kinda like when you used to play with a friend over at their home and they would magically come up with a brand new "House Rule" so that they could win.

I understand the economic incentive to go big to attract a wider audience. It must have been difficult (even coming after DARK KNIGHT) for Nolan to sell the studio on a head trip movie, but, I'm talking art not commerce here. Lastly, Ellen Page, who I like, was miscast. She just seemed lost.



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I left the theater thinking that the film's ending was "real". But, then, I harbored some second thoughts thinking that DiCaprio & Watanabe's characters may have entered limbo and then tried to imagine a better outcome. But, I'm now convinced again that it was all real. There was limbo, but it was relatively brief and ended by the time the plane landed.

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Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas

I'll be lazy and say, I thought it was very good, but I'm not in a rush to see it again. A little overrated for me.

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Six side is heaven/Nine side is go