Funny you mention the pain angle. It was something they referenced that seemed to be completely cast aside. Mal shoots Arthur in the opening scene, specifically mentioning it was a way to hurt him, since death just wakes you up. Later on, Dom asks Arthur how his leg is doing and also says he's sorry.

There was no other mention of serious injury having an effect on the real body again.

Fixed.

I really did love how that intense music from the trailers and opening was what they heard in the dream as music was played to their sleeping bodies and how it got more intense the deeper the dreams went.

So no one else took issue with how the timelines didn't really seem to mesh, huh? How sometimes things seemed to be happening at the same time and sometimes they were slowed down dramatically? Perhaps it wasn't as off as it seemed to me and I need a second viewing with that in mind?

...5 minute car chase = an hour in the hotel... shouldn't 4 hours have passed on the mountain before Levit had moved them into the elevator? It seemed like a lot happened in the hotel while they were all in that 3rd dream... even if it were only 20 minutes, that would have been 4 hours on the mountain, and it seemed that they were there no more than an hour's worth of events.

Or maybe I've thinking far too into this. It just seems like if you're going to make up such rigid rules for your premise you should be consistent throughout.

Yeah, right after DiCaprio says that I could have sworn Levitt was limping a little, but then I wasn't sure.

Also remember after Watanabe is shot in the first dream, DiCaprio tells him the "pain" will be less severe the deeper they go.

My thoughts:


Who knows. I enjoy movies that make you think like this. Good job to Nolan.

I'm so sick of the excuse of every time a director can't shoot action, someone saying it was done so the viewer "can feel jarred by the experience". The only thing jarring is that I don't know what the hell is going on. Its a movie, not a fight-simulator. I want the camera panned back so I can see the scene unfold & watch the action take place. No shit hand to hand combat is jarring, you don't to claim you have experience with a couple of karate classes to know that. This is a movie. Shaky camera, plus a thousand rounds of ammo shooting these guys & never hitting a damn thing equals crappy action scenes to me & more importantly boring.

amen brother!

I loved the movie. Saw it last night with a bunch of friends, and I loved the total Mindf%$# Nolan has made here.


I see a lot of complaints on how bullets never seem to hit anyone, but then there is a ton of theories on how its all in Dom's mind when the chemist puts him to sleep, and a bunch of other theories. It's very plausible that in Dom's own subconscious that the team couldn't be killed or shot.

However, I need a few more viewings of the film to let it all soak in.


Overall, though. One of my favorites this year. Aside, some of the best cinematography I have seen in a while.

A couple of Karate classes? I'm insulted by that inaccurate and ignorant statement. Yes, bad action to you. I disagree. I'm not claiming he is the best action director in the world, he's far from it. But he has definitely improved since Batman Begins. You don't need to get so angry and personal. Just clam down.

My overall concentration on the film's conceptualization might've been clouding my judgment, but I felt that the editing around the action sequences was greatly improved over Nolan's other films. Still not in the upper tier, but getting a hell of a lot closer.

I can totally buy that because that's the impression that I got, however, it also felt like it took all the danger out of the situation. Bullets are flying everywhere and the only people getting hurt are the faceless drones who couldn't hit someone standing still, literally. Don't get me wrong, I loved the movie, but that one thing bugged the hell out of me. When that one guy stood on that bridge and seemed to empty several clips into the side of that SUV which was just sitting there, I laughed to myself. I don't think that was supposed to be funny.


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Here's how I'd rank Nolan's films now that I've had some time to digest Inception:

5/5

Memento
Inception
TDK

4/5

Batman Begins
The Prestige

I haven't seen Following and I'm leaving Insomnia out because I haven't seen it in awhile and I feel it's something I need to revisit before rating.

I'm putting Inception over TDK because of my own personal bias. I'm a sucker for psychological dramas and IMO, Nolan has executed both Memento and Inception perfectly.

Exactly, bullets not hitting anyone, or almost anyone was hint. Not knowing a lot about the secondary characters can be explained the same way. It was a dream.

Did anyone else thought about Modern Warfare 2 in the snow scene?

I saw it with a pretty good audience (as in, no talking, cheering, clapping, etc during the movie, even though the theater was completely packed). However, there was a trailer for Devil before the movie, and everyone started cracking up and then booing when M. Night's name came up.

So, two of the main characters were shot and put into limbo. Seven people went into the dream. Two were shot, two others went into limbo via an alternate route. Do people think Nolan should have "killed" off everybody? Two people being shot seems like enough...

My showing had a an opposite reaction to when M. Nights name popped up. Two teenaged girls cheered when his name popped up and then went "Woooo!" at the sound effect scare moment at the end of the trailer. It was not sarcastic cheers either. I remember thinking 'oh shit' these goofy teenagers are gonna ruin Inception for me by whooping it up over everything. Thankfully, they were quiet. Maybe the sheer heaviness of the film overwhelmed them to where they were mostly speechless.

The only problem is that you have it backwards. Caine lives in Paris. He and his wife have custody of Mal's kids. His wife is French. Caine is Mal's father, not father-in-law.

Second showing. The luster of the movie wore off quickly for me and I was able to really enjoy the plot and mechanics of the movie. Not every excellent movie needs great character development. It's a sci-fi movie that works really well on a lot of levels.

Thinking on this movie a little more over the last day I have to say that as a movie I think I like it even less than originally, but in terms of the theories of the movies a couple things:

1. The top tipping over or not is a complete red herring. It is HIS dream so if he gets to a point where he wants to stay-with his kids in a limbo type state-then his subconcious can just tip over the top.

2. No one is mentioning the possibility that he actually murdered his wife. The hotel room was kinda trashed like there was a struggle, and I think the whole thing might be his dream to forgive himself and be reunited with his kids.

The wife did mention that she trashed the room and left behind things to implicate him in her death.

Wow, that explains why you took a few karate classes. I would to If I got as upset as you do over an anonymous message board. I wasn't getting angry, I was smiling. I was just making fun of the absurdity of comparing poorly shot action scenes to one's claim of hand to hand combat experience, its hysterical. And I don't know you dude, I can't get personal, just take a deep breath and relax.

Sheesh, some people are very defensive of this movie. I commented on a friend's Facebook status that I thought it was a very good movie, but not perfect. You would have thought I'd told them God didn't exist. The general consensus was I was asleep in the movie and missed all the deep emotional character development that I claimed the movie lacked.

This is the one thing that bothers me with his movies as he tends to zoom in too much in fight/action scenes.

Saw it again last nigh at IMAX. It gets a lot better the second time around as you already know the terminology and what each person does. While you still had to pay attention, the movie was much more entertaining.

I really like the whole theory that

The entire theater let out a groan when it ended and it didn't sound like a good groan. So, I don't think you were alone. I felt the same way you did.