One of my favourite films. A film i've watched numerous times and will watch again. It isn't confusing granted but it has a great central premise which interests you immediately. The idea of making someone believe they have created their own idea is inherently intriguing and then the execution of this is top notch. The subplot of Leo's grief over his wife's death and how his projection of her gradually interferes more and more is beautifully structured in how subtle it is and Marion cotillard is the best thing in it in my opinion. Such a lovely range that leaves you heartbroken and relentlessly frightened all at the same time. It just works as as a complete experience for me.
@@WildFungus Given that his filmography is about a million times better than the Wachowskis, I'd say he already has. They've done nothing but bullshit since 1999, while in that same timeframe, he has made several hits in a variety of genres.
@@blaisetelfer8499 yeah which is why he should stop. because he has. that's what I meant. Tenant is such a self indulgent thing. Its not bad, but that audio mixing and the reason for it, completely unacceptable, especially since it's just a weird thought experiment turned into an action movie with nothing else to offer. It's incredibly well constructed, and that's it.
People saying this movie was bad completely annoy me, it's one of the best and most unique narratives ever seen in a movie... and it's portrayed PERFECTLY, the best actors, one of the best directors, the best visual specs and the best film score.
***** I don't want to sound like a pretentious arrogant twat, but a movie's quality is not just because of how many people like it, it does go beyond opinion. There's plenty of factors that can pretty much factually describe it's quality. But when people start writing down analysises of a movie, based on nothing but the movie, you just have to give credit and admire the movie. Getting a proper taste in anything also means that you have to accept that a movie can still be good without you enjoying it, or you enjoying a movie while knowing it's not that good, and simply knowing there are certain things, that may be beyond you.
PauL van der Burgh YES, exactly my point. The technicality of the movie and strength within that is what makes the movie, in my opinion, one of the best ever.
I totally agree with Kermode. I absolutely love this film. I love the fact that Nolan took this complicated plot but still managed to make understandable. Great sci-fi are the ones that managed to not go over people's head. Looking forward for TDKR
Cobb's totem is not the top. The top is Mal's totem, which Cobb figured out in order to manipulate her. Cobb explains to the others how her totem works, which is something we are told repeatedly you are not supposed to do. Cobb can because his real totem is his wedding ring. He keeps her totem because of his obsession with her and his guilt. The ending only seems ambiguous because it doesn't matter if the top falls or not. Cobb walks away without checking the totem because the obsession and guilt are gone; it doesn't matter any more. I think Inception is a brilliant movie and Nolan a brilliant director. Inception makes many subconscious suggestions about the nature of reality: we are trapped in our own paradoxical perception, repeating behaviors over and over, believing the shadows on the cave wall are real. People hate this movie because they are unconsciously resisting these ideas while intuitively fearing that they may be true. It is a hostile rejection of how inception works, much like the projections that attack any foreign object that can potentially disrupt the dreamer's dream. I am now ready for the barrage of sarcastic hate.
Robert Tangren I agree, very perceptive interpretation. But then again, I would. As you are just a projection of my subconscious mind, and nothing I’m typing is really real ...
Nolans is such a genius He films independet movie screenplays on a 180 Million Dollar Budget and still making more money than most of the Blockbusters in the year because his film are just so good. Hollywood need way more directors and aspecially Screenwriters like him and his brother
Sort of. But I think Memento is more deliberately confusing in the first place and if you had missed a minute it actually wouldn't matter that much in the long run. With Inception I think it's pretty easy to keep up with it as long as you simply pay attention. But missing something specific might turn the rest of the movie into a what the hell is going on.
I hate how people complain about the expository dialogue. If Nolan tried to just visually explain this story it would’ve been way to hard for an audience member to break down what was truly happening. People still didn’t understand inception so I completely understand why the rules and layers of the dream are so thoroughly explained.
I love that Mark Kermode can explain why something is brilliant in 10 minutes. I agree with him about how Inception shows that would people like is never as dumbed down as producers and film companies think.
He's more successful than ever. Backlash like always when somebody is hugely successful and praised. Don't understand why anybody would call Inception bad because of "too much exposition" and the Dark Knight Rises bad due to "plot holes", both are obviously good.
Its the Nolan fanboys who've made him out to be a god!! They are the ones to blame!! Nolan's just a guy who wants to make immersive movies utilizing practical filmmaking
iamsuperbatman1993 I think he's a really good director but I just can't stand it when some people say he's the best director of all time. Apparently better Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Fellini, Bergman, Kurosawa and so many more.
It's typical backlash that happens at the height of someones success, same thing happened to Spielberg, Lucas, Tarrantino, people rag on them for being hugely popular and critically acclaimed. It will die off after a while as he settles into living legend status.
It's very clear people just nit pick Nolan or dislike him biasly because of how much acclaim he's gotten, a hipster move. Entertainment is subjective so people like and dislike what they do, but with Nolan people just hate him because of how much he's loved, it couldn't be more clear.
@marleymike2 It was visually stunning you're right, honestly that's all it had for me. No real depth to the characters at all, for a film that many claim to be an intelligent film this seemed a large omission for me. It wasn't a bad film, but it certianly wasn't as amazing as many of the critics have claimed it is. I thought the ending was very predictable and weak. I'd give three stars, entertaining but nothing special. I really can't get over the way Mark gushes about this film.
The only character it fleshed out was DiCaprio. They couldve added characterization instead of (imo) unnecessary explanation, in the 2nd half of first act, about the opening scenes. We could've understood a lot more from actions than what the movie thinks we could've.
Director Christopher Nolan delivers his best film in this very original, well acted, effective & stylish masterpiece that is one of the best films made. (100%) (5/5 stars) (positive)
So I'm pretty sure all the people in the comment section that says the movie was simple and not complicated simply don't get it. They understand the surface and think that's all there is while missing everything else. Dunning-Kruger effect in action.
There is alot of flaws in this film, but honestly I'm not sure this could have been done without them. Its very very ambitious and even though there are problems, I just really enjoyed the fact that it fully engaged me like no film had in a long long time and I really enjoyed the action. This really is a very good film and its a solid favorite with me.
In my humble opinion, the Batman films are Nolan's "B" work. It's all about Inception, The Prestige, and of course, Memento. Sure, each of those STORIES do have some issues...especially The Prestige. However, Nolan's storytelling in those three movies is absolutely top notch...ironically, especially in The Prestige (where Nolan repeatedly slaps you in the face with the "truth"...and yet the end is still a surprise).
Memento >.............Following >............The Prestige > The Dark Knight > Batman Begins >.........Inception >...........Insomnia Nolan's films are cold, humorless, and sexless worlds. Memento is the only one which feels genuinely new and exciting, and it is the only great film Nolan has ever made. I think Nolan is immensely talented and I am glad that he is getting studio money, but his films suffer from his one note vision. As for Inception, it is the fat ugly older brother of Memento.
Heh. How ironic is "the getting lost is purposeful and you'll always find your way despite being labyrinthine in construction" when a labyrinth is specifically a maze with only one path all the way through it.
This film does split the audience down the middle. I loved it. It takes a clever mind to create that kind of a labyrinth story, and Nolan seems to have that right now. And that one quote just summed up the feeling of dreaming; "Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realise something was actually strange."
If you're a Chris Nolan fan, here's a little inside info. One of the main character in his first film FOLLOWING, which he shot for next to nothing, was a thief named Cobb. Leonardo Dicaprio in Inception played a thief, his name was Cobb.
I have yet to hear a convincing argument as to why this movie is somehow average or bad, aside from two things: first being that there was no explanation about how the contraption that they use to insert themselves in the dream works, which I'm actually glad was left out because there was enough exposition as it was, and second, the debate whether it was "all a dream", in which I certainly wish he would have just let the top fall at the end. No need for ambiguity IMO.
I have often wondered if the screenplay for Inception is based upon the writers dreams while under the influence of Sertraline, which is a very powerful antidepressant that induces a hyper real state of deep phantasmagorical consciousness that is utterly convincing. It’s a fantastic film.
Loved he film immensely, gave me faith in the future of an intelligent blockbuster - but it really wasn't that difficult to follow. The plot is fairly linear, the dreams work logically, the explanations of the concepts are pat and accessible. Don't get me wrong, it is a brilliant, inventive thriller, but I think the people who bang about how complicated it is are really looking for an excuse to pat themselves on the shoulder for 'getting' it. It's not exactly David Lynch.
Christopher Nolan actually wrote and came up with Inception around 2000, and the only reason as to why he did not release it around the time he created the story was because he thought he need more experience in film and also wanted to polish the film and finally made the movie nearly a decade ago, so it actually did not rip Paprika at all
charlie brooker described in his review of the year 2010 as a movie with ideas "above, below and beside it's station" haha I liked this film, I think it's an enjoyable peice of [very] mainstream sci-fi. It's really a showcase for Nolan and nobody else though the South Park episode "Insheeption" may be the best review of the film, actually lifting quotes from it. "Visions of my dead wife manifest themselves as trains" hilarious :)
I feel Momento is still his best & that film has way more interweaving legs than Inception, but doesn't feel cluttered either. I thought Inception was certainly a well made film, but it kind of felt as if it was made for the typical crowd of people who think they are smarter than they really are. it did bring about an elitist attitude of "Well, if you can't keep up with the plot maybe Transformers is more your speed". I do like it, though it certainly ISN'T as intelligent as it wants to be.
@notnek011 but at that point of the movie it did need an explanation, i understood what they were doing, not why they were doing it, the reason why she was confused is they'd just said out load they were going into (not gonna spoil it's) mind, however he was a projection, they said that to trick the target as they were going into his mind, so he was seeing what he wanted to see believing it was what the thoughts of the guy whose mind it was.
It's usually described as being complex 'compared' to other typically brainless CGI blockbuster summer fare...It actually made a point of engaging the audience by not treating them as idiots. It was very refreshing.
The heavy exposition was only in the first half of the film, and it's not like they didn't come with visual confirmation. Some people argue that Nolan in general shows more than tells, but at the same time they hate that certain plot points are merely alluded to rather than shown in earnest. Nolan is meticulous, and even then, he's not perfect. But when the overarching presentation is this dedicated, this fascinating, this thoughtful, I can forgive plot inconsistencies.
Probably the one complaint that bothers me the most, people still left the theater confused so how the hell do you go off of solely visuals and still appeal to the masses?
@hanshotfirst1138 I should also mention I haven't seen the Prestige and I believe that it also has a "puzzle box narrative form" from what I hear so I do accept that but I still don't think that represents a fulfillment of Truffaut's initial hypothesis or whatever you want to call it.
Most of the hate on this movie is from small minded people, who just can't enjoy a movie that is science fiction without nitpicking whatever they feel personally should be. The movie is a masterpiece, an incredible piece of cinema with so much philosophical weight, and the small minds just can't engage in that. I never criticize a movie for what the writer wants the story to be, or what I should think it should be, or what is real or un real. It's cinema, criticism is based on how well it's made, if it's entertaining, does it have substance, the acting, etc. This film is upper echelon in all those things.
I disagree- the biggest problem is how talky it is and how much expository dialogue there is. It takes more than an hour before you get the rules explained to you and can finally have some fun with it. I like the movie, but I find it incredibly frustrating at points.
@how is it you know i made an incorrect judgment about the plot when i did not mention any details bout it. yes it was a good popcorn movie but not particularily smart.. i walked in 10 min late and had no problem piecing it together.
@RobTangren Children of Men - Alfonso Cuaron Mulholland Drive - David Lynch Requiem for a Dream - Darren Aronofsky These are the three greatest directors working today. I am a pretty big Christopher Nolan fan but I had too many problems with inception. The soundtrack is not that good so everyone needs to get over that (Clint Mansell eats Hans Zimmer alive), the fighting is so over-the-top just for the sake of it, and the plot is fed to you on a spoon. Memento still holds up as Nolan's best.
a lot of the discussions that occured about inception were people tryng to decipher the meaning of the ending, whether it was a dream or not.... frankly I didnt care. the concept of the film was interesting but i thought the film was boring.
You may find the characters uninteresting but I was invested, I wanted to see Cobb reach his emotional catharsis, I wanted to see the team succeed, because I bought the magnitude, the gravity of what they were trying to accomplish. I think the films complexities lend itself to this, the job was sufficiently complex and therefore I bought the difficulty of it. It's clear you didn't feel Nolan achieved that and that's fine. I don't think the film will be easily forgotten as you insinuate.
Nolans best films. 1= Memento 2= TDK 3= BB 4= Inception. Memento genuinely hard to follow, incredibly clever and a brilliant lead performance. I really don't understand why Inception was that hard to follow. Either way Memento is a truly astonishing film.
this film truly made me feel that we were heading into a better future of cinema...makes me feel glad that there are still directors out there like nolan next to shit like miachel bay and james cameron for avatar alone
I think they actually discussed that with the emails,with the difference wether the movie was actually clever of just more look at us being clever.But I think that's a common thing with Nolan movies.
@IceCreamSuit Not a particularly big criticism, I enjoyed the movie, I appreciate the effort and creativity that went into it and I think it deserves praise for daring to be unique as a major studio blockbuster but it's not the trailblazing masterpiece a decent number of people see it as.
I completely disagree with Kermode about the line, "Whose subconcious are we in now?". Ariadne is intelligent enough to realise what's going on and so the line was put in as a tool to let some of the slow viewers keep up. I'm not a fan of film tools which aren't part of the plot.
of course it's a study. just because it's not a novel doesn't mean it can't be an exploration of psychology. no people don't dream in levels but most people have had dreams of themselves dreaming. it's proven that people's minds work faster when dreaming. i love it, im sorry you dont because it's a great film.
Thank you! In 10 years, this will be the consensus about this film. I've never seen a film with so much superficial complexity. When the film is actually explained by a normal person, it is obvious how simple it actually is, but is just written with so much expositional dialog that people think it is deep and of course "mind blowing"
Sometimes I think I died in my sleep awhile back and none of this is real, so I identified with Cobbs wife, although I am yet to jump off a building. I don't require an explanation of everything to enjoy the spectacle , the same way as I use a spoon without consideration.
Making the dreams as real as possible was not the glue that held it together as ppl think. The amazing thing about it was how the editing and the level of how it was presented to the audience. How I keep thinking almost 3 or 4 times I thought he was delievering the mcguffin, and it turn out that he hit you with another. I dont think any other movie has ever done that. The fact the dreams were so real even though nothing is connected to there heads is to funny not to say its a plot hole.
inception is a masterpiece. it's a study of human dreams and how we actually think. it's entertaining, thrilling, logical and complex, while being easy to follow, and multiple rewatches reveal more. the cathartic father-son realisation is one of the most powerful emotional moments in film. the character makes an emotional breakthrough, but it was in a dream and so was not real. but, in the same way that films aren't real, does this really matter? the emotions are real, and that's what matters.
On the outside yes it is not supremely complex. But things get very murky when you start analysing whether any of the things in Cobb's 'life' are real or in a dreamworld. The beginning and ending are the same, so we could be in entirely different dream layers and this 'job' performed by Cobb and his team could actually be an inception upon Cobb's mind.
I think it's a shame that some people just can't be pleased. They can't enjoy something that the general public enjoys... simply because they hate the idea of sharing an opinion with those they (perhaps wrongly) deem less intelligent than themselves. Even in cases like the works of Directors of Nolan and his ilk... clearly very fine works, but some people... some bloody people.
@Feyd01 No, you're not alone. My opinion is not quite as low as yours but I don't think it's more than decent and certainly not the 'greatest thing since sliced bread' as everyone thinks. And the only thing about it that I find baffling is how many people are having trouble following what's going on. That and the fact that people think it's clever. At the end of the day it's just a big budget version of World Builder, which you'll find here on YT. And I have no doubt that so did Mr Nolan, too.
The more you argue, Feyd01, the more the issue looks like a failing of imagination on your part. Individual elements of Inception are nonsense, yes. There's a Discovery News article that goes through them, and they are many. All you have to do to enjoy the movie, though, is accept the central premise of the dream-connecting device. You don't even have to find it plausible, only logically consistent with the movie's internal logic, which it was.
If I remember correctly, there was a peacock crowing in the background during that week's wittertainment whom listeners suggested sounded rather uncannily like Kermode's impersonations of certain people in the movie industry. I propose that we christen the peacock Danny McGEEE.
@DannyBoy777 Completely and utterly agree with you there... even if someone doesnt like it, there is no way they can say it is a bad film, its a mainstream blockbuster that doesnt insult your intelligence. You are never going to have a mainstream film better and less insulting than Inception.
And now I hear that, although he did get producing (Best Film) and original screenplay nods, Christopher Nolan has NOT been nominated for Best Director for this year's Oscars. The Good Doctor is understandably baffled.
Well you could have easily anticipated this question, but okay, which part of the movie did you find dreamlike? The action sequence in the hotel? The action sequence with the van? And I choose the snow shootout because it was the third level of dreaming (OR FOURTH?!?!?! OMG MIND BLOWING) so one would expect it to be the most "dreamy", but nope. Please see the anime Paprika to see how dreams should be done.
...u just cant please some ppl. Besides CN which director of late have distinguished themselves on such a consistently MASSIVE scale? Pleasing both the audience and critics alike. He must be doing something right. For ppl to comment that its all pretentious and daft and self important is essentially saying the VAST majority that came out liking this are gullible, monumental idiots who couldnt see through the facade. Sry, I refuse to believe that. If we're all idiots and the minority's depth of perception is so deep then they should be in charge of Hollywood and the world. Are they?
@Regenmacher175 It talked down by overexplaining everything sooo laboriously. It did indeed assume the audience was stupid. If you want to know why the director put the totem there, it is so the audience will wonder how the movie fit together, will question themselves so they will go see the movie again.
@natmanprime We sir are in agreement. I actually really liked Dark Knight the first time I watched it. But honestly, the second time I watched it I just didn't find it any where near as entertaining. And WTF was that sonar bat vision all about? It was just ridiculous.
I'm so glad so many more people have woken up to the averageness of this film. It's entertaining yes, is it a masterpiece? Not a chance. I still cannot understand why the likes of Kermode fell over themselves to gush about what an intelligent and original film this is - which it isn't of either. The plot is flawed, the acting is nothing special, I don't care about any of the characters. Watch the TV series 'Breaking Bad' if you want to see something intelligent and original.
@hanshotfirst1138 I would also question some of those as distinctive traits. The puzzle box narrative structure I think can only really be attributed to Memento and to a lesser extent Inception (which I found much less complex than people had claimed). Flashbacks are an extremely common narrative technique and his slightly sterile aesthetic was only truly realized in Inception
![Megan Thee Stallion - Neva Play (feat. RM) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TpYTyAaTRts/mqdefault.jpg)
The charm of early RUclips videos and their wildly variant volume levels
One of my favourite films. A film i've watched numerous times and will watch again. It isn't confusing granted but it has a great central premise which interests you immediately. The idea of making someone believe they have created their own idea is inherently intriguing and then the execution of this is top notch. The subplot of Leo's grief over his wife's death and how his projection of her gradually interferes more and more is beautifully structured in how subtle it is and Marion cotillard is the best thing in it in my opinion. Such a lovely range that leaves you heartbroken and relentlessly frightened all at the same time. It just works as as a complete experience for me.
I think Nolan has an obsession with trying to outdo the Matrix personally...
@@WildFungus Given that his filmography is about a million times better than the Wachowskis, I'd say he already has. They've done nothing but bullshit since 1999, while in that same timeframe, he has made several hits in a variety of genres.
@@blaisetelfer8499 yeah which is why he should stop. because he has. that's what I meant. Tenant is such a self indulgent thing. Its not bad, but that audio mixing and the reason for it, completely unacceptable, especially since it's just a weird thought experiment turned into an action movie with nothing else to offer. It's incredibly well constructed, and that's it.
When Leo wakes up on the plane, it felt like i woke up aswell
Know what you mean! 😎
I recently watched A Scanner Darkly and that genuinely felt like a film that has to be watched again and again to absorb everything it offers.
its very good.
@@WildFungus
So long ago now I barely remember it save for that incredible visual style with the rotoscope.
@@PurushaDesa it is that kind of movie. its mostly a bunch of scabby drug addicts stealing abicycle. haha
All I remember from that is the bugs in that guys hair and Keanu Reeves
Love that first image.
how can you be confused by a film that dedicates half its runtime to explaining everything to you
People saying this movie was bad completely annoy me, it's one of the best and most unique narratives ever seen in a movie... and it's portrayed PERFECTLY, the best actors, one of the best directors, the best visual specs and the best film score.
Don't fret, it's all just opinions. Personally to me it was just ok, but if you love it that's cool of course. Not everybody is going to like it.
***** I disagree, it's such a unique and complex narrative which makes it genius which should be recognized not just as 'Ok', same with Memento.
Ben Jauncey that's cool. Again, to me it was just ok.
***** I don't want to sound like a pretentious arrogant twat, but a movie's quality is not just because of how many people like it, it does go beyond opinion. There's plenty of factors that can pretty much factually describe it's quality. But when people start writing down analysises of a movie, based on nothing but the movie, you just have to give credit and admire the movie.
Getting a proper taste in anything also means that you have to accept that a movie can still be good without you enjoying it, or you enjoying a movie while knowing it's not that good, and simply knowing there are certain things, that may be beyond you.
PauL van der Burgh YES, exactly my point. The technicality of the movie and strength within that is what makes the movie, in my opinion, one of the best ever.
I totally agree with Kermode. I absolutely love this film. I love the fact that Nolan took this complicated plot but still managed to make understandable. Great sci-fi are the ones that managed to not go over people's head. Looking forward for TDKR
Cobb's totem is not the top. The top is Mal's totem, which Cobb figured out in order to manipulate her. Cobb explains to the others how her totem works, which is something we are told repeatedly you are not supposed to do. Cobb can because his real totem is his wedding ring. He keeps her totem because of his obsession with her and his guilt. The ending only seems ambiguous because it doesn't matter if the top falls or not. Cobb walks away without checking the totem because the obsession and guilt are gone; it doesn't matter any more.
I think Inception is a brilliant movie and Nolan a brilliant director.
Inception makes many subconscious suggestions about the nature of reality: we are trapped in our own paradoxical perception, repeating behaviors over and over, believing the shadows on the cave wall are real. People hate this movie because they are unconsciously resisting these ideas while intuitively fearing that they may be true. It is a hostile rejection of how inception works, much like the projections that attack any foreign object that can potentially disrupt the dreamer's dream.
I am now ready for the barrage of sarcastic hate.
The trolls read it and fell into a vegetative state.
This ^. It took me a few years until I realized that Cobb's totem is the wedding ring.
Robert Tangren I agree, very perceptive interpretation. But then again, I would. As you are just a projection of my subconscious mind, and nothing I’m typing is really real ...
... there is no spoon ...
Inception is quite overrated, didn't age well
Nolans is such a genius
He films independet movie screenplays on a 180 Million Dollar Budget and still making more money than most of the Blockbusters in the year because his film are just so good.
Hollywood need way more directors and aspecially Screenwriters like him and his brother
Respect for recognising his brother
this movie is much easier to keep up with than memento
Sort of. But I think Memento is more deliberately confusing in the first place and if you had missed a minute it actually wouldn't matter that much in the long run. With Inception I think it's pretty easy to keep up with it as long as you simply pay attention. But missing something specific might turn the rest of the movie into a what the hell is going on.
If you would miss a minute in Memento chances are high you won't understand it by the end...
Mr0strich
Really depends on what minute.
+PauLtus B Sure, same with Inception.
Teddy.
I hate how people complain about the expository dialogue. If Nolan tried to just visually explain this story it would’ve been way to hard for an audience member to break down what was truly happening. People still didn’t understand inception so I completely understand why the rules and layers of the dream are so thoroughly explained.
I saw it three times (maybe four?), until I finally understood all of it.
It was a very good movie though
I love that Mark Kermode can explain why something is brilliant in 10 minutes. I agree with him about how Inception shows that would people like is never as dumbed down as producers and film companies think.
I have actually had a dream within a dream, when I woke up from both dreams I was freaked out.
Wow what is it with people all of a sudden hating on Nolan nowadays?
He's more successful than ever. Backlash like always when somebody is hugely successful and praised. Don't understand why anybody would call Inception bad because of "too much exposition" and the Dark Knight Rises bad due to "plot holes", both are obviously good.
Hipsterism.
Its the Nolan fanboys who've made him out to be a god!! They are the ones to blame!! Nolan's just a guy who wants to make immersive movies utilizing practical filmmaking
iamsuperbatman1993 I think he's a really good director but I just can't stand it when some people say he's the best director of all time. Apparently better Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Fellini, Bergman, Kurosawa and so many more.
It's typical backlash that happens at the height of someones success, same thing happened to Spielberg, Lucas, Tarrantino, people rag on them for being hugely popular and critically acclaimed. It will die off after a while as he settles into living legend status.
Awesome movie .......... ! It's taken me this long to see this and it BLEW MY MIND ........ awesome, awesome, awsome
why does this video open with his hairline?
It's very clear people just nit pick Nolan or dislike him biasly because of how much acclaim he's gotten, a hipster move. Entertainment is subjective so people like and dislike what they do, but with Nolan people just hate him because of how much he's loved, it couldn't be more clear.
it aint about entertainment. its entertaining sure, but its flawed. witness the snow scene. dream within a dream within a dream? please.
Inception was brilliant...that's all.
it is crap
@marleymike2 It was visually stunning you're right, honestly that's all it had for me. No real depth to the characters at all, for a film that many claim to be an intelligent film this seemed a large omission for me.
It wasn't a bad film, but it certianly wasn't as amazing as many of the critics have claimed it is. I thought the ending was very predictable and weak. I'd give three stars, entertaining but nothing special. I really can't get over the way Mark gushes about this film.
The only character it fleshed out was DiCaprio. They couldve added characterization instead of (imo) unnecessary explanation, in the 2nd half of first act, about the opening scenes. We could've understood a lot more from actions than what the movie thinks we could've.
Director Christopher Nolan delivers his best film in this very original, well acted, effective & stylish masterpiece that is one of the best films made. (100%) (5/5 stars) (positive)
Insomnia is still his best movie
So underated
Grossed $800m. Still won't change much though. It will just enable Nolan to make more movies like this. No-one else.
So I'm pretty sure all the people in the comment section that says the movie was simple and not complicated simply don't get it. They understand the surface and think that's all there is while missing everything else. Dunning-Kruger effect in action.
There is alot of flaws in this film, but honestly I'm not sure this could have been done without them. Its very very ambitious and even though there are problems, I just really enjoyed the fact that it fully engaged me like no film had in a long long time and I really enjoyed the action. This really is a very good film and its a solid favorite with me.
"Because you're a fool." Lol
In my humble opinion, the Batman films are Nolan's "B" work. It's all about Inception, The Prestige, and of course, Memento.
Sure, each of those STORIES do have some issues...especially The Prestige.
However, Nolan's storytelling in those three movies is absolutely top notch...ironically, especially in The Prestige (where Nolan repeatedly slaps you in the face with the "truth"...and yet the end is still a surprise).
Memento >.............Following >............The Prestige > The Dark Knight > Batman Begins >.........Inception >...........Insomnia
Nolan's films are cold, humorless, and sexless worlds. Memento is the only one which feels genuinely new and exciting, and it is the only great film Nolan has ever made. I think Nolan is immensely talented and I am glad that he is getting studio money, but his films suffer from his one note vision. As for Inception, it is the fat ugly older brother of Memento.
Heh. How ironic is "the getting lost is purposeful and you'll always find your way despite being labyrinthine in construction" when a labyrinth is specifically a maze with only one path all the way through it.
This is as close to a film version of Neuromancer as I could have ever hoped to see.
Amazing scifi movie. So many things get picked out upon rewatching
This film does split the audience down the middle. I loved it. It takes a clever mind to create that kind of a labyrinth story, and Nolan seems to have that right now. And that one quote just summed up the feeling of dreaming; "Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realise something was actually strange."
Immediate upvote after seeing the first image.
If you're a Chris Nolan fan, here's a little inside info. One of the main character in his first film FOLLOWING, which he shot for next to nothing, was a thief named Cobb. Leonardo Dicaprio in Inception played a thief, his name was Cobb.
Inception is awesome!
I have yet to hear a convincing argument as to why this movie is somehow average or bad, aside from two things: first being that there was no explanation about how the contraption that they use to insert themselves in the dream works, which I'm actually glad was left out because there was enough exposition as it was, and second, the debate whether it was "all a dream", in which I certainly wish he would have just let the top fall at the end. No need for ambiguity IMO.
I have often wondered if the screenplay for Inception is based upon the writers dreams while under the influence of Sertraline, which is a very powerful antidepressant that induces a hyper real state of deep phantasmagorical consciousness that is utterly convincing. It’s a fantastic film.
Chris Nolan did write it based of his experiences on lucid dreaming
@@Prodbyjah464 I felt that Nolan encapsulated my own experiences completely. It has become one of my favourite films.
@@williamcurwen7428 that’s awesome, inception is my favourite film
Loved he film immensely, gave me faith in the future of an intelligent blockbuster - but it really wasn't that difficult to follow. The plot is fairly linear, the dreams work logically, the explanations of the concepts are pat and accessible. Don't get me wrong, it is a brilliant, inventive thriller, but I think the people who bang about how complicated it is are really looking for an excuse to pat themselves on the shoulder for 'getting' it. It's not exactly David Lynch.
in the end the studios went back to dumber films.....my one complaint with Inception is the dream worlds look more like video game levels.
True. You get lost in good company and to a purpose. That's what cinema is all about, isn't it?
@thedroogfulable The most metaphorical-minded movie. Literal-minded and unimaginative is the opposite to that.
Christopher Nolan actually wrote and came up with Inception around 2000, and the only reason as to why he did not release it around the time he created the story was because he thought he need more experience in film and also wanted to polish the film and finally made the movie nearly a decade ago, so it actually did not rip Paprika at all
I love Nolan, but he reminds me of Harry Enfield's 'Tim nice but dim' character.
This is one of the funniest comments ever, you win the internet!
charlie brooker described in his review of the year 2010 as a movie with ideas "above, below and beside it's station" haha
I liked this film, I think it's an enjoyable peice of [very] mainstream sci-fi. It's really a showcase for Nolan and nobody else though
the South Park episode "Insheeption" may be the best review of the film, actually lifting quotes from it.
"Visions of my dead wife manifest themselves as trains" hilarious :)
Wtf? Did we watch the same fucking film? It reads exactly like an essay!
Uh what I wrote was almost line for line the scene in The Matrix when Morpheus tells Neo about how humans are used as batteries.
I feel Momento is still his best & that film has way more interweaving legs than Inception, but doesn't feel cluttered either. I thought Inception was certainly a well made film, but it kind of felt as if it was made for the typical crowd of people who think they are smarter than they really are. it did bring about an elitist attitude of "Well, if you can't keep up with the plot maybe Transformers is more your speed". I do like it, though it certainly ISN'T as intelligent as it wants to be.
@notnek011 but at that point of the movie it did need an explanation, i understood what they were doing, not why they were doing it, the reason why she was confused is they'd just said out load they were going into (not gonna spoil it's) mind, however he was a projection, they said that to trick the target as they were going into his mind, so he was seeing what he wanted to see believing it was what the thoughts of the guy whose mind it was.
It's usually described as being complex 'compared' to other typically brainless CGI blockbuster summer fare...It actually made a point of engaging the audience by not treating them as idiots. It was very refreshing.
The heavy exposition was only in the first half of the film, and it's not like they didn't come with visual confirmation. Some people argue that Nolan in general shows more than tells, but at the same time they hate that certain plot points are merely alluded to rather than shown in earnest. Nolan is meticulous, and even then, he's not perfect. But when the overarching presentation is this dedicated, this fascinating, this thoughtful, I can forgive plot inconsistencies.
I loved Inception but come on Mark, the first hour was pure exposition!
and?
vorjay He said it contained very little exposition.
and?
Kind of needed it though to flesh out the technicalities of the dream worlds
Probably the one complaint that bothers me the most, people still left the theater confused so how the hell do you go off of solely visuals and still appeal to the masses?
lol did Mark really just say Inception doesn't have too much exposition? Did we watch the same movie?
@hanshotfirst1138 I should also mention I haven't seen the Prestige and I believe that it also has a "puzzle box narrative form" from what I hear so I do accept that but I still don't think that represents a fulfillment of Truffaut's initial hypothesis or whatever you want to call it.
And the fact that it completely and utterly forgets its own rules later on.
I would say it was written very well, but most of what you say I agree with.
im pretty sure my brain just bled reading that shit
Still haven't seen it yet, but many of the people who said it is clever also said Donnie Darko was clever,
I've just realised that Kermode looks a bit like Christopher Nolan.
Most of the hate on this movie is from small minded people, who just can't enjoy a movie that is science fiction without nitpicking whatever they feel personally should be. The movie is a masterpiece, an incredible piece of cinema with so much philosophical weight, and the small minds just can't engage in that. I never criticize a movie for what the writer wants the story to be, or what I should think it should be, or what is real or un real. It's cinema, criticism is based on how well it's made, if it's entertaining, does it have substance, the acting, etc. This film is upper echelon in all those things.
I disagree- the biggest problem is how talky it is and how much expository dialogue there is. It takes more than an hour before you get the rules explained to you and can finally have some fun with it. I like the movie, but I find it incredibly frustrating at points.
@how is it you know i made an incorrect judgment about the plot when i did not mention any details bout it. yes it was a good popcorn movie but not particularily smart.. i walked in 10 min late and had no problem piecing it together.
I love Inception. Simple
@RobTangren
Children of Men - Alfonso Cuaron
Mulholland Drive - David Lynch
Requiem for a Dream - Darren Aronofsky
These are the three greatest directors working today. I am a pretty big Christopher Nolan fan but I had too many problems with inception. The soundtrack is not that good so everyone needs to get over that (Clint Mansell eats Hans Zimmer alive), the fighting is so over-the-top just for the sake of it, and the plot is fed to you on a spoon. Memento still holds up as Nolan's best.
a lot of the discussions that occured about inception were people tryng to decipher the meaning of the ending, whether it was a dream or not.... frankly I didnt care.
the concept of the film was interesting but i thought the film was boring.
me too actually....because i was more emotionally attached with batmans begins not so much with dark knight but i felt it was waay cooler than begins
You may find the characters uninteresting but I was invested, I wanted to see Cobb reach his emotional catharsis, I wanted to see the team succeed, because I bought the magnitude, the gravity of what they were trying to accomplish. I think the films complexities lend itself to this, the job was sufficiently complex and therefore I bought the difficulty of it. It's clear you didn't feel Nolan achieved that and that's fine. I don't think the film will be easily forgotten as you insinuate.
Nolans best films.
1= Memento
2= TDK
3= BB
4= Inception.
Memento genuinely hard to follow, incredibly clever and a brilliant lead performance. I really don't understand why Inception was that hard to follow. Either way Memento is a truly astonishing film.
this film truly made me feel that we were heading into a better future of cinema...makes me feel glad that there are still directors out there like nolan next to shit like miachel bay and james cameron for avatar alone
Since James Cameron made Terminator 1 & 2 and Aliens he is forgiven for Avatar.
I think they actually discussed that with the emails,with the difference wether the movie was actually clever of just more look at us being clever.But I think that's a common thing with Nolan movies.
@HuxleyWasRight thank you...a man with sense
@IceCreamSuit Not a particularly big criticism, I enjoyed the movie, I appreciate the effort and creativity that went into it and I think it deserves praise for daring to be unique as a major studio blockbuster but it's not the trailblazing masterpiece a decent number of people see it as.
I completely disagree with Kermode about the line, "Whose subconcious are we in now?". Ariadne is intelligent enough to realise what's going on and so the line was put in as a tool to let some of the slow viewers keep up. I'm not a fan of film tools which aren't part of the plot.
of course it's a study. just because it's not a novel doesn't mean it can't be an exploration of psychology. no people don't dream in levels but most people have had dreams of themselves dreaming. it's proven that people's minds work faster when dreaming. i love it, im sorry you dont because it's a great film.
Thank you!
In 10 years, this will be the consensus about this film.
I've never seen a film with so much superficial complexity. When the film is actually explained by a normal person, it is obvious how simple it actually is, but is just written with so much expositional dialog that people think it is deep and of course "mind blowing"
Damn straight.
Sometimes I think I died in my sleep awhile back and none of this is real, so I identified with Cobbs wife, although I am yet to jump off a building. I don't require an explanation of everything to enjoy the spectacle , the same way as I use a spoon without consideration.
Making the dreams as real as possible was not the glue that held it together as ppl think. The amazing thing about it was how the editing and the level of how it was presented to the audience. How I keep thinking almost 3 or 4 times I thought he was delievering the mcguffin, and it turn out that he hit you with another. I dont think any other movie has ever done that. The fact the dreams were so real even though nothing is connected to there heads is to funny not to say its a plot hole.
inception is a masterpiece. it's a study of human dreams and how we actually think. it's entertaining, thrilling, logical and complex, while being easy to follow, and multiple rewatches reveal more. the cathartic father-son realisation is one of the most powerful emotional moments in film. the character makes an emotional breakthrough, but it was in a dream and so was not real. but, in the same way that films aren't real, does this really matter? the emotions are real, and that's what matters.
On the outside yes it is not supremely complex. But things get very murky when you start analysing whether any of the things in Cobb's 'life' are real or in a dreamworld. The beginning and ending are the same, so we could be in entirely different dream layers and this 'job' performed by Cobb and his team could actually be an inception upon Cobb's mind.
I think it's a shame that some people just can't be pleased. They can't enjoy something that the general public enjoys... simply because they hate the idea of sharing an opinion with those they (perhaps wrongly) deem less intelligent than themselves. Even in cases like the works of Directors of Nolan and his ilk... clearly very fine works, but some people... some bloody people.
inception was great fun some people who didn't like it come off like their trying to pass off their opinion as fact thoguh
Watchert18 - Dreamscape (1984) is not a show - it's a film
@Feyd01 No, you're not alone. My opinion is not quite as low as yours but I don't think it's more than decent and certainly not the 'greatest thing since sliced bread' as everyone thinks. And the only thing about it that I find baffling is how many people are having trouble following what's going on. That and the fact that people think it's clever. At the end of the day it's just a big budget version of World Builder, which you'll find here on YT. And I have no doubt that so did Mr Nolan, too.
The more you argue, Feyd01, the more the issue looks like a failing of imagination on your part. Individual elements of Inception are nonsense, yes. There's a Discovery News article that goes through them, and they are many. All you have to do to enjoy the movie, though, is accept the central premise of the dream-connecting device. You don't even have to find it plausible, only logically consistent with the movie's internal logic, which it was.
@booster330 What would you say was a truly great film ?.
Great film - great review...
If I remember correctly, there was a peacock crowing in the background during that week's wittertainment whom listeners suggested sounded rather uncannily like Kermode's impersonations of certain people in the movie industry.
I propose that we christen the peacock Danny McGEEE.
@DannyBoy777 Completely and utterly agree with you there... even if someone doesnt like it, there is no way they can say it is a bad film, its a mainstream blockbuster that doesnt insult your intelligence. You are never going to have a mainstream film better and less insulting than Inception.
And now I hear that, although he did get producing (Best Film) and original screenplay nods, Christopher Nolan has NOT been nominated for Best Director for this year's Oscars. The Good Doctor is understandably baffled.
That basically summarizes my opinion of Nolan.
To the studios...Please nake your mainstream blockbusters like inception...Less of the shit based on toys and video games please :)
@BaronVonPenguin Well of course, Mr Penguin.
Well you could have easily anticipated this question, but okay, which part of the movie did you find dreamlike? The action sequence in the hotel? The action sequence with the van?
And I choose the snow shootout because it was the third level of dreaming (OR FOURTH?!?!?! OMG MIND BLOWING) so one would expect it to be the most "dreamy", but nope. Please see the anime Paprika to see how dreams should be done.
...u just cant please some ppl. Besides CN which director of late have distinguished themselves on such a consistently MASSIVE scale? Pleasing both the audience and critics alike. He must be doing something right. For ppl to comment that its all pretentious and daft and self important is essentially saying the VAST majority that came out liking this are gullible, monumental idiots who couldnt see through the facade. Sry, I refuse to believe that. If we're all idiots and the minority's depth of perception is so deep then they should be in charge of Hollywood and the world. Are they?
@Regenmacher175 It talked down by overexplaining everything sooo laboriously. It did indeed assume the audience was stupid. If you want to know why the director put the totem there, it is so the audience will wonder how the movie fit together, will question themselves so they will go see the movie again.
@natmanprime We sir are in agreement. I actually really liked Dark Knight the first time I watched it. But honestly, the second time I watched it I just didn't find it any where near as entertaining. And WTF was that sonar bat vision all about? It was just ridiculous.
I'm so glad so many more people have woken up to the averageness of this film. It's entertaining yes, is it a masterpiece? Not a chance. I still cannot understand why the likes of Kermode fell over themselves to gush about what an intelligent and original film this is - which it isn't of either. The plot is flawed, the acting is nothing special, I don't care about any of the characters. Watch the TV series 'Breaking Bad' if you want to see something intelligent and original.
LOL @ 1:04 to 1:13!! Yeah...Mark Kermode can be a great choice for Superman in JL movie ;D
@hanshotfirst1138 I would also question some of those as distinctive traits. The puzzle box narrative structure I think can only really be attributed to Memento and to a lesser extent Inception (which I found much less complex than people had claimed). Flashbacks are an extremely common narrative technique and his slightly sterile aesthetic was only truly realized in Inception