I enjoyed watching The Dark Knight more than I enjoyed Inception. There. I said it. The Dark Knight was just more emotionally engaging than Inception. I remember actually feeling for the characters of Gotham. It felt like you were in the middle of the crisis itself and was helplessly seeing everything unfold before your eyes. You actually feel relief when Batman comes to save the day and you honestly fear for the people of Gotham. In my opinion, being able to relate to the characters is something you want when you watch a movie. If a movie succeeds in doing that, then it has done it’s job. Inception’s approach is quite different. It’s much more cerebral by leaps and bounds. It’s probably one of the most mentally engaging movies you’ll ever get to see in the cinemas. But as the case for things like this, it tends to lose its luster once you overthink and overanalyze things. But I think that’s the whole point. It’s a mental exercise. It introduces new ideas and succeeds in making you think and question certain concepts. I actually have a whole list of questions and inconsistencies about the movie. It’s like a shot on the arm because that’s not really something you can say for most movies that Hollywood spews out. (I’m looking at you, Twilight) When we came out of the cinema, I think we actually spent close to 30 minutes just standing there talking about what we just saw. When a movie makes you do that, then you know you’ve seen something special. This movie would have been a disaster in the hands of a less adept director. The thing I admire most about Christopher Nolan movies is the quality of the storytelling. In the movie Memento, the main character was investigating the murder of his wife. Sounds simple enough, right? The only problem is the guy is suffering from short-term memory loss. To further spice things up, the whole story was told in reverse. You have to have tremendous skill as a director in order to successfully tell that story. And he was able to do that. But with Inception, Christopher Nolan has cemented his place among the best storytellers of our time. When you watch the movie, you might get that feeling that you’ve seen this before from films such as Vanilla Sky or The Matrix. But really, you haven’t. It’s actually as original as it gets. You have to hand it to Leonardo DiCaprio as well. We’ve all seen what he can do as an actor, we know he’s good. But the guy really knows how to pick his projects. I was watching Catch Me If You Can again the other day and I realized that Leo hasn’t made a crappy movie since Titanic. That was more than 10 years ago. Not too shabby, right? (On the other hand, Vin Diesel hasn’t made a good movie within that same time frame. Did you see The Pacifier? That’s right, you didn’t) All in all, I think Inception is a good movie that borders on being great. Maybe in a few days or after a second viewing the movie will grow on me. It’s not unlikely. I can’t guarantee that you’ll like it. It’s not for everyone, really. All I can say is that it’s something you should see. If only to avoid being left out when people start to talk about it in the days to come. And believe me, they will.

I enjoyed watching The Dark Knight more than I enjoyed Inception. There. I said it. The Dark Knight was just more emotionally engaging than Inception. I remember actually feeling for the characters of Gotham. It felt like you were in the middle of the crisis itself and was helplessly seeing everything unfold before your eyes. You actually feel relief when Batman comes to save the day and you honestly fear for the people of Gotham. In my opinion, being able to relate to the characters is something you want when you watch a movie. If a movie succeeds in doing that, then it has done it’s job.

Inception’s approach is quite different. It’s much more cerebral by leaps and bounds. It’s probably one of the most mentally engaging movies you’ll ever get to see in the cinemas. But as the case for things like this, it tends to lose its luster once you overthink and overanalyze things. But I think that’s the whole point. It’s a mental exercise. It introduces new ideas and succeeds in making you think and question certain concepts. I actually have a whole list of questions and inconsistencies about the movie. It’s like a shot on the arm because that’s not really something you can say for most movies that Hollywood spews out. (I’m looking at you, Twilight) When we came out of the cinema, I think we actually spent close to 30 minutes just standing there talking about what we just saw. When a movie makes you do that, then you know you’ve seen something special.

This movie would have been a disaster in the hands of a less adept director. The thing I admire most about Christopher Nolan movies is the quality of the storytelling. In the movie Memento, the main character was investigating the murder of his wife. Sounds simple enough, right? The only problem is the guy is suffering from short-term memory loss. To further spice things up, the whole story was told in reverse. You have to have tremendous skill as a director in order to successfully tell that story. And he was able to do that. But with Inception, Christopher Nolan has cemented his place among the best storytellers of our time. When you watch the movie, you might get that feeling that you’ve seen this before from films such as Vanilla Sky or The Matrix. But really, you haven’t. It’s actually as original as it gets.

You have to hand it to Leonardo DiCaprio as well. We’ve all seen what he can do as an actor, we know he’s good. But the guy really knows how to pick his projects. I was watching Catch Me If You Can again the other day and I realized that Leo hasn’t made a crappy movie since Titanic. That was more than 10 years ago. Not too shabby, right? (On the other hand, Vin Diesel hasn’t made a good movie within that same time frame. Did you see The Pacifier? That’s right, you didn’t)

All in all, I think Inception is a good movie that borders on being great. Maybe in a few days or after a second viewing the movie will grow on me. It’s not unlikely. I can’t guarantee that you’ll like it. It’s not for everyone, really. All I can say is that it’s something you should see. If only to avoid being left out when people start to talk about it in the days to come. And believe me, they will.

Notes

  1. reypinmoko posted this