Comments on: How Science Fiction Failed Us Goes To The Movies – Inception (2010)

By: Nielle McCammon

Nielle McCammon — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:22:15 +0000

I wouldn’t classify this movie as sci-fi at all… more like psychological thriller. But I agree with your assessment completely. I think the movie did well enough at the box office and left so many questions unanswered that there could be a sequel (which I would like to see). I’m NOT a big Leo fan either but I really liked him and feel like he’s finally maturing a bit as an actor.
I also wanted to know more how the dream devices and states worked… but I LOVE movies that make you think as opposed to most of the drivel that comes out – this was a welcome change.

By: Lesley of GEEKSOAP

Lesley of GEEKSOAP — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:44:02 +0000

Great read, PD! We went to see it opening night, and I also had “a feeling when I left the theater that I had things to talk about.”

That’s EXACTLY what we said! We talked excitedly about it all the way home, and randomly thoughts would come to us long afterwards, and we’d start whole discussions all over again trying to put pieces together and questioning what we thought we’d figured out. It became obvious that we just HAD to see the move a second time. Not when it came out on DvD, but… now.

We went to see it a second time, a week later, and I’m SO glad we did. While I felt like by the end of the first viewing that I had “gotten it” and understood the process and what was real and what wasn’t (which is always still fun to question), the second time around was so much more amazing. I really felt the emotional connections between characters that time around. Because I already understood some things about inception and whatnot, I could really focus more on characters, and I found myself getting even close to tears in some emotional parts that I didn’t feel the first time around – probably because I was spending too much time trying to sort things out during the first viewing instead of having a relationship with the characters.

I definitely recommend seeing it a second time. When we left the theatre the second time, we were just as much exited to talk about it, if not more so!

Well done all around – the movie and this article

By: Kristen McHugh

Kristen McHugh — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:42:04 +0000

Nicely framed. I wasn’t as into Dreamscape as I was Brainstorm, (Idk why.) I’ve always been interested in both the psychology and process of dreams. Given that scientists are talking about memory erasure, (a la Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, although probably not as cool,) dream manipulation is probably not out of the realm of possibility. I’m not sure how I feel about the potential for tampering with our minds, but I’m sure it’ll happen eventually, anyway.
btw, I know how you feel about DiCaprio. Truthfully, he’s gotten to a point and age, where he is pretty believable. Oh, and the accent, in Shutter Island – Boston, not New York. And, you would like the movie, a lot.

By: shadowmaat

shadowmaat — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:47:58 +0000

I think that’s why I liked the early (middle?) parts of the movie better: the messing around with dream architecture/physics was more interesting to me than the realism of most of the other stuff we saw. I was also iffy on the extreme detail of everything. I know that was supposed to be part of what was so impressive about what they were doing but I always figured details faded the farther you got from the source.

I read a book once that had some scenes taking place in a dream. One of the characters explained to another about how your brain will “fill in the blanks” with what it remembers. You’re dreaming of a cafe you went to in Paris, but the tablecloth is the one from Granny’s house and the people sitting around you are people from your daily life or the same couple of people repeated over and over; details are blurry until/unless you concentrate on them. And my own dreams can be frustratingly vague about some things even when I’m concentrating on them. Or ESPECIALLY when I’m concentrating on them. LOL!

Good movie, but more surrealism and confusing would have been more fun.