Inception

DVD, Inception (2010) film

Perhaps my expectations were too piqued for the film to live up to my imagination of what it would be like, but I didn't like the film as much as I was expecting to. I was thinking it would be akin to 'The Matrix,' but it was more complicated than that, with endless rules and less visual amazement, as if not fully taking command of the opportunity of the concept. I liked that it had a happy ending (or did it…?), with the team each waking up, and nobody dying, as I was sure someone was going to. That end moment on the plane was the only moment I really felt the feeling of a team and their success that was much better achieved in 'The Matrix' and some of the 'Mission: Impossible's, so although there were several actors I like in there, I didn't necessarily feel like they clicked that well together. Perhaps they could have done the whole story from Fisher's point of view, and he learns about the whole dream thing while inside, forgetting it by the time he gets to the real world, although this learning about reality would be very much closer to 'The Matrix' and Neo's awakening, even if the concept was inverted: that he had to go further into unreality, rather than escape it.

They must have been conscious of similarities of style and idea with 'The Matrix,' (I hear it was one of the influences on Christopher Nolan), and that may have been why it felt less flashy, especially shooting scenes - you could never accuse them of glorifying guns in this film, they're purely a tool here, which is for the best. The happy ending was slightly marred by the uncertainty of whether Cobb really was in the real world or not, as the spinning top is not seen to fall, though we cut away before it could have, leaving it ambiguous. Was it about to fall and we cut away too soon, or was it all a dream from beginning to end, Cobb never actually getting out of the limbo he and his wife found themselves in? I do kind of like the ambiguity because it gets you thinking, and reminds me, as so much of the ideas in this film do, of my favourite kinds of 'Star Trek': the nature of reality, and levels within levels (as well as 'BUGS,' which is where I first heard of the concept of not thinking of an elephant, though that was more about artificial intelligence). My biggest suggestion toward dream is that his children were still the same age he'd been seeing them throughout the film, and children grow fast, so this is presumably how he saw them when he left, so they should have been older, although we're not told exactly how long he's been in exile. But he could have been fooled by Mal, and she wasn't actually dead in that deep-level limbo, all an elaborate design to keep him within the confines of the dream, making him think he'd succeeded, and he was the only one never to come back on the plane. Or none of them succeeded in which case he'd never know anyway.

If it was that this version of Mal did have control, she'd have wanted to be there with him and the children, so it seems more likely it was own madness that would have stopped him returning to reality. It would make anyone mad trying to puzzle it all out, and I have to admit that I didn't entirely follow all the rules and context. This might explain why I had the impression it was all built on a house of cards that could never make sense. One big thing for me is that there was no sign of this being the future or of any other technological improvements that would be in line with a society that could enter into dreams and the mind in that way, but that's just a stylistic choice: you don't need to be in a futuristic world to have this stuff happen if you don't want to. But there was no explanation of how it was discovered (beyond being something created for the military), or what implications it had for society (beyond the opium den-style setup of all those people lying around in fake dreams because they preferred that to reality, another warning against getting lost in fantasy worlds of entertainment which can take control, just like Trek was so good at exploring). There are also things like seeing time move at different rates in different levels of the dream, but not necessarily corresponding with the established rules, though that can easily be explained away as just being what we see subjectively: we don't have to be seeing everything in realtime, just as we don't when in a normal film that takes place in only one reality.

It was clever having all these concepts, such as kicks, and the effects to pull off Joseph Gordon-Levitt packaging up the sleepers on one level and pushing them around the corridors like a floating tea trolley! Again, you can point to time not measuring up, as in that level, one below the ride in the van (which was itself one down from what we assume is reality, on the plane), if the van tips to one side the whole world's gravity is affected, but it should be much slower in that lower level, but isn't, though that's at the mercy of convention that says you don't adhere slavishly to your world's rules at the expense of story or action (the fight in shifting gravity corridor would have been less impressive if gravity had shifted almost imperceptibly!). That scene was one that got me interested from the trailer, as did the city folding over onto itself, always keeping the film in my mind as one high on my 'to see' list. But as I said, it didn't impress as much as expected, 'Interstellar' I got more from. Either it was the complication of the story, or the lack of a team dynamic quite being so strong, or that the concept had already permeated my mind, and I'd seen it done so many times before, and been impressed so often by Trek that this didn't do anything technically new, except for visuals and detailed rules for this world.

The house of cards thing extends to motivations: Saito, has enough power to erase Cobb's criminal record and conviction in the US with a single phone call, yet has to go to all this trouble to take a rival out of business! Surely there'd be a simpler way than planting an idea in a business rival's head, aside from it being very unethical, as it was known to be practically impossible! You can point to Fisher getting a more favourable impression of his Father, but it was a false one, so on the one hand they seem to be saying reality is more important than fantasy, but it could also be the opposite. Then again, they're saying all this in a vehicle of entertainment, so it's messages within messages however you look at it! There was also the motivation of Cobb to get back to his children - couldn't he have had someone take them to him? I never felt the pain he was supposed to have at being separated from them, he was a very secretive and in some ways, insular character, as shown by the fact he didn't tell his team the full risks of what he was proposing. And his wife was so mad that she was able to convince three psychologists she was certifiably sane, in order to leave a letter claiming he was trying to kill her so she could blackmail him into a suicide pact! It was very much a 'Holodeck with the safeties off' kind of story, with the revelation that what usually just wakes you up, will now kill you thanks to the sedative they had to take in order to go deep enough into the dream levels. It was also quite precarious, as in each level one person had to be left behind to initiate the kick, but if one in the chain was killed everyone would be trapped, wouldn't they? It does up the stakes, I'll grant them that.

I could also complain about the faceless threat they're up against. It was refreshing not to have an evil baddie at the bottom of it all, and no good guy versus bad guy fistfight at the end as is far too often the convention, but it was weak to have the inhabitants of the dream be aspects of the dreamer's mind that, like white blood cells would attack when they realised things weren't right, as they were faceless minions with no intelligence or maliciousness, acting from purely robotic reaction. I'd have liked Michael Caine to be in it more, and I think this was the first Leonardo DiCaprio film I've seen - although he was fine, I didn't feel he was the most charismatic of actors. And after seeing Tom Hardy and Marion Cotillard in the next film Nolan made, 'The Dark Knight Rises,' I thought they weren't as interesting here. Definitely worth a watch, and although most of the way through I was lacking in eagerness for the film and didn't think I'd have anything to say about it, afterwards it all comes leaking out, so it does leave an impression and give you pause for thought. It very much seems like the sort of thing you could make sequels to, so in a few years when Nolan's run out of ideas and nobody wants his new ideas any more maybe he'll return to this world again? One thing I'll give it: it does make you look forward to bedtime and exciting dreams.

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