Inception..Do you believe in one?

Friday, July 23, 2010






Last night I went to watch Inception. Finally I’ve watched Inception. I’ve been wanting to watch the movie ever since the premiere but didn’t make it. It’s somewhat I called as a peer pressure. You know everyone is talking about Inception and hell I didn’t watch it yet thus I couldn’t join the conversation. I didn’t even watch the trailer since I don’t want to know any spoiler.

The moment I stepped out of the cinema, this was what came to my mind. “Fuh, what a brilliant work by Chris Nolan” You know Chris Nolan, the one who wrote The Dark Knight, The Prestige, Batman Begins, Memento and many more (Duh..I couldn’t remember all of it).
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SPOILER ALERT : It may contains spoiler of Inception movie.

First of all, Leonardo Dicaprio did an awesome job with his acting. Again, he’s impressive. Though the last movie (Shutter Island) he did was a bit similar to this one, but this one is better. What I meant by similar, not similar storyline but the same concept where you should use your brain to think a bit more. This is not a laid-back typical chick flick movie. The movie itself isn’t so complicated but you just have to understand everything from the very beginning. There’s no time for you to go to the toilet. Hahah. Oh wait, I never like to go to the toilet while I’m in a middle of a movie. It kills my mood.

Basically the movie is just like any other classic con movie. They are the con-artist who need to confuse or fool their target. But this is another level of con-artist where they need to construct everything in a dream, a dream within a dream.

Inception is like putting an idea into someone’s mind and all that happen in a dream. When he wakes up, he’ll think of it as his own idea (only if the Inception is successful). In this Inception, you have The Extractor, The Forger, The Dream Architect, A Chemist, The Dream Manager, and The Target.

This is needed to be done in a dream and another dream in a dream. There are 3 levels of the dream if I’m not mistaken. It’s like there are deep, deeper and deepest dream. While in reality you have 10 hours but in dream you only have like a week (level 1), 6 months (level 2) and 10 years (level 3). The deepest level of the dream is called limbo.
When you reach there, it’s difficult for you to wake. In level 1 of the dream you can simply kill yourself in a dream to wake yourself in a reality. In other levels you can simply use sensation of the falling or called as ‘The Kick’.
But if you use good sedative in reality, you can’t simply kill yourself to wake because you’ll go to the limbo and trapped there. This is what happened to Saito and Fischer.
Both are in limbo since Mal is Cobb’s projection and Mal shot Fischer. Saito was shot too in level 1 of the dream. And Cobb was stabbed thus he went to the limbo as well.
In this movie, Leo D is Cobb, the extractor where he need to reveal the target’s deepest secret.

There’s the forger where in reality he’s good in forge things thus he can do that in a dream as well. He could become anyone known to the dreamer.

There’s the dream architect (Ellen Page) and the dream manager (Joseph Gordon Levitt), where she needs to design a maze or levels in the dream and the latter need to organize everything in a dream, like he needs to check the background of the target. They can manipulate real life architecture to create a paradox. But they have to make sure that the target will never find the end of the maze so that he’ll never know that he’s not in reality.

A chemist just needs to make a good sedative by which they’re not going to wake up unless the sedative itself wears off. For the dreamer, anyone can be the dreamer but the dreamer couldn’t go to the next level of the dream thus he’s going to stay awake when other people go to the next level of the dream.

A dreamer is some sort of house of the dream where the extractor needs to con the target.

To verify whether it’s a reality or not, they have to make a totem, which is a small piece of something (it could be anything like dice, brass top and etc) and you just have to spin it. If it continues spinning, then you’re not in reality.

For the ending of Inception, it was left ambiguous and Nolan wants us to think. There are so many debates of which saying the ending is in reality and some believe it’s still a dream.
Well you can’t say for certain because Nolan didn’t come out with any fix ending, the totem is still spinning and it’s slightly wobbling and we were left with blank screen. This is actually depends on how you interpret the whole story.

But I honestly think that Nolan wanted us to think that how Cobb has changed. You know he was obsessed to go back to reality or to go back to his children thus explaining how he went to do the Inception knowing it’s somehow complicated and also the spinning totem.

But in the end, he could care less about the totem, he spins it but he’s no longer interested to see whether the totem is still spinning or not because he has his own reality now, coming back to see his children. That’s more than enough for him even if he’s not in a ‘real world’.

But I also want to know whether the ending is real or not. I went googling and there are tons of theories. Trust me, try Google it out and you’ll know what I mean.
I believe the ending is real because he got to see his children faces, the totem is slightly wobbling->it could stop spinning even though we can’t say for certain that the totem is the way of verifying it’s reality or not.

According to what I’ve read, the kids may have look to be wearing the same clothes but they’re wearing different shoes. I’m not sure about that because I have to see it again to be able to confirm it. In credits, James and Phillipa were played by two different actors, James being 20 months and another one being 3 years old. While Phillipa is credited being 3 and 5 years old.
Meaning to say here, that Cobb has safely returned to reality where he meets his children again after years.

Overall I’m satisfied with how the movie itself makes you think and it’s explained in every detail of the story. It’s a must watch for those of you who like this kind of movie.

I’m definitely going to watch it again when DVD comes out.

P/s: I’ve watched Despicable Me in 3D. The 3D images weren’t that cool but the cartoon itself is funny and I effing love the kids. They are so cute I’m going to die. (They are so fluffffyyy I’m going to die) Remember this line? Hehehe.

Joseph Gordon Levitt does look like Heath Ledger..=]


2 response(s):

Anonymous said...

i want to see this movie, but i won't simply because of the whole dream thing. the last movie that i saw that dealt with dreams was nightmare on elm street. and that had me bugging for a month. i can't bring myself to watch a movie that is similar - even if the only thing they have in common is the dreaming!

http://justmycrazyboringlife.blogspot.com/

whibley said...

heheh..yeah..I respect that..
but you should give it a try. maybe not in cinema, but watch it when dvd comes out. =]