My mind is in constant conflict with itself, and I'm looking to explore (and likely exploit) this battle raging inside me in new episodic installments on my blog that I have named "Jekyll Vs. Hyde."
Just last week, I saw the movie Inception, which has been received favorably, to say the least. While I definitely enjoyed the movie, the enormous amount of people who are calling it a "classic," "unforgettable," "the best movie in the last 20 years," and even "one of the best movies ever" caused me to ask myself just how good I thought the movie really was.
Since I have been classically trained in Geek, before you read any further, I must warn you in pirate voice: AAARRGGHH! THAR BE SPOILERS AHEAD!
Hyde: I know I'm going to sound like one of those hipsters that starts hating on their favorite band once they became popular, but the first problem with Inception is the reaction to it. Just because the last two movies you saw were Avatar and Iron Man 2, both of which require not much more than a 2nd grade intelligence to understand, doesn't mean Inception is the only movie to ever have a complex and thought-provoking plot.
This same thing happened a few years ago when V for Vendetta came out. All my friends thought it was so brilliant and smart, because the movie told them it was. The problem is, most people don't usually go to movies to think. Most people are passive at a movie, letting the spectacle and image dazzle them. So when a movie tells you to think, you finally do, and the film seems like the smartest thing ever written. Inception is not the be-all end-all of intellectual and philosophical movies, it just happened to act like it was.
Don't get me wrong, Inception was pretty thrilling and suspenseful and it definitely was thought-provoking. But, to say the movie was a "mind-fuck" is absolutely ridiculous. Really? Inception blew your mind more than The Matrix? Why? Because Inception failed to explain any of its mind-blowing elements so it could pile them on, layer after layer (literally), while The Matrix actually provided reason and credibility to the world it created? Look, The Matrix is a better movie than Inception, The Illusionist was better than The Prestige, and Spider-Man 3 was better than The Dark Knight. Okay, so I might be exaggerating on the last one.
Seriously, Inception wasn't mind-blowing, it just "tried" to mindfuck you, and you fell for it. Half of the movie's suspense and tension came from the fact that for most of the movie, you were trying to wrap your head around what was actually going on. And don't lie and act like you "got it" the whole time. Inception is intentionally written to need to be seen more than once to fully understand it, so if you're just thinking I wasn't smart enough to "get it" the first time, then you sir or madam, are a poseur.
The biggest trick was this whole multiple layers of dreams bullshit. I think Shakespeare said it best when he said, "a dream by any other name..." Honestly, a dream is a dream is a dream. Dreaming in a dream, is still just the one, single, same dream. A dream, by its definition is, "a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions, passing through the mind during sleep." In this case, a dream is a state. Only when you leave the state of being awake to being asleep does one enter into the dream state. So, you can't logically leave the dream state and enter the dream state. It's illogical. Once you are dreaming, that's it. You can't dream again, because you're already doing that. It doesn't matter how many dreams are in a dream, it's still just one, single dream. Besides, these dream layers that are deeper in the sub-conscious aren't even scientifically real anyway, so you can't argue that another layer of a dream is a different dream.
This movie was the brain equivalent of a Michael Bay movie. Transformers 2 was simply eye candy with no substance. Inception was brain candy, but with no actual logic. I mean, how did Cobb and Arthur have cognition of being in a dream but the dreamer doesn't? Aren't they dreaming too? What allows them to be so aware? How are they able to get into somebody's dream? Oh, I know! That machine! Then answer this smart guy, how does that machine they hook up to even work? Unexplained, of course. I guess that machine let's them project themselves into somebody else's dream, while they themselves dream. See, it sounds so mind-blowing, but it makes absolutely no sense. And what was the point of Ellen Page's character? Yeah, she had to design the dreamscapes and in a complicated enough way that the dreamer's projections didn't realize it was a dream, but how was she able to get the dreamer himself to dream those creations? Lemme guess...that machine? Seriously, ask yourself how you think the architect was able implant the whole landscape into another person's head.
If they were in Fischer's (Cillian Murphy) dream, then how come when they went down to his sub-conscious level it became filled with Cobb's dreams? There are so many logical flaws in Inception, but instead of seeming ridiculous, it seems brilliant by cleverly hiding from all its gaps and inconsistencies.
They don't tell us how long, in real-time that Cobb has been away from home, so when he finally does get home in the end of the movie it gives credence to the fact that his kids have not seemed to age at all. I don't know, maybe it was actually Cobb's dream the whole time. An above average, but incredibly overrated dream.
Jekyll: But, if it was a dream the whole time as you're starting to think, doesn't that actually make it good, no, brilliant? I mean, like the film itself pointed out, dreams are rarely logical. Things always go unexplained in dreams and yet, you always accept them.
So of course we don't know how Cobb and Arthur are able to get into someone's dreams, fully aware that they themselves are dreaming. And of course we don't know how the machine works or how the architect gets the settings into the dreamer's head.
Did you notice how the film started? With Cobb washed up on the beach. It started right in the middle of something, without knowing how he got there...just like a dream. And how about at the end when that same scene plays again...recurring dream?
Did you ever think that Inception is like that video game you like so much Bioshock? A commentary on the form of media that it is. If Inception is a commentary on film/movies then it is absolutely brilliant. Movies are just like the dreams in the movie itself. Someone else is completely controlling what you see. Yet, when you see a movie, you somehow stay oblivious to that fact and still feel like you have free will. In reality, it's completely the opposite. You only see what they want you to see and for some reason you accept that. No matter what they show you in a movie, or how ridiculous it is, you believe it. You believe it is really happening, even though none of it is "real." The film Inception was like that, the dreams in Inception were like that, and movies in general are like that.
You act like Inception was only about dreams though, completely neglecting the main plot of the movie. Ask yourself, what was the movie's story? It wasn't let's just jump in dreams, take information out, and put ideas in. That wouldn't make a very good story.
Inception borrowed its theme from The Odyssey. It's about a homecoming. Isn't that the primary plot of the film. Cobb trying to get back home; to return to his family? And like Odysseus, his journey home is one of unbelievable encounters and amazing trials and tribulations. Face it, just because other people think Inception is awesome only because they were confused and had no idea what was going on, you still think it is brilliant for the commentary it provides and the themes it touches on.
Hyde: Alright. I'll admit that Inception was a very good, very smart, very brilliant movie. But can we agree that it is not the greatest movie of the last 20 years? I mean, Gladiator, Magnolia, The Departed, Saving Private Ryan, American Beauty, Schindler's List, Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting...
Jekyll: Okay. Okay. Agreed.
And here's something just as brilliant.
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