Inception - Thumbs Up or Down?

[jonesy]

The train on the streets was real. I don't know if it was a real train, that's a different issue, but:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwOOhT6BNFk]YouTube - inception filming - train in downtown los angeles[/ame]

The 'introduction to the dream' sequence explosion was at least partially real:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJn5UzHMtaw&feature=related]YouTube - Explosions on Inception's Paris Filming Set[/ame]

And this featurette has clips of the hotel set:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=685R2P6j26E&feature=channel]YouTube - INCEPTION B-Roll (Behind the Scenes Footage)[/ame]

Not really spoilers, since they all appear in the trailers.

 

[Joker]

I like that Nolan uses the bare minimum amount of CGI. It's a great deal less jarring than a Michael Bay flick for instance.

Hell, if MB had done it not only would the train have been CGI, but all the cars would have exploded, the buildings would have blown up and marines would have entered the dream world and blown up everything left standing.

 

[John Crichton]

It's a great deal less jarring than a Michael Bay flick for instance.

If Nolan had Bay's flair and eye for action he'd be the perfect director!

As it stands now Nolan's only shortcoming are his action scenes which have always been a weakness by comparison to his other skills.

 

[Krug]

If Nolan had Bay's flair and eye for action he'd be the perfect director!

As it stands now Nolan's only shortcoming are his action scenes which have always been a weakness by comparison to his other skills.

Michael Bay action scenes? You might as well sit in a blender.

Maybe because the characters are so utterly boring, I can't get into them.

 

[John Crichton]

Michael Bay action scenes? You might as well sit in a blender.

Maybe because the characters are so utterly boring, I can't get into them.

Don't think just Transformers. Like his flicks or not, the man knows how to do action and make it entertaining.

EDIT: It's also worth noting that Nolan's fight scenes are always littered with the terrible shaky cam effect.

 

[RangerWickett]

EDIT: It's also worth noting that Nolan's fight scenes are always littered with the terrible shaky cam effect.

Yeah. After Dark Knight, it really surprised me how smoothly-shot the gravity hallway battle was. Actually, all the action scenes in Inception were excellent in my opinion.

 

[Deset Gled]

Yeah. After Dark Knight, it really surprised me how smoothly-shot the gravity hallway battle was. Actually, all the action scenes in Inception were excellent in my opinion.

I found the action sequences in the snow fortress to be very jumpy. Too many quick cuts between too many poorly established locations made it kind of disorienting. In general, though, you are correct that the action scenes were a step up from Dark Knight.

For an unrelated topic, I couldn't help but notice that Ariadne's totem seemed like a Chekhov's gun that never went off. I understand that explaining the totem to her was a necessary exposition, but after they included the scene of her milling the chess piece I really expected it to come back on screen at some point.

 

[jonesy]

For an unrelated topic, I couldn't help but notice that Ariadne's totem seemed like a Chekhov's gun that never went off. I understand that explaining the totem to her was a necessary exposition, but after they included the scene of her milling the chess piece I really expected it to come back on screen at some point.

On tvtropes they call that Fauxshadow. The act of creating a scene which is an in-your-face foreshadowing, which never leads to anything.

I figure the explanation was the point,

Spoiler

and that it was actually pointing at Cobb's totem, not Ariadne's, and we only find that at the end.

 

[John Crichton]

Yeah. After Dark Knight, it really surprised me how smoothly-shot the gravity hallway battle was. Actually, all the action scenes in Inception were excellent in my opinion.

It had to be steady with the confined environment. Hardy to mess up just panning the camera while too guys are wrasslin'.

For an unrelated topic, I couldn't help but notice that Ariadne's totem seemed like a Chekhov's gun that never went off. I understand that explaining the totem to her was a necessary exposition, but after they included the scene of her milling the chess piece I really expected it to come back on screen at some point.

I took it more as an establishing scene that we were in the real world. She tips it over at the end and gravity works properly.

 

[Mark CMG]

Here's an interesting article including some stuff of the totems -

Playfully Deconstructing Inception