Inception

Its called Symbolism, look it up

Now, if your at all into movies, you must be aware that this summer, pretty much nothing out, and most of what has come out is utter trash, a seemingly endless list of generic cooperate made films. Yet, one film stood out above them all, this supposed masterpiece “Inception”, made by the director of “Dark Knight” and compared again and again to the Matrix, this film basically was hailed as a cinematic masterpiece, standing out among an endless line of drivel. So of course, I was very hesitant to go watch it, because as a rule when a 3-hour film is touted as the “a brilliantly clever mindscrew” its really nothing more than an overhyped mediocrity. So I was finally convinced to see it and the film instead proved to be a very good looking overhyped mediocrity. Inception is about some time in the future were people can enter other people’s dreams, their they can extract information, or in the case of the film, insert information. A Japanese company is hiring Dicapio to insert an idea into the mind of a cooperate heir, an idea that will ruin his company. The story then tracks the characters adventures into the realm of dreams. OF course there are all of these elaborate rules for dreams that are twisted and exploited by the characters over the course of the film and lots of special effects, but while the film isn’t bad, its just boring. While I didn’t hate it, while watching I just didn’t really feel anything, it just didn’t make a difference to me, I didn’t care, nothing in the film made me invest myself. Spoilers from this point out, because honestly, nothing here has enough emotional impact to really made one way of difference. Throughout Inception, there is always stuff happening, almost every single shot has people moving, people talking, people running, people fighting ect, and yet I’m never able to really make any emotional connections to any of the events, so its really just watching stuff happen. For example, this one college student is needed to be the “dream architect” who can alter the dream world they are in, and is used throughout the film to avoid obstacles they encounter in the dreams. However, for all intents and purposes, this college girl isn’t a character so much as a prop, she exists for the other characters to explain things to her and to help them get out of tricky situations, lacking anything beyond the skeleton of a personality. At no point does she seem really bothered by leaving her school life to go do this beyond some “oh dear” expressions ever so often, she doesn’t really explain how her school experience plays into her ability to shape dreams and we have no real understanding of her likes and dislikes. She basically does what the plot needs her to do, people explain to her how the dreams work and surprise, we know how the dreams work. She gets really into Leonardo DiCaprio’s personal demons, but it doesn’t really explain why, she claims its because she cares about the mission, but if that’s the case why hasn’t anybody else gotten fascinated with his mental problems, people who know him better or know the dangers of dream traveling better. A well written story might have her and DiCaprio have some sort of personal connection, maybe both of them are thrill seekers who can’t really functional properly socially in the “Normal world” and so strive to be in dreams out of some sort of ego trip, maybe they just have really good chemistry through a similar sense of humor, maybe she has a crush on him. Instead through, she just seems interested because the plot needs to her to be, she isn’t so much a character as much as a character prototype, something that might be made in a script room to be fleshed out later. For example, the ethnically mixed assistant’s personal dream token is a loaded dice. Why, what does that symbolize? Is he afraid of letting things get out of his personal control, is he an untrustworthy person, or is he just a gambler? Why a dice? The College girl made her own, a golden chess bishop…why a bishop? I mean, a pawn I could understand somewhat, or even a queen, but why a bishop? Why even a chess piece in the first place, what importance does that hold? DiCaprio’s token was his wedding ring, which is important because the character’s marriage is the most meaningful thing to him, ergo why the wedding ring only appears when he is in a dream. His new token, his wife’s top is important because of his emotional connection to his wife, and his inability to move on. And yet, none of the other characters have these sorts of characterizations. What is the deal with the Middle Eastern drug maker btw, he has a few comical lines, he does some important plot points, and spends the entire rest of the movie driving around in a slow motion scene. The shapeshifter…I don’t even remember his character, who was he? Also there is a scene when dice man and the college girl briefly kiss when guards are looking for them, the girl ask “Was that to suppose to hide us” and the other guy responses “no, I just thought it was worth a shot.” Looking aside the creepiness in age differences, that actually would be a pretty funny romance scene, but instead both characters look totally disinterested, and almost bored, so it doesn’t mean anything to me. Hell, most of the movie is in the dream of Fisher Jr, the rich businessman who’s mind they are screwing with, and yet we know very little about him apart from generic daddy issues. Its his bloody subconscious, it should reveal more about him, instead he is just another plot point to be dragged from location to location. The only character who is really interesting is Saito, the Japanese businessman who is hiring DiCapio andthats because he is morally ambiguous, he is a very good reason to be treacherous, we know he is a ruthless businessman and always seems to be one step ahead of the main characters. Will he keep his end of the deal or will he betray the characters, does he have an hidden motive for going into the dreams, what is his eventual plan? Oh wait, doesn’t matter cause he gets shot the moment we enter the dreams and he just hangs around dying for the rest of the scene. Even DiCapio, the only developed character, doesn’t really mean anything to me, because the character is defined by his relationship with his wife, and that doesn’t mean anything to me, its just another plot point to motivate the characters rather than a true relationship, we don’t really see them interact except when it is needed to move the plot along, the only time it was interesting was when his subconscious manifestation of his love interest was trying to kill him in Saito’s dream.

Now lets give Inception credit here, there is a lot of things it does right, things that I wish almost every other movie would do as well. The editing is great, pay attention to the details of the characters clothes, DiCaprio’s clothes are always the same when he is in a dream but different when he isn’t in one, his kid’s clothes are always the same in a flashback but suddenly different in the last scene, their isn’t a single transition scene in the entire film, IE we never actually see how characters get to new locations until the very end, thus presenting the possibility that the entire realty is a dream. It even plays with some of the Hollywood clichés, like how inept the dream guards are, because of the nature of the dream and various action movie clichés are shown to be possible only because they are in a dream. And yet, again I don’t care. I really just don’t care, because they have no emotional connection. A friend of mine commented of my habit of making sexual comparisons in my reviews, so here is my obligatory metaphor, its like making out with a really good looking girl who you get along with, but don’t know very well, it’s a nice sensation but lacks any feeling beyond that, its just that a sensation. Or to be more professional, this movie is more about the idea rather than any real emotional resonance.

Now I’ve been playing a lot of Silent Hill 2 lately, and I was noting the similarities between the two, both are about characters trapped in a world that is a physical manifestation of their own subconscious, both have dead wives with a deep dark terrible secret behind their death (I refuse to spoiler Silent Hill), both protagonists are emotionally scarred men who seem fairly normal at first glance, but seem to have an unconscious death wish, and both “dream worlds” contain a violent manifestation of self loathing who breaks into otherwise normal situations and terrifies the main characters. And yet Silent hill is far less about the spectacle and really more about the emotional turmoil of the characters, the town alters itself to reflect the protagonists torment, the monsters are very feminine and almost erotically dance as they try to kill him, large holes are always appearing in the ground that he jumps into, he is always in small dark claustrophobic environments where the only way out seems to involve hurting himself in some manner. In contrast, Inception’s world, despite its elaborate set up, seems strangely scientific, not drawing from Freud but instead Jungian, but its weirdly detached from emotions, the characters coldly explain how dreams work and so dreams aren’t subconscious so much as just a series of action locations. I mean, considering these are dreams, wouldn’t they be more you know…icky, more awkward, less clean. In Silent Hill, the main locations include a darkly haunted hospital, a hotel and a historical society, all of which have emotional significance to the protagonist, while in inception we have a hotel, and a winter fortress, what do those symbolize? What deeper meaning do those have, they are just locations for an action scene, their isn’t any emotional connection there. Inception is just too clean, not gritty enough, the dreams are strangely logical and orderly, like the character it doesn’t have any spirit, just acts as a set up for the plot, while Silent Hill is instead is focused more upon the feeling of being totally alone, in an world that seems both out to get you and yet strangely neglecting you. Even for people who haven’t suffered lost their wife, it strikes home because its really about something we all understand, isolation, being misunderstood, and trapped, without any comfort to turn to. Now maybe this is because I have a crippling fear of isolation and abandonment, but honestly Inception didn’t touch anything about me, it was just me sitting watching a film.

Even comparing this scene to the Matrix, the matrix actually has more emotional resonance, despite being a somewhat overrated film. Firstly, we see the real world before the film starts, we get to see Nero’s life as an office drone and therefore sympathize with him before the film really sets in. Secondly, we have something to attach ourselves too. While Reeves is somewhat dull, Lawrence Fishburne is a great actor, and so we care about him when he gets kidnapped. Hugo Weaving is a great actor, but he isn’t just a robot like the other agents, his has some personality, some personal hostility towards the characters. This makes his confrontation with Nero more important, it has more feeling too it. Even with the fight scenes, the fight scenes in the Matrix are about the characters, Nero running away from the agents from building to building is all about the hostile environment and a thoroughly fruitless attempt to escape from the world itself, the fight in the lobby shows Nero’s acceptance of his own powers. The fight scenes in Inceptions are just…guys with guns shooting at other guys with guns, there is a time tension, but because I don’t care if these characters live or die, its somewhat undermined. For that matter, why are dream security inept special agents? Wouldn’t it be much better to have something more supernatural, you know, the actual environment shifting to try to harm the characters opposed to something so mundane as secret agents? Really, can’t do anything better there?

Inception isn’t bad, it has a lot of thought into it, and if your use to watching nothing but mainstream films this must seem like the a Warner Herzog film in terms of quality, but that’s its only real strong point is that it stands out from mainstream films. If you are comparing this to “The Dark Knight” and “Avatar”, then yeah Inception looks really good, unlike Avatar it doesn’t feel like it was made by a soulless team of businessmen hoping to make as much money as possible, but it also feels very amateurish, lacking in real depth or complexity. I mean, as a RPG player, I noticed that PLanescape and White Wolf, even D&D handled dreaming with far more subtly and consistency than this, to the point where I feel like Inception might have ripped it off. Its really just a nifty idea without anything behind it, and while it deserves praise for trying something new, it lacks resonance or really anything to justify being three bloody hours long.

From

EE