Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Inception- Media Blog Post 4

Introduction- Inception- is this a real thing or just some made up concept that no one really understands? We chose this movie because 1) Andrea had never seen it, 2) it is Tyler's favorite movie, 3) everyone is interested in dreams, the mind, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Describe- The movie Inception featuring Leonardo DiCaprio is more of a modern aged story about the ability to enter dreams and basically "live" in them. If you die in the dream you simply wake up from it. The ability to enter these dreams has started several different agencies and several different methods to actually alter what someone is thinking by entering their dream(Inception). The concept is fairly difficult to understand but after watching the whole movie through you gain more understanding of the concept and the movie itself. Leonardo DiCaprio has been in several movies such as Shutter Island, The Beach, Romeo and Juliet, and Titanic but the movie Inception I believe is the best he has done simply because it seems like this really took Leo out of his comfort zone into a new concept for a movie that is different than anything he has ever done.
The director of the movie is well known for his reboot of the Batman movies. Christopher Nolan has been pretty popular in the movie industry since he directed the movies Batman Begins and the Dark Knight and I feel like his take on the Batman movies was far more well directed than the Batman movies of the 90s and this makes me like the concept that he directed the movie Inception. I feel as if he does more "dark" based movies that seem realistic on a basis that makes you feel like your apart of the movie and that is why I loved the movie so much. According to the Internet Movie Data Base (IMBD) it states that Nolan is the director and writer of Both the Batman movies, Inception and the latest Batman Movie "The Dark Knight Rises" coming in 2012. He also directed the movie Prestige featuring Hugh Jackman which was also a hit at the box office. All in all Nolan is a genius with his work and being a fairly new director he could become much more famous in the upcoming years.



Analyze- The movie Inception is actually very difficult to analyze because the concept of the movie is so different than anything the director has done before. The movie itself is very difficult to place in once certain genre because the idea of the movie is unique and never has been incorporated into anything before. Christopher Nolan directed both the recent Batman movies and in those movies I sensed that he was taking Batman more into a dark setting, like he was intentionally supposed to be in the comics and made it seem more like the original series. The movies he directed and wrote made so much money because he used the concept and ideas to his advantage and made brilliant work with what he had. Inception, on the other hand, was a big guess to see how well the idea and concept would be on the big screen. Nolan did an amazing job at making the idea of "entering dreams" on the big screen. The genre I assume would be action/suspense and its far different than most movies of that genre. Most movies that are said to be "suspenseful" use action, big guns and strong guys beating the crud out of each other. Inception does too, but ti also uses aspects of the mind, the unknown, our subconscious and the fear of insanity or loss of reality to make it truly unique in its genre. Both movies have a dark tone but they use completely different stories and concepts. Like I stated before, it has a unique style about it that you can't compare with any movie like it and that's why I believe it was such a hit in the box office and in movie sales.

Interpretation- This movie is impressive. It hits many points and debates that are in our culture today and certainly will be tomorrow. This movie suggests that we may be taking science too far- being able to enter people's dreams and alter their lives. It also suggests the power of psychology- we've always known that it is possible to use the art of understanding people's minds for destructive purposes, but now we're understanding just how to do that. How far is too far? I think that is a question this movie wishes to answer. Should we be able to probe people minds? Should we be able to extract information without them being willing? Is it moral to plant an idea in their mind that they believe is their own? I think these are questions that we've been asking for many years and this movies seeks to show us just how destructive it could be for us to take things farther than we've tried. It has always been a trend in our culture to advance in medicine, science and the psychological world. It has always been a trend to ask ourselves "should we do this?".
I think the intended audience was everyone. The general public needs to be aware of things that may happen in the future, they need to be able to make a decision on what is right and wrong, and they need to understand just how complex our world may turn out to be one day. Scientists, doctors, and psychologists need to see the possibilities their advancements could create. Even if this seems to be and extreme scenario, something like this is very possible and very dangerous. This movie was meant to be seen by all.
The stereotypes I think I could pull out of this movie are "the guilty husband", "the scientist who pushes too far", "the corrupt businessman", and "the nerdy girl who saves the day". They try not to make the stereotypes too obvious, but if you look close enough you can see that they are there as they are with every movie that contains a science-fiction aspect. As far as I saw there were no offensive messages. I'm a psychology major and this movie made me see all the dangers there could be if we advance further into the mind than we already have. It makes me cautious of what I truly want to discover someday.

Evaluation-When I first watched this movie I saw it in theaters and I wasn't all that interested in it but after watching it I instantly loved it. The plot, the characters, the setting, the story. All of it I just loved. I saw it multiple times in theaters and every time I watched it I got something new out of it or noticed something I didn't see the other times. When it came out on DVD I instantly purchased it and watched it the same evening.
Christopher Nolan did a fantastic job at picking the right characters and the right story plot and thats what I loved the most. I believe this is his best work in my opinion, but the movie The Dark Knight was pretty fantastic as well. Both of those movies have a great reviewer score of 8.5 or so out of 10 and that is pretty well for a movie. Inception was considered a hit blockbuster and did not let down the box office and it certainly didn't let me down one bit. Christopher Nolan hasn't really given us enough to "set standards yet" but the movies he has produced have all been award winners so any movie he directs in the future will have some high standards to follow.
Some strengths of the movie were certainly the cast of characters and the role they played. Leonardo DiCaprio played the mysterious character Cobb and I think he did a great job at portraying someone mysterious and different from his usual characters he plays. Also the story was intriguing from the start to the end and it kept you thinking and that is something that every movie should contain. Some weaknesses was the confusion that alot of people have throughout the movie. The movie was very confusing but if you catch on quick enough it makes more sense in the end and that didn't go over well with some people who couldn't understand it.
I would say yes to Inception being a memorable movie just because the story was so different. People will be talking and thinking about it for years. Some other reasons are because the story itself made us think and in the end alot was not answered so there could be a second one. People will have to see it because the first one left them with so little that they need to know and that was a good concept on Nolan's part.

Engage- After watching this I am even more convinced that Leonardo DiCaprio is a fantastically versatile actor. It has nothing to do with his stunning good looks- he makes fantastic movies and after watching Inception (and Shutter Island) I really look forward to watching more movies he acts in. I'll be sure to queue him up in my Netflix.
As for Nolan, I'm really not interested in his previous works. If he comes out with more movies like Inception I'd be more than happy to watch them. But I have never been a fan of Batman and I'm sure I won't be now just because I know who the director is.
My roommate only watched about half of the movie with me so I'm not sure what she thought. She probably doesn't know what happened. The only person I've ever heard talk about it is Tyler and I know he loves it.
I would certainly watch this movie again. I love movies where you have to use your mind or that have some psychological aspect to them. This movie, although hard to focus on and follow at first, was incredibly interesting and made me think of the mind in a different way.

Conclusion- All in all this movie was extraordinarily brilliant and should be watched by all at least once. It will make you think and that is something I love about movies. It is suspenseful with some light humor to break the awkwardness and that is something that the director Christopher Nolan is great at.
After watching this movie I can say that it is one of my favorite movies and I am hoping for a sequel that is just as great if not greater than the first one. Studying this movie has only made me think about it more and want to learn more about the movie and the director and actors that play in the movie. The Internet Movie Database (IMBD) is a website where you can learn all of this information and I am constantly on it to learn about who is directing what and who is starring in what. Being a movie lover this website is a paradise for all the information movie related. Everyone should check it out.
Inception is a movie that some people can like and some can hate but you can't take anyone's word for it, you need to check it out for yourself.