Oh, yeah, the literalness of the dreams themselves didn't bother me. Partly because I'm more and more convinced that it's a meta-commentary on movies anyway.
I loved the
constant shots of the van falling.
I thought the use of
time dilation in dreams was a great way to have action sequences that last waaaaaay longer than should be possible (the bomb was supposed to go off, like, three minutes ago!) for a reason.
But I'd love to hear more about your idea.
One thing that bothered me was that
they didn't all wake up when the van flipped over. I mean, come on, that didn't qualify as a kick??
I've seen some people complain that there's a lot of exposition in the first half, but, honestly, I didn't mind or notice because it was handled so well and the characters were so compelling and entertaining (that cast!). And the second half is a fucking thrill ride that occasionally manages to be three times as intense as any other action film and features an amazing, beautiful fight scene in the midst of all the chaos. As if all this weren't enough, the action, intensity, and suspense are rooted in character emotions. Plus, the score and sound design are great. Oh, Christopher Nolan. Keep being awesome.
P-C,
I made the same comment to Beau. I thought the time-shifting was pretty amusing actually.
The thing I keep coming back to is that,
yes, the "A-plot" had to be trite and predictable - confronting his dying father in a dream so he can wake up and be his own man? really? - because the real story is Leo & Marion Cotillard's story, and if the *entire* movie is Leo's dream, which is likely, then the Fischer stuff is just Leo making shit up where he's the hero of his own story. Fischer's story is a metaphor for Leo's story. And on that level, it's a brilliant layering of the narrative. But on the level where the audience does have to sit through the Fischer story for almost 3 hours in order for the super-extended metaphor to play out, by the time they got to the snow level I was pretty metaphored-out and ready to move on. I felt like I was watching a bunch of people play a video game, and if I couldn't play, could I at least take a nap until they got to the interesting bit?
In other news, and probably in large part for Hec: Women Scientists in 1950s Sci-Fi
they didn't all wake up when the van flipped over. I mean, come on, that didn't qualify as a kick??
I was able to explain most of this in my head as such: in order to
wake up during a kick, the characters had to be awake or falling in the next level down as well.
this is how Leo DIDN'T wake up - he didn't jump in Limbo, so he stayed asleep at the snow level, so he stayed asleep at the hotel level, so he stayed asleep at the van level. Ariadne jumped at limbo, which woke her up just in time at the snow level, which woke her up just in time at the hotel, then van levels.
This only fails, as far as I can tell, for Arthur. HE should have
woken up when the van flipped, as he was awake at the hotel level.
But then I thought,
maybe the DREAMER can't wake up unless nobody else is sharing the dream at the time, so Arthur couldn't wake up as long as the other people were asleep.
But that fails at the
snow level,
because
Eames shouldn't have been able to wake up out of that dream with Leo all in limbo.
Unless
limbo
is really special and breaks all the rules. Which I'm willing to go with.
And that's the explanation I'm sticking with right now.
My fiance just brought up another logical inconsistency, though:
Cobb and Mal were in limbo alone, no projections allowed. Why did Saito get to have two people with guns who could pull Cobb off the beach?
In other news, and probably in large part for Hec: Women Scientists in 1950s Sci-Fi
Thanks, Raq! I hope they have lots of pictures because everybody knows that female scientists are hot.
I'm thinking I need to see this movie again and pay closer attention to the worldbuilding. Right now I don't remember it in enough detail to either nitpick or defend things like that.
(DH and I had a long discussion over why
the van going over the rails was able to start an avalanche in the snow level, but the snow level didn't experience any weird gravity while the van was in midair.)
I'm very impressed that Gris knows the names of all the characters! I forgot most of them except for Cobb and Ariadne (and
I only remember the latter because of the labyrinth connection, which, really??)
As far as the various "inconsistencies", I'm willing to accept that the rules are not set in stone but are only guidelines. e.g., if such and such happens, you are very *likely* to wake up... but you might not!
