3 mistakes Inception makes

This 2010 contemporary sci-fi actioner follows a subconscious security team around the globe and into the intimate and infinite world of dreams.
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Inception was a great movie, one of the most ambitious creative films of all time. It was so close to being the Muhammad Ali of movies, but in my opinion, it fell short. Nolan wanted to make an epic big budget movie that was a mindbending thriller but also wanted to it make it accessible to the average moviegoer who tends to prefer straightforward action movies.

Here are the mistakes I think the film makes (the first 2 could be fixed by a Blade Runner-like director's cut):

1) Too much spoonfeeding. Instead of telling the viewer early on that Cobb plans do an inception rather than an extraction, they should have just left his motives a mystery until half-way into the movie it's revealed what he actually plans to do. It would've been a great twist. Also, at various points in the movie, the Nolan's characters explain the plot in their dialogue instead of allowing the viewer to discern it for themselves.

2) Too much gratuitous action. At 2 1/2 hours it feels a little bit bloated and could've easily been tightened up by trimming 15 minutes from it. The skiing scenes particularly feel like they were put there just because movies are obliged to have a big set piece in the third act. The directing on the skiing scenes was a bit sloppy, it was a confusing flurry (no pun intended), it didn't add much to the story and the characters were indistinguishable half of the time.

3) Lack of strong characters. None of the characters were bad, but an amazing character could have done so much more for this movie. Cobb and his wife are well done but the relationships between him and Ariande could have been expanded on and given a little more emotional weight. DiCaprio and Page were good safe choices, but probably better people could have been cast. The supporting cast that accompanies them in the heist could have been fleshed out too.
Last edited by Pulse on December 1st, 2015, 9:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

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In regards to #3, giving the other characters more dimension would be a mistake. They're intentionally mechanical for thematic purposes. I will say 1 and 2 are my only gripes about the film yet it is still an all timer for me and likely my fave nolan film. One of these times he's gonna make a Blade Runner level opus.

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Pulse wrote:
2) Too much gratuitous action. At 2 1/2 hours it feels a little bit bloated and could've easily been tightened up by trimming 15 minutes from it. The skiing scenes particularly feel like they were put there just because movies are obliged to have a big set piece in the third act. The directing on the skiing scenes was a bit sloppy, it was a confusing flurry (no pun intended), it didn't add much to the story and the characters weren't indistinguishable half of the time.
I completely disagree with you on this.

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Inception is half mind-bender and half action. I would've preferred it to be 75% mind-bender and 25% action, although we all have different opinions. Any movie can have good action, but I feel like Nolan had something really special going on with the psychological thriller elements.

The directing crew said themselves that they were heavily inspired from James Bond for the skiing scenes, although I don't think they did it as well as Peter Hunt in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Why would Nolan want to do this though? He had something much more special and unique going on than a Bond film.

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I wouldn't change a damn thing about Inception. One of my favorite films of this century.

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shauner111 wrote:I wouldn't change a damn thing about Inception. One of my favorite films of this century.

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Nothing needs to be changed.

If Nolan made it more harder, the crowd wouldn't get it. It wasn't easy for most to get the concept of dream within a dream and so on . . . Once you did get it, you were in LOVE with this movie.

This movie was EPIC. It's perfection.

Nothing needs to be changed.

Your argument is collapsing . . .

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