Buñuel meets Kubrick in Nolan's dream Matrix
A Potpourri of Vestiges ReviewBy Murtaza Ali
Featured in IMDb Critic Reviews
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| Inception (2010) - By Christopher Nolan |
Our Rating: 8.5
IMDb Ratings: 8.8
Genre: Action | Adventure | Mystery
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page
Language: English
Country: USA | UK
Language: English
Country: USA | UK
Runtime: 148 min
Color: Color
Summary: A skilled extractor is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible.
Inception is a 2010 Oscar-winning Sci-Fi movie made by British director Christopher Nolan. Inception is Nolan's follow up to his highly successful The Dark Knight—the second movie in the revamped Batman Franchise—and undoubtedly his most ambitious venture till date in which he ingeniously blends the Sci-Fi elements with the Surrealistic elements. Surrealism can appear to be bizarre or titillating, depending purely on the viewer's intellect. Though the realm of surrealism is highly nebulous and complex, but even a slight attempt at improvisation can often go awry and open a Pandora's Box, making the task nigh impossible. This facet of reality may pose a handicap to the most gifted of movie-makers, but not to the genius of Christopher Nolan, who not only dabbles with the concept of surrealism, but also ingeniously blends it with the elements of Science Fiction in Inception. Nolan created a niche for himself a decade back by unleashing a monster of a movie called Memento. He further substantiated his status by conjuring movies like Insomnia, The Prestige, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight.
Summary: A skilled extractor is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible.
Inception is a 2010 Oscar-winning Sci-Fi movie made by British director Christopher Nolan. Inception is Nolan's follow up to his highly successful The Dark Knight—the second movie in the revamped Batman Franchise—and undoubtedly his most ambitious venture till date in which he ingeniously blends the Sci-Fi elements with the Surrealistic elements. Surrealism can appear to be bizarre or titillating, depending purely on the viewer's intellect. Though the realm of surrealism is highly nebulous and complex, but even a slight attempt at improvisation can often go awry and open a Pandora's Box, making the task nigh impossible. This facet of reality may pose a handicap to the most gifted of movie-makers, but not to the genius of Christopher Nolan, who not only dabbles with the concept of surrealism, but also ingeniously blends it with the elements of Science Fiction in Inception. Nolan created a niche for himself a decade back by unleashing a monster of a movie called Memento. He further substantiated his status by conjuring movies like Insomnia, The Prestige, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight.
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| Marion Cotillard (Right) and Ken Watanabe in Inception |
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| A Still from Inception |
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| Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb in Inception |
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| A Still from Inception |
Readers, please feel free to share your opinion by leaving your comments. As always your feedback is highly appreciated!
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Inception is indeed brilliant! Though, really surprising to hear about its plot similarities to Paprika... nicely written!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks mate! Nolan is undoubtedly at his peak... can't wait to watch The Dark Knight Rises!
ReplyDeleteUndoubtedly the Best Cinematic Experience of my Life and I really do not care about plot similarities to other movies because I think on its own, it is a very solid movie.
ReplyDeleteThanks Shantanu for sharing your valuable opinion. Even I regard Inception to be one of the best movies to have come out in the recent times; perhaps 2001: A Space Odyssey of our times. Now that Nolan is pretty much done with the Batman franchise (though there's still the Superman revamp), I hope that we will get to see more such avant garde works from him.
ReplyDeletewhoa. i loved this film, though i did not get to watch it till almost a year after it was released, but to call it close to bunuel or kubrick is probably stretching it too far. the script is amazing, the performances are brilliant. the technicalities are superb as it is with most of nolan's work. i can see that you really liked this film, murtaza. i did too. but bunuel, no. not this one.
ReplyDeleteSaw this movie very recently...but wished I were back home in India where you get English subtitles for English movies on TV and its easier to follow...The movie was very enjoyable nevertheless!
ReplyDeleteThanks a ton, Subhorup for sharing your valuable opinion and keeping the interesting debate on Inception alive. The comparison to Bunuel and Kubrick was only symbolic as the movie seemed to effectively club the elements of Sci-Fi and Surrealism -- something that hasn't been done before at such a greater scale. Otherwise, I would be remiss to compare Inception to Bunuel's or Kubrick's oeuvre. It was for this reason, I had mentioned in my review, "But whether it would become Luis Buñuel's 'Un chien andalou' or Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' and serve as a prototype for the movies to come is for the time to decide." The fact of the matter is that sometimes instincts tend to get the better of the viewers: unlike some of the lucky few (in comparison to the billions of global viewers), those who haven't explored much of Kubrick or Bunuel, would find it difficult to choose judiciousness over their instincts. Irrespectively, Inception is a modern masterpiece but obviously it's no way near Kubrick's 2001: Space Odyssey or Bunuel's Andalusian Dog, at least not for the time being!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jayashree for sharing your thoughts. I was in Chennai on deputation when Inception had released and it was obviously quite difficult to procure the tickets in the very first week itself. Fortunately, I was able to book three tickets in Devi Cinema -- a thousand seater hall. The experience was indeed ineffable but I too regreted the absence of subtitles, for it can be a real handicap in high-ended movies like Inception that involve lots of concepts and jargons. Besides, I believe a second watch is essential to fathom it completely and hence you can freely go about watching it again as per your convenience, but with subtitles this time round :-P
ReplyDeleteGreat review:). Do try giving your rating in terms of stars or other some diagrammatic form so that people can see it clearly.Otherwise a superb post:). Keep the good work going friend:).
ReplyDeleteThanks Akshay for the great suggestion... appreciate it very much!!! Let me see what I can do :-)
ReplyDelete