Last week we were lucky enough to visit the IMAX in Darling Harbor Sydney; for an exclusive sneak peek at the upcoming Brad Bird directed/J.J Abrams produced: ‘Mission Impossible 4.’
And wow. Read more…
All posts tagged epic
TV Bits: Game of Thrones Episode 1.1: Winter is Coming
This week, HBO premiered the first episode in a new show titled the Game of Thrones. The show which is based upon the highly popular series, a Song of Fire and Ice is probably one of the most ambitious projects that HBO has so far simply because of the sheer scale and scope of the books. Set in a fantasy land of Westeros, The books tell of the struggle for power between the nobles to claim the iron throne. Though this first episode is rather short, it sets up the most of what would happen later in the series. Whether your a fan of the books or not, this is certainly a show that would get a lot more interesting as it further develops.
Read more…
Screen Adaptation of Ender’s Game: An Exciting Franchise or A Disaster Waiting To Happen?
Article by Merwyn.
In September 2010, 24 Frame, a blog by the Los Angeles Times, reported that Gavin Hood, director of X-men Origins: Wolverine, was expressed interest in developing a screen adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s award winning novel Ender’s Game. Prior to that, the film was going to be adapted by Wolfgang Peterson (The Perfect Storm). According to the blog, Gavin Hood had been working on a rewrite of a screenplay which Orson Scott Card himself had originally completed for Peterson. Since then we have heard literally nothing about the project.
Now it seems that Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are attached to the project as producers. Kurtzman and Orci, whose credits include Eagle Eye, Fringe, The Proposal and Star Trek, have said that they loved Hood’s screenplay, and would be “taking it to town”. While there is still no studio attached to this film and no cast lined up for it yet, it remains prudent that a screen adaptation is still likely. This however does not entirely sit well with many fans of the novel, including myself. And though an animated version might sound plausible, I am personally skeptical as to whether Gavin Hood will be able to pull of a project as ambitious such as this.
Though it’s not an uncommon trend, it seems however that over the past decade, we’ve seen an increasing number of award winning novels being adapted for the screen, City of Ember, Harry Potter series, The Road. Adding to the long list of books that are awaiting the same fate, the decision to turn one of science-fictions most elaborate and outstanding novels into a film, begs me to ask the question: WHY???
While I have yet to see all of Gavin Hood’s films, X-Men Origins: Wolverine was not one of the greatest films in that year. Some might argue that my opinion is here invalid because of that. That’s okay, I don’t give a shit if you think that. Despite studio interference, Wolverine could still have proven to be great fun but it way destroyed because of a lack of competence from the filmmakers and a poorly written script .
Getting back to Ender’s Game, the first problem that comes to mind is the sheer scale of the project. Ender’s Game is the exciting science fiction novel that tells the story of young Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, who has been chosen amongst a select group of people to attend Battle School, to be trained as military leaders in the war against an alien insects referred to as buggers. The novel takes readers from his invitation to Battle School right up till his final exam at Command School.
Through a series of challenges or “games”, Ender slowly progresses through the ranks, gaining recognition by some of his superiors while being isolated from some of his peers. The “game” that takes place in the novel is essentially a gladiator type event where two squads face one against one another in a simulated space battle. Squads or teams are taught and challenged in the art of strategic warfare and must be able to work with another another, navigating their way through a series of obstacles in a space roughly the size of a football field. The obstacles, which are called “stars”, are sort of these cubic objects meant to simulate celestial bodies and often cadets find themselves bumping into one another.
The thing about these battle rooms is that there are several of these battle-rooms attached to the station. If a battle-room is occupied, teams wishing to practice wait outside for several minutes while the next battle-room changes and though it’s never quite clear how exactly it works, the fact that the battle-room is only one of the locations from the book in the space complex, already lends itself to a logistical challenge. Add that to the fact that a lot of it will most likely be in cg and you can already see the huge task ahead.
This brings up another interesting question and that is finding the right talent to play the titular role of Ender Wiggin. It’s difficult enough to find a young actor with the time and skills to commit to a major project but where the majority of your cast consists of 8 year olds where the lead has the mindset and intellect of a veteran soldier, the chances of finding that talent is slim. Kids grow fast and time is probably one of the biggest obstacles when confronting such a huge project. Another contributing factor is that the character of Ender is one of the darkest and enriching characters that I’ve read so far. Harry Potter’s got nothing on this kid. Ender is often subjected to arguments and fights which stems from his relationship with his older brother Peter.
The International Fleet has also attempted to isolate Ender from the others on board in an attempt to push Ender to conquer them. As a result, Ender often find himself secluded to his room and even his relationship with his fellow team is strained at times. There are several occasions within the novel in which Ender is beaten up. Both at the beginning and at the end and often Ender finds himself unable to control his emotions but it’s that fear of losing, of being teased at so often that propels him forward. In the eyes of his superior, the manipulation and brainwashing that Ender is the price he must pay to the survival of the human race. It’s through the manipulation and the abuse, that Ender becomes the greatest commander in the fleet but also the most feared. Subjecting a young actor to the physical and psychological abuse that Ender went through could be tantamount to being sadistic. The only comfort that Ender finds is through the memories and love of his sister Valentine who essentially is his emotional support.
This brings me to another which includes the several subplots that runs across the novel, one of which include Valentine. Though she and Peter have been separated from Ender, their role in the book is quite clear. They do not appear until quite later in the book but Valentine and Peter become significant in their role as political columnists. Taking on the aliases of Demosthenes and Locke, both Peter and Valentine pose as political rivals and engage in a series of debates attempting to influence the politics on land in order to prevent a major war from breaking out. This subplot appears in a rather abrupt and awkward fashion and while I personally love the interaction between these two characters, it somewhat slows the book down a little and takes me out of that world a little. As the majority of the book in spent with Ender in space, this subplot somewhat has a little sense of place. It all pays off in the end though. However, the point I’m trying to make here is that there are several subplots that run through the course of the book, which are crucial to establishing the universe and the time required to set it up, while having it make sense would most likely cost the film.
Another point I’d like to make is about the characters within the novel. Characters within Ender’s Game appear for several chapters then are either never heard from again or left until the very end. The main enemy, the buggers do not appear until the last few chapters, though they are referenced many times earlier. Everything in the book depends on the build-up to that final exam and while some of the characters may only appear for brief moments of time, they affect our main hero Ender in some way or another. They are pivotal to what’s driving Ender forward and how he sees them. It would be a mundane result should any of those characters be removed and we’ve all experienced it at some point where a film would throw out numerous characters which only appear several times with their purpose never explained. The difference here is that your dealing with an ensemble cast and to keep that cast separated for long periods of time, drags the film down and the impact that those characters have is diminished. Particularly with the villain of the novel. Though the real villain is really Ender himself, having your main opposing force, in this case the buggers, not fully appear at all is a, and excuse the cliche, recipe for disaster.
The problem that I see here is that should this adaptation get made, it would most likely be dumped down to a PG at the least to expand to the kids audience. Toys, merchandising, cartoon shows. These are all cause for concerns when taken on such a huge and popular series. Like the Chronicles of Narnia series, key elements such as the emotional struggle that Ender experiences might become mundane. The material covered in the book is a genuine science-fiction with the dramatic elements of a fast-paced psychological thriller. It’s brutal in it’s ideas on the cost of a young boys life in order to save an entire race. When you have a novel where the weight of the world lies on the shoulder of a young kid, who has spent a great deal of his life in fear of losing control of his emotions, it becomes more important that those psychological elements be brought across. CGI elements the massive cinematic landscapes affect the way the film is perceived. The message sometimes become jaded and misinterpreted or loses its meaning altogether. Audiences would become too easily distracted by the effects and we’ve seen numerous cases of this happening. And there would most likely be a huge amount of CGI required for the battle-room sessions and the final exam. Adding to that the number of futuristic gadgets and equipment used, it might be better off if the novel was left untouched.
To be fair, I could be very wrong with this argument. It could very well turn out decent though I doubt it very much. Though I might still cringe at the thought of an animated adaptation of this novel, it’s still be the only plausible way of adapting this brilliant piece without worrying about the logistics or production cost. Ultimately though, I would still prefer it if I never see a live-action version of Ender’s Game but that’s not up to me to decide. The visuals and the world that Orson Scott Card had established in his award winning book is so rich and exciting in his description and action that I feel should be left up to the individual reader to interpret, that any screen adaptation would do a disservice to the book. The adventures and thrill that you get from reading the novel couldn’t possibly be compared to an adaptation on the big screen. Let this message be clear to Hollywood: NOT every award winning novel needs to be adapted for the screen.
However, these are merely my own subjective thoughts and concerns. What are some of yours? Do you think it could work?
Review: Legend of the Guardians: The Owl’s of Ga’Hoole
“On his way to finding a legend…he will become one”
Let me make it clear here, Legend of the Guardian’s: The Owl’s of Ga’hoole is not a horrible film. However, it’s also not a film that I would be rushing out to see again any time soon. After coming out of the cinema, you do get a real sense that you have just been through a rather epic journey but at the same time, your also relieved to be able to feel the floor and breathe properly again. Legend of the Guardians takes us on a roller-coaster ride as we watch our heroes battle against the forces of evil. Adapted from the first three books, Guardian’s of Ga’hoole by Kathryn Lasky, Legend of the Guardians is an epic fantasy tale between two rival clans of owl’s as they fight over control over the entire owl kingdom. The film, directed by Zack Snyder, follows the story of Soren (Jim Sturgess), who is abducted along with his brother Kludd (Ryan Kwanten) by two owl’s of the rival tribe known as the Tytos or the “Pure One’s”. They are taken to be slaves, working in the mines to gather materials known as “flecks”. There, they meet an elf owl named Gylfie who, amongst other owl’s are being prepared for some kind of hypnosis. The film takes a turn as a twist allows both Soren and Gylfie to escape. Kludd, who is left behind is to be trained as a soldier for the Tytos.
This is where the rest of the film gets somewhat predictable as you already know that at some point, there will be a battle for the freedom of the owl kingdom and it would come down to the rivalry between the two brothers. A good portion of the film is spent searching for the Guardian’s as our two hero’s fly across the land with no clear direction of where they’re going. Along the way, they encounter two other owl’s, Digger and Twilight. Their appearance in the film was rather sudden and you assume that the only reason they exist is to be some form of comic relief. Digger’s quirky and awkwardness as a burrowing owl is often contrasted against the old Twilight, whose slow and inappropriate love of music provides some brief moments of relief and serves as a good distraction. Enter Mrs. P, Soren’s nestmaid and caretaker that was introduced at the start of the film. Her existence in the film is somewhat confusing and you constantly question as to how a snake could be a caretaker for an owl (don’t owl’s eat snakes??). Beyond that, Mrs. P does absolutely nothing and is useless in the great scheme of things. Her presence in the film is really to complete the fellowship as the healer of the group.
With the circle now completed, our little fellowship then seeks to travel beyond the sea to find the famed tree of Ga’Hoole. After several minutes of flying through stormy weather, Soren and his friends are rescued from the cold blizzard and are taken to the legendary tree where they learn that Soren’s sister, Eglantine, has fallen prey to Tytos’s who had used the hypnosis on her. There we are introduced to several more characters who are making the decision as to whether or not to believe in Soren’s tale about the “Pure One’s”. At this point, you really don’t care much for the film. You anticipate that there is going to be a big and epic battle and you just can’t wait to get to it. The film does drag on a little bit, with introducing Ezylryb who had last fought against the Tytos and is also Soren’s hero and cause for belief in the Guardians. Ezylryb trains Soren and his companion on how to fly and the path they must take in order to become a Guardian. There’s a lot of exposition and words that are just thrown out there but most of the time, you can’t really understand what they’re talking about, either because it makes no sense or the dialogue is somewhat muffled. Nevertheless, you still take delight in the fact of knowing that it is all leading up to something big and spectacular.
The final battle sequence is entertaining and rather violent. King Boron of the Guardians, leads his troops towards Metalbeak’s camp, in an attempt to stop the Tytos from using the gathered flecks against the owl kingdom and to free the other owl’s who remain captive, only to discover that it is a trap. At this point, you still don’t know what flecks really are or why it hurts them. But you do know that it’s bad and that really good enough for this. Soren and his fellowship, who have been left behind, somehow learn that the Guardian’s are in trouble and they immediately set out to help them. Upon their arrival, Soren hatches a plan to free the Guardians and rightfully does so. This leads into that long awaited battle in which it’s brother against brother. Kludd who had been the inferior one, shows that he has becomes a threat that would force Soren to make a difficult decision. I needn’t tell you who is the victor so I’m not going to bother. From here on, it’s more about when the battle will end and how many will make it out alive. The film takes it’s time with it, as owl’s swoop left and right, breaking out their claws and wielding swords. Snyder’s love of slow-motion works effectively here as claws graze against other claws and you really get the sense that this is a battle worth fighting for. Once the battle is over, the celebrations begin. The threat has been destroyed and although there are some from the “Pure One’s” that has escaped, you’re just glad that it’s over. It’s a time of recognition and reflection as our heroes are handed to them the title of Guardians. In the end you learn that Kludd has survived and you know that he will be the next big threat in the sequels.
The film, while it’s story leaves a bit to ponder upon, kinda works on a technical level. The 3D is average at best but the film itself is very beautiful and the colors are very rich. There is great variation with the owl’s and the animation is spectacular. The team at Animal Logic have done an amazing job and you do feel like your in another world. There is a great amount of detail in the owl’s and the cuteness factor is certainly there. The downside to it is that, you really want to sink your teeth into it and want more but you’re never fully satisfied. The pacing is fast and it’s quick and you very seldom get to marvel at the weapons and armor that the Guardians wear during the final battle sequence, except in slow-motion. There are a lot and I mean a whole ton, of closeup that add to this but it does however give the film that real epic feeling.
Legend of the Guardian’s: The Owl’s of Ga’Hoole, while not a terrible film, feel like it’s catered more for fans of the book. There is still however appeal for kids and the family. This is a film that may not have succeeded on a story level but the entertainment factor is still there. This is a fun film for the holidays and I recommend watching it, if not as a fan of the books, a good thrill ride is what the film gives you.
2.5/5
Tomorrow, When The War Began review.
NOTE TO READERS: I did not see the finished version. So if you are one of those people that isn’t interested in hearing about an unfinished film, I would avoid this review.
I was lucky enough to attend a test screening of Stuart Beattie’s upcoming epic Australian movie Tomorrow When The War Began based on the best selling novel of the same name by author John Marsden.
The version of the film I saw was “in early days”, but it didn’t look that far from complete. It had a temp musical score and soundtrack and some unfinished computer effects, the movie however, seemed to have a focus on practical effects, so it didn’t really matter.
It had a running time of about 2 hours. It felt like it should have been longer.
The story is about a group of teenagers who go out into the wild on a camping trip, to a beautiful clearing in the middle of nowhere ironically named “hell”. When they return they find their town; Wirrawee, in ruin after a full scale invasion, the place is infested with the enemy- whom we never know, with all their parents being held hostage, and strike bombings and whatnot…it is intense.
The film was excellent, but flawed. With a bit of tweaking here and there it could very well be an Australian classic and…a franchise! This review will have spoilers soon, so If you are not interested in spoilers then I’ll give you a really brief rundown of my thoughts:
For the most part I loved Tomorrow, when the war began… it is well written, very well shot, and Caitlin Stasey in the lead as Ellie was excellent. There is a bit of mis-casting and bad acting from the others, and the beginning and end scenes and others felt rushed (the 20 minutes of ‘Hell’- what they name the place they go camping- was awful)…but… they could still change all of these before the film is out, and it will be great.
The action scenes in the movie are the best to come out of Australia for a while and rival any Hollywood film of late. It feels epic in scope, and technically it was wonderful.
So the following will be spoiler filled! You have been warned…
I was incredibly surprised by the film. I had read the book back in the day for school and liked it quite a bit, I didn’t continue to read the rest of the series though, but I did remember the book fairly well and the film seemed to stay true to the novel.
From my memory of the book, it felt like a page by page retelling.
The only major difference was one I could understand: Instead of Ellie narrating the story through a diary, she does so through a video camera. A clever decision that lets you know from the opening of the movie that Stuart Beattie’s adaptation of the book was going to be a visual one. And it is, very much so.
The only other change is that they do not return to Hell to hide out after the excavator scene. They instead hide out inside Chris Lang’s house – A section/character that isn’t in book one – but I’m told it is from the second book. All the Ellie and Lee stuff takes place at the Chris home instead.
The film opened very quickly, giving us a quick little set of scenes to set up everybody’s character and off they go to camp in hell. The version of the film I saw rushed the introduction of all the characters, and didn’t really give you the immediate sense of them that you would have liked, but overall it was fresh and speedy and got them on the way to ‘Hell’ quickly. They soundtrack we heard was temp but it would be great if they were able to keep ACDC ‘Highway to Hell’ in this spot. As on the nose it was It kind of worked.
So it’s really enjoyable up to this point, even if it could be longer. Then ‘Hell’ happens. 10-20 or so minutes were spent in hell and it felt too long. The cast doesn’t really have a good chemistry when they are all together so it felt awkward and staged. I didn’t buy them as friends. Here the film stoops to slow motion bikinis, and wet bodies and football and blah. Felt forced and stilted. The parts here were just awful, the Lee and Ellie stuff being incredibly bad.
So here is where you start to get an idea of the cast and how good they are/ are going to be. I’m just going to break them down briefly:
Caitlin Stassey: plays lead role Ellie Linton. Thought she was excellent. Fantastic actually. (except for when with Lee – but more on that later).
Phoebe Tonkin: plays Fiona Maxwell. Thought she was good. She exists as the perve factor but played the role well regardless.
Lincoln Lewis: plays Kevin Holmes: Was not good, overacts and doesn’t suit the character at all. He had a lot of screen-time, and was just plain bad.
Rachel Hurd-Wood: plays Corrie. Good, not outstanding or memorable though. The thing with the movie is that it has a lot of characters it needs to juggle and some just don’t get the attention they deserve. Corrie is one of them. It could all change if they extend the movie though. She and Kevin don’t really share any chemistry. She is the most well known of the cast (for her role in Perfume, and especially as Wendy in the 2003 Peter Pan). She is a promising young actress.
Ashleigh Cummings: plays Robyn. Was excellent, the only problem is that she is about a foot shorter than the rest of the cast, and looks several years younger. It constantly destroys the believability of the movie – she was very good though – just unfortunately not suited for this film, as good as she is in it.
Chris Pang: plays Lee, Ellie’s Love interest. Now Pang is horrible in this film. He plays the love interest of Ellie, and is integral to the plot. Every line sounds like it is being read out loud and he and Stassey share no chemistry what so ever.
So much of the film is built around this chemistry/ relationship and it is just not there. Horrible casting here, and it ruins the entire ‘emotional’ arc of the story- I’m afraid no amount of editing is going to fix this. They should just delete the subplot entirely – and they might. Their scene together in Hell where they kiss is just awful in how forced it is. Another scene in the house of Chris, is awful as well. They need to be cut down significantly – they are literally the only holes in the movie that I feel can’t be fixed in the final version.
Deniz Akdeniz: plays Homer. Look I’m unsure about Homer. I found him to be incredibly annoying, but that might be what they were going for with the character. He gets more tolerable as the film goes on, but then again as you know, he ends up becoming the leader character, and it makes a lot of sense to have him annoying at that start so that you see that change.
But holy crap, he was annoying. I suppose he is there for the female audience to fawn over. Just like his love interest Fiona is meant to for the men. These two have great chemistry – and they get a fair share of screen time.
Andrew Ryan: plays Chris Lang. Chris was a character I loved. Ryan is excellent in the role, and is hilarious. He can also play the intense stuff. He had what felt the perfect amount of screen time. He has a great confrontational scene with Stassey that was electric and was definitely the high point of the film for me.
Overall the cast is very hit and miss. When it works; it works incredibly well. Colin Friels shows up at one point as a dentist, and is excellent with his incredibly short cameo, but when the casting in the movie fails it does so badly. Ultimately the majority of the movie is so good that these few casting decisions could either be fixed in the final version, or wind up as just minor setbacks.
Now lets talk about Stuart Beattie, the writer and director of the movie. Beattie, just seems to get it. For me he is the real star of the movie. Beattie taking all the knowledge he learned from being the screenwriter of Pirates of the Caribbean, Collateral, and Australia to name a few, nails the movie.
Outside of the twenty minutes of Hell, Beattie works magic. The film is epic in scale, and to be truthful, if the film didn’t have Australian accents you would not be able to tell the difference between this and an American film. It is pristinely shot, and Beattie moves the camera with energy. There are vistas of destruction, and beauty. The moment where the group look over at night and see the invasion in process is just beautiful.
A lot needs to be said about the action. It’s so visceral and engaging. It rivals Hollywood in it’s balls. The scene where some of the group transport the injured Lee in the catcher of a construction excavator truck, whilst being chased by the enemy, is thrilling. And its all done real.
The other action highlight is Ellie with the ride on lawnmower, which was exactly how you would picture it in the novel. EXACTLY. Also when they are in (Homer’s I think) house, and there are bombers out and about searching for survivors to capture, and they see the light from inside. And of course the big bridge scene at the end (this felt a bit rushed – but I’m sure they will fix this up with the final version).
There is a lot of action, and it’s pretty much excellent and thrilling the whole time. Beattie doesn’t step a foot wrong with this aspect. And it’s saying a lot too, when the film can actually slow down for huge chunks of screen time and not feel boring. Beattie juggles the character and action very well. He has taken his great screenwriting talent, and written a really solid adaptation that only falters because of some of the casting. The script itself is fine, and I bet thats because by know he knows in and out what the audience of this big blockbuster responds to. It’s a story that requires a real balance of tone to get it right, and Beattie has something – if the film gets a really good musical score, issues I had with the movie could almost be soiled over.
The only other issue I had with the movie was it had an incredibly rushed ending. It was unbelievably anti-climactic and weak. They blow up the bridge. Kevin goes off to drive Corrie to hospital. Then the other characters ride off into the next movie on motor bikes. End. And it literally is as quick as it takes to read that. Hopefully they draw out the climax a bit, because it felt a little too quick and rushed.
Other than those small nitpicks, and bad castings, Tomorrow When The War Began is a very solid film, and does service to the novel – It’s thrilling, well shot, and has a really strong lead performance from Caitlin Stassey. Paramount Studios have a huge hit on their hands, that should also do well over seas.
I hope the best for the film and it would be great to see Australia have it’s own franchise film. Even though the Ellie and Lee stuff is the only really Horrible parts, everything is is really, really solid, and could be fixed up due to the results of the test screening. If the movie stays the same as it was when I saw it I would rate it a 7 out of 10.
David’s review of INCEPTION
“It all begins with an idea”
So explains Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Dom Cobb during a key scene.
There are movies that come out every ten years or so that have the power to change everything…ideas that can inspire people all around the world. Cinema is a powerful tool and its because of the ideas…and considering the wasteland that has been the cinema of 2010 lets thank our lucky stars that this one idea was Christopher Nolan’s.
The idea is so good, so original and brilliant that Inception is a perfect movie, an absolute masterpiece of a film that is almost incomparable to anything in quite a few years. It’s a monster of scale, of ideas, of character… its the perfect film, it works on every level..imagine Inception to be an endless mine, you can chip away, and chip away but you just won’t reach the bottom. This is the real deal; films like Inception are the reason we go to the cinema in the first place.
Inception follows the story of Dom Cobb (DiCaprio) the greatest extractor in the dream business. The job is to enter the dreams of people; specifically the subconscious; and steal secrets and ideas for others. Things complicate when the question of whether it is possible to enter a dream and implant an idea, so that when the person awakens he achieves inspiration, and thus changes tactic. Is it possible to create the inception of an idea, when inspiration itself is an unknowable concept?
Thats all you should know about Inception I guess. This idea instigates a heavy going investigation into the workings of the human mind, and as complex as the mind could be the film still feels in-depth and engaging. Rest assured there is much, much more to the flick, but to spoil the surprises here would be criminal.
The funny thing is that Inception is a complete original idea. There are no underpinnings of studio interference or an attempt to franchise. Its not even in 3D.
Watching the movie is an experience in itself. I got chills during it. Like last years Inglorious Basterds it is evidently the work of an auteur, not a committee. It is uncompromising in its vision. Christopher Nolan’s entire filmography has led to this picture. It’s a summation of everything he stands for, everything he believes.
An interpretation of the film that I love is that it is about the power of cinema. Cobb and his team represent film-makers, with Cobb the director – the rest of the cast fit the archetypes of a film crew. The excellent Ellen Page is an architect, which could be construed as the screenwriter; the person who creates the world for the director; Tom Hardy is in the thespian role and so forth. From ‘producers’ to even ‘the audience’; every character has a role. And as for dreams themselves, they represent cinema, you see ‘dreams’ have the ability to generate ideas and create something of meaning and importance for individuals.
The cast is uniformly excellent, DiCaprio gives arguably his greatest performance; carrying the picture. How an actor accomplishes a film like this is beyond me, if shooting the picture out of order is not enough, maintaing that incredibly complex and layered performance is another. His performance is oscar worthy.
At the end of the line Inception remains a ensemble piece, every performance works wonders to gel the entire project together, from Joseph Gordon Levitt to Ken Watanabe to the excellent, excellent, Marion Cottilard – it’s such a collection of talent that only a script and film-maker this fucking good could have gotten them. Cillian Murphy, who I’ve always felt has been an incredibly underated performer brings the goods also.
The images that Nolan has achieved with his long time collaborator; cinematographer Wally Phister, are gorgeous and lush, often striking and breath taking. The decision to back away from 3D was an excellent one. The film is already incredible to look at, I only fear the unnecessary addition of the third dimension would sully the proceedings.
Technically the picture is flawless, Nolan has overcome his action weaknesses and has presented some of the most excellent and revolutionary sequences since The Matrix. There is no reliance on CGI really, everything that could have been done practically has been and more. There is a sequence involving Joseph Gordon Levitt in a hotel that is ridiculously amazing. Just like the whole ‘Bullet Time’ thing was back in the day. I do not have any conception of how the sequence was achieved. On top of this the sequence is part of a longer 25 minute sequence during the third act that is seriously unparalleled in terms of scale and brilliance.
Nolan manages to seamlessly blend an emotional bearing into the film through DiCaprio and Cottilard’s characters; that manages to overshadow the action to a degree – see even the action scenes are for reasons relating to character and idea. This is the true genius of the film – that every single development is not only striking in it’s genius and originality, but completely organic.
It’s a very powerful and moving film to say the least. My friend commented that “A smart film-maker plays to the dumbest and smartest person in the room” and this is perfectly indicative of what Nolan has done, wow them with the smarts and emotionality or wow them with the incredible action – or in a perfect film (which I believe this is) both!
I cannot stress enough how amazing it is that this entire picture, its scope and all originated from a single man. Christopher Nolan may very well be the next Stanley Kubrick, and Inception sure feels like a movie from that era.
With all the endless remakes, franchises, and crap that has populated cinema for so long, Inception comes as a huge sigh of relief. Rewind or imagine the 1960s – 1970s, people would flock to the cinema to make The Godfather, Star Wars, or 2001: A Space Oddessy number one box office films.
Since then, when studios realize the box office potential of a Star Wars for example; a cheap knock off comes out. And when that knock off makes money, an even lesser knock off comes, and so on and on, up to the point where Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen can be one of the top grossing movies of the year it was released.
There has been a real decline in cinema I feel, in previous times it almost felt as if true auteurs were gone from the multiplexes, Oscar calibre films like No Country For Old Men and The Hurt Locker don’t get mainstream releases until they win awards. However, seeing Inception do as well as it has done, and be enjoyed by so many; might just herald a new age. We don’t want crappy post 3D converted films or endless unoriginal properties. We want auteur cinema, we go to the movies to experience something new, something different.
“It all begins with an idea”
I suppose one key thing you can take from Inception is the idea that cinema, like dreaming; creates inception in people. It has the power to inspire.
To me Inception was a masterpiece; all about how cinema can inspire the individual. Nolan inspired me and I hope that he will inspire you too.
Go and see this movie, if only so you can tell your kids you watched Inception in the cinema. Better yet if you have kids take them to it, it is a small step to making sure the films and art of the next generation don’t decline in quality; after all “it all begins with an idea” right? Go and give them and your friends one.
10 out of 10
Interview with “Watchmen’s” MALIN ACKERMAN and JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN
An interview that Jason King from Salty Popcorn and myself conducted last year. This interview was written and transcribed by Jason King, and was originally posted on www.saltypopcorn.com. Read more…
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