Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These (Inception Review)

In this shot, Mal and Cobb form a blueprint in the sand for their new world in Limbo. Taken from IGN Movies, click here to see more shots.

The concept of lucid dreaming – the idea that a person can be aware that he or she is dreaming, and alter the dream world around them – is an idea that has been explored again and again by countless books, television shows, and movies, and when the idea is used it is almost always done in a way that makes the whole process seem rather fantastical and dangerous. This movie is no exception, but the way the idea is presented is uniquely from the director’s point of view.

What Christopher Nolan has done with his new film Inception, which he both wrote and directed, is take that idea and use it to help build an entire world around it, a world where one can plant ideas into someone’s consciousness or steal them away, all through entering the dream world created by one’s sub consciousness. It is an incredible and fascinating idea to discuss, especially for people who are interested in psychology and how humans interpret and process dreams, but how good Inception is depends entirely on how sound the execution of the idea is on the silver screen.

The best way to look at that is to look at the story first. Our main character, Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), is a man who has experimented with travelling deep into the different layers of his own sub consciousness. His skills led him to craft and expand on the dream world along with his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard), creating a sort of paradise for themselves to live happily, if only for a short time. Unfortunately, this whole thing ends up twisting Mal’s psyche, causing her to lose her perception of reality and the ability to tell when she is or isn’t dreaming. The loss of her sanity ultimately results in the loss of her life, and her suicide is pinned all on Cobb, who has to leave the country and his two children behind. He decides to become an extractor, a person who steals ideas from people’s minds to make a profit, to support him while waiting for the one opportunity to be able to return to his children and redeem himself for his past sins.

That opportunity presents itself in the form of a job proposed to him by a wealthy businessman named Saito (Ken Wantanabe), who is looking to dissolve a competitive company run by one of his business rivals, a Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy). The job Saito wants Cobb to do does not involve stealing an idea, but rather planting one, a process known as “inception.” With the help of his organizer and long-time partner in crime Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a shape shifting forger named Eames (Tom Hardy), a sedative expert named Yusuf (Dileep Rao), and a promising architect known as Ariadne (Ellen Page), Cobb looks to finish the job and win the struggle with his own demons as well.

This film, if it’s even possible to simplify it, can best be described as a psychological, almost sci-fi thriller merged with the concept of the classic heist movie. Unlike most of the interpretations of dream worlds in other films, this one isn’t just some generic acid-esque trip either. Nolan’s dream world has rules, standards and devices that help to not only advance the plot, but to keep the characters alive and the story moving as well. All the elements of the plot and the atmosphere seem so organized and well put together, and what I like the most is that there are very few confusing questions that needed to be answered or loose ends to be tied up, except of course for the entirely ambiguous ending which I’m not going to spoil here (all I’ll say about that is that people are probably going to be discussing it for months, which is most likely the point). The progression of the story isn’t entirely perfect though. A lot of scenes in the beginning jump around from place to place a little too quickly, and that can make it really hard for some viewers to follow what is going on at some points of the movie. If you really pay attention, though, everything becomes pretty clear.

We get some really impressive shots in this film, of city skylines and beaches and Cold War-esque mountain bases, and in the dream sequences they are all supplemented nicely with some really good CGI. This is probably one of the few films I can think of where such an overt use of computer-generated effects didn’t invoke awkwardness or the dreaded uncanny valley, and I appreciate it very much.

The performances in this film were, for the most part, pretty top notch. DiCaprio and Levitt were great as always, Rao manages to pull off some nice comic relief without getting too goofy and disturbing the overall mood of the film, and Cotillard plays off DiCaprio really well. I thought Hardy’s character kind of overdid the whole snarky badass thing he seemed to be going for at times though, and I kind of wished Page would have given Ariadne a little more personality. Not that her character wasn’t good, but there were times when she seemed rather generic.

Overall, despite some miniscule flaws Inception is one of those movies that not only entertains you, but gets the wheels in your brain turning as well. Even if the mechanics of Nolan’s dream-oriented universe aren’t entirely clear to some, it still makes for a really fun and interesting topic to discuss, almost like a souvenir to take home with you after the experience of watching the film. I can’t think of anybody who doesn’t love that.

For a better understanding of Cobb's mission, this neat infographic outlines the plan really well. Created by 3D modeler "dehahs." To see the full picture, head over to his Deviant Art page.

A Thursday For Trailers

OK, since I didn't get to really do any kind of summer movie preview or anything, I thought I'd give this a try instead.

For today's post, I'm just going to put up some trailers I think are interesting, and add my own personal comments on them. I'm sort of hoping I can make this a weekly thing, maybe do this every Thursday, perhaps it would give me some motivation to update more often, but we'll see how it goes.

Edit: Sorry everybody, I had Youtube videos up before, but I had some trouble embedding them, so just click on the movie titles to watch the trailers. Better luck next time!

Let's see, our first trailer just came out over the weekend, and is getting a ton of internet buzz right now.

SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD

I've probably talked about this movie more than anything else on this blog so far, and while I can't definitely say whether the movie will be good or not, this newer trailer fills me with hope. We have Cera trying to break away from the George Michael Bluth role he's constantly typecast as, we have a lot of well done quick shots that Wright is well known for (and could be considered perfect for this adaptation, for anyone who's familiar with the books). Winstead and Wong look pretty cool, Whitman looks funny, and Evans looks like a real show stealer.

I kind of wish that the trailer was a bit clearer on what the movie is about, rather than just showing off joke after joke. It seems like the studio is definitely shooting for demographics that aren't immediately familiar with Scott Pilgrim, and that's fine, but let's try not to give it all away too soon. In any case, this looks promising enough, and I really hope this film will not only be good, but can find it's audience as well.

Our next one is for Inception, Chris Nolan's new film that I mentioned quite a while ago.

INCEPTION

This film has an incredibly cool concept behind it, and an all star cast that can help it along. In this film, Leo Dicaprio plays Dom Cobb, a thief that assists companies in performing corporate espionage by stealing secrets from people's dreams. With his sort-of sidekick, played by Ellen Page, he must perform one last job.

The scope of Nolan's vision of this concept looks amazing from this trailer alone, although I'm not exactly sure if the cities we see crumbling here are representative of the dreams Cobb invades or not. This is one of the first couple times I've seen this trailer, and it still looks kind of weird, but perhaps it's best for me to just roll with it. Page looks good, and it feels even better to see Michael Caine back with Nolan since they always tend to work well together. I do feel like this trailer takes a lot of notes from the trailers for Nolan's Batman movies, but that probably had more to do with the editing department and the studio than Nolan himself. Nonetheless, this also joins the handful of big budget movies that I'm actually looking forward to this summer.

The last trailer here is for a movie that I'm not as interested to see as the first two, but looks fun regardless.

PREDATORS

Jesus, I do not envy Adrien Brody and pals right now.

Yes, Brody, Alice Braga, Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace, and several others (I swear this is the summer of the all-star cast) are a band of misfits that end up on a planet that serves as a hunting reserve for the predators, and they've got to outwit the creatures to survive. It seems like director Nimrod Antal and producer Robert Rodriguez have decided to completely ignore the continuity of the abysmal Aliens vs. Predator, and that's all right with me. Anyone who's a fan of the Predator franchise will probably end up enjoying this movie no matter what critics say about it, and I have to admit that even though the most I've seen of Predator was bits and pieces of the first movie, this does look like it will be a good popcorn flick.

On the other hand, Brody is definitely a far cry from Ahnold as far as leads go. If you asked me who would have been the lead for a movie like this, I probably wouldn't have suggested the dude who played Wladyslaw Szpilman from The Pianist. Also, while this isn't surprising at all, the trailer makes it look like the story might be interesting, but the plot might not be much more than "humans run from/try to fight the predators." Then again, what more could you expect from this kind of movie anyway?

Well, that's good for now. I'm gonna go see if I can come up with some more ideas for posts. Hopefully, I can catch Toy Story 3 before I go on vacation later this month. See ya!

Iron Man 2 Review

Hey, look who's back!

Seeing Iron Man’s likeness on the window of the Burger King on Main Street reminds me that it’s that wonderful time of year once again.

When you’re looking for big budget effects and flashy action scenes, there’s nothing like the summer movie season. You could say it already came more than a few weeks ago with the opening of Kick Ass, but having not seen that film yet I’d say the cream of the blockbuster crop so far is the more recently released Iron Man 2, directed by Jon Favreau and written by Justin Theroux. Oh, before I forget, there are spoilers ahead, so be careful.

This movie starts off well after the events of the first Iron Man movie, as Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), thanks to the deeds he’s performed as Iron Man and the decisions he’s made with Stark Industries has, in his own words, successfully privatized world peace. It’s implied that he has somewhat of a good relationship going with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), his company’s profits seem to be in the black, and life just can’t get any better, right? Wrong. It turns out the suit he uses to save lives around the country and the globe is killing him, as the arc reactor in his chest that keeps shards of shrapnel from entering his heart is giving him an unhealthy dose of palladium, resulting in the very visible effects of palladium poisoning. On top of that, the supremely bitter Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), the son of one of his father’s business partners and collaborators, has developed his own version of the arc reactor technology, complete with laser whips, and is out for revenge against Stark for supposedly ruining his life. Things get more complicated when his first fight with Stark catches the eye of both the government, which wants Stark to hand his technology over to the military for further development, and of the CEO of Hammer Industries Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), a competitor who wishes to work with Vanko to develop his own variation of Stark’s multi-billion dollar tech as well. Hopefully, with the help of friends and allies such as Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson), and Col. James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), Stark can set everything straight.

A lot of the secondary stars of this film ended up surprising me more than anybody else. I initially thought Cheadle was going to be quite jarring as the new Rhodey, but I thought he did just as good a job as Terrence Howard did in the first film. Scar Jo also gave a pretty good performance as Widow. Of course, RDJ and Paltrow shine with the best performances out of all of them, with their characters portraying the proper mood along with events as they unfold in the story. Paltrow’s performance was especially strong; from the shock and gratefulness she feels when Stark makes her the new CEO, to the stress she is going through later in the film when having to deal with the responsibilities of running the company and dealing with Stark’s secrecy and erratic behavior. The weakest performances in the film definitely have to be Jackson’s Fury and Rourke’s Vanko. Fury in this movie cam off as sort of cheesy and heavily rehearsed, which for a lot of Jackson’s roles these days seems to be par for the course. This is unfortunate, because I like Jackson as an actor, but while I realize the character was practically modeled just for him, I still thought he laid it on a little too thick. Vanko seems to have the opposite problem; a lot of his role seems a bit phoned in. Beyond the two qualities we saw, being a super smart engineer and being all vengeful, he didn’t really seem to have much of a personality to speak of, and while that might not entirely be Rourke’s fault, his acting definitely makes it look that way. Also, while we got to see more of him than we did of Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger in the first film, he still kind of suffers from lack of exposure, especially since during the middle of the film he is mostly waiting and plotting rather than actually doing anything.

Scar Jo here, along with Rockwell, RDJ and Paltrow, all give pretty good performances.

Speaking of the middle, the pacing of this movie really seems to slow down when we get to the deeper parts, most of them involving either Stark feeling futile about his life as the palladium poisoning causes it to slip away, or Vanko brooding and plotting his revenge. I realize that scenes like that might need a little more time, but I just thought they didn’t mesh all that well with the much faster action beats that we saw shortly after the beginning and near the end. Those action scenes were of course great, with some solid fight choreography and some really good dialogue from the characters that kept them entertaining. My favorite ones had to be the one where Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) and Black Widow break into Hammer Industries, and the final fight with Vanko, Iron Man and Rhodey. In both scenes, the heroes play off of each other really well, and come up with really creative moves and strategies to take down the thugs they’re up against.

Admittedly, while the action meshes well with the story and the story seems to be good enough, at least for a comic book movie like this, some elements of the plot seem a bit weird. For example, I know that Stark is a super genius and all, but creating a brand new element? Along with having his father map it out for him while he was still a kid, and the fact that it’s just what he needs to cure his poisoning? I could Google a bunch of arguments as to why this is very implausible, but then I remember that science in comic books isn’t usually on par with the real world, and promptly calm down. I am still a little irritated that it turned out to be such a MacGuffin. I also have to say that while I admire Marvel’s recent attempt at making their superhero films consistent by giving them their own continuity, I’m not sure I appreciated all these references to films that aren’t even out yet. I think this is something I’ll just have to get used to as other films come out, but it’s just kind of annoying that it’s so constant in this movie, especially in the third part and the teaser after the credits.

In short, Iron Man 2 has its own issues with plot elements and weak performances, but it surprised me in how much it got out of some characters as well as the story. I don’t know if it or Kick Ass is the superior super hero movie so far (once again, I didn’t get to see Kick Ass), but it’s certainly a pretty good movie on its own. I can’t wait to see what else this summer will have to offer.

Images courtesy of Eclectic Electronics, Coming Soon.net and trademark Marvel Comics/Paramount Pictures/Disney.

Super Half Assed Triple Review Time!

After a veritable long time drought of posts here, it looks as if it’s time to do yet another super-condensed quickie reviews.

Most of these movies have been out for quite a while though, so I won’t drag things out or use too many details since you guys probably know all about them by now. All I’m going to do here is just dedicate a paragraph to each movie, with each one just relaying my opinion.

Tonight’s movies are Up In The Air, Shutter Island, and How To Train Your Dragon.


With Up In The Air, there really isn’t much wrong here. It seems like Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner have churned out a very relevant, well written flick here. I think a lot of people will definitely be able to relate to the subject matter, and I found the ending to have a bit of a depressing bite to it, it really drove the point of the story home. I won’t spoil too much, but the goals that Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) had hoped to accomplish early on in the film end up seeming really shallow in the end. I’m not sure if it was entirely intentional, but I did kind of notice an overarching theme of how one shouldn’t automatically be so sure about the goals one sets in life, and how one should always prepare for any calamities that may occur, which I thought blended nicely with the premise of the film. As for the acting, I greatly enjoyed the snark of both Clooney’s and Vera Farminga’s characters, and this film also served as a great introduction to Anna Kendrick. She really portrayed her character’s naiveté well, and had some fantastic chemistry with Clooney. I don’t have too many gripes about this film, aside from the second half dragging a little and the utterly soul-crushing conclusion, which had me leaving the theater feeling a little down (although, like I’ve said about this kind of thing before, this was probably intentional). I actually think this can be counted as one of Reitman’s best.

I wish I could say the same about Scorsese’s Shutter Island, but I really think him and screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis could have done better with the execution for such an interesting idea.


There were some parts where they were clearly going for horror, but too much of this movie just seems like stuff that everyone has seen before done way better. The story and plot were also looking pretty good in the previews, but I felt like there were some parts where the themes of the movie were laid on a little too thick, especially the part where they are interviewing inmates of the asylum about the whereabouts and characteristics of the escaped patient, Rachel Solando. The run-up to the climax of the film is sort of weird and off-putting, it becomes a little confusing, and then when we arrive at the conclusion for some reason it just seems all too obvious. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt that way about the end of a mystery story before, but judging from other opinions about the movie that I’ve heard from friends and reviewers, I’m at least not alone in thinking that things got kind of confusing. It could be the way it was written, or the way Scorsese had it pan out, but I don’t know, maybe it was just me. Leo DiCaprio isn’t too bad as Teddy Daniels, but I found his fake Boston accent a little irritating, just like I did when he used it in the Departed. If he’s going to do another movie set in New England, I honestly think a voice coach wouldn’t be a bad idea. Michelle Williams was a little chilling in her role as his wife Dolores, and I liked Ben Kingsley a whole lot too. In short, I liked the movie for what it was meant to be, but it could have been written a bit better.


Now on to the most recent flick, Dreamworks’ How To Train Your Dragon. I really, really liked this film, it seems like Dreamworks made a super solid effort to not have the movie’s humor rely entirely on dated pop-culture references and gross “adult” jokes, which is pretty commendable for them. I loved Gerard Butler as the Viking lord Stoick, and Jay Baruchel brings some wonderfully smart assed-ness (ugh, I don’t even know if that’s a word or not, but whatever) to his role as the hero of the film, Hiccup. Yes, that’s his name, but trust me, he’s awesome. I’ll admit, I liked Astrid (America Ferrara) at first, but in the second half of the film she was kind of degenerated to the role of sidekick a little too quickly. I understand she was meant to be a secondary character in the first place, but I still found it a tiny bit off-putting regardless. The Viking kid who was a D&D nerd-type character (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) was kind of annoying. Also, it was really odd that the adult Vikings had brash Scottish accents, while the young’ins sounded like American kids (what makes this even odder was that real Vikings weren’t Scottish or American), but that’s kind of a minor gripe. Everything else though, the 3-D effects, the cinematography, the story, everything down to the extremely well crafted fantasy world, was done great. This film could serve as a good model for Dreamworks’ future films. Also, Toothless was wicked adorable, although that’s not surprising since he was designed by the same artist that did Stitch.

OK, that’s all settled at least. Sorry about it being so half-assed, but there you go.

I’m actually kind of proud that I’ve been able to keep this going for about a year (well, OK, sort of). In the meantime, though, I need to get really serious about forming a regular update schedule for this blog, because there are a lot of good-looking movies coming out this summer, and the window of time to talk about them in a relevant manner is shrinking.

Heck, Iron Man 2 is due in a couple of weeks, and between Mickey Rourke laser whipping racecars Crimson Dynamo style, and Scarlett Johannson as Black Widow, there’s no shortage of stuff to be excited about. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to review it.

Enjoy the pictures here, I got them from The Vine, Daemon's Movies, and Dreamworks. Sorry, I'm too tired for captions.

Oscar Night Update

OK, there's no better way to say this, so I'm just gonna say it. I decided to scrap those two blu-ray reviews I was going to do.

I regret fucking this up, but it's already pretty far out since the both of them were released, and there just wasn't enough time or interest to do them. Way too much going on. Besides, I think I'd rather focus on what's currently going on anyway. Also, there are a few things I want to write about soon that aren't just reviews, so I got to plan those out, too.

I do have a review planned out for tomorrow, but we'll see what happens.

Anyway, I guess the oscars are in about an hour. Best picture is probably gonna come down to either Hurt Locker or Avatar. I'm personally hoping the former will win, but knowing how political this all is it will probably be the latter. Ehhhh.....

My Computer Asplode

Well, I know you guys are tired of hearing this at this point, but for the 40,908th time, I'm sorry about the serious lack of updates.

The original plan, honest, was to keep updating through January, but my laptop caught some serious Trojans, which screwed things up so badly that I pretty much had to take it to the shop.

Long story short, after an impromptu hiatus Cinematic Supersonic is now back up and running, and yes, I plan to have those blu-ray reviews up by the end of the week. They're for movies that I saw over the summer but never got a chance to review, the first one being for The Hangover and the other Inglorious Basterds. I kind of feel bad about not reviewing these movies sooner, because both blu-rays came out around Christmas time and I think whomever reads this blog would've expected something by now. No worries though, they're coming soon.

Avataaaaaaaaaaar

Hello again! Once again I am super late to the party! It seems the bandwagon’s pulled in to Sherlock Holmes station already. Oh good, another movie I really want to see, but haven’t yet. I know, what a surprise!

OK, ok. First off, I hope everyone had a good holiday. Second off, while I also hope you guys enjoy this review, I must admit that there’s not much I’m about to say that hasn’t been said a million times already, so I’m just gonna try and keep it brief this time. Regardless, I hope it’s at least somewhat insightful.

Most everyone knows the plot already, so I won’t waste time here. Written and directed by James Cameron, Avatar focuses on the special mission of ex-marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who is sent to the moon of Pandora, a dangerous and exciting planet, by the US and by Colonel Miles Quaitrich (Stephen Lang) to figure out how Earth can obtain a special kind of mineral named “unobtainium” (ugh). In order to do this, he must participate in a project coordinated by scientist Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) that involves making a clone of himself in the form of the species of the native cat-like aliens on this planet, the Na’vi. This way, he can connect with the natives, and figure out how to get the mineral from their planet in a way that makes the people who want it look good. After meeting the native princess Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) however, things get a little complicated, as Sully starts to struggle with going back home to his old life, or staying as a Na’vi and protecting the natives from the people looking to take advantage of the plentiful planet and its resources.

Here in this shot, Colonel Quaitrich briefs Sully about Pandora, unobtainium, and of course, those damned Na'vi that mauled half his face off.

I know this sounds like just about every other critic, but the visual effects are very much astounding. It seems that Cameron has the whole uncanny valley problem under lock and key, with very few scenes where anything looks awkward or out of place. I was a huge fan of all the bioluminescent fauna, and of course the Na’vi themselves. If this is done right in even more films, the way the CGI is done here will definitely go on to influence how it’s done in the future.

It comes so close to looking natural, it's insane. I can't even tell is this shot is CG, or Saldana in makeup.

Unfortunately, the movie seems to share the same problems with character development and story that all of Cameron’s other movies have. Yet again, the actors do as well as they can with the roles they are given, no matter how poorly they are written. Worthington and Saldana undoubtedly had the best performances, although Lang and Weaver’s roles were done well enough too, despite their dialogue seeming a bit, for lack of a better word, cartoonish. That seems strong, but really that’s the best word I can come up with to describe they way most of the other characters sound. It’s not even that their performances are done bad, it’s just that most of them are such stereotypes that it kind of drags their performances down. I would have liked to see more of the major players fleshed out, especially Michelle Rodriguez’s character. I was particularly confused about her motivations in all this.

That aside, I feel as if the hype leading up to this movie got a lot of people’s hopes up, myself included, and now most of us were left wanting something bigger. I guess that’s our fault, but still, while Avatar was visually breathtaking and entertaining, it could have been so much better. Nevertheless, it is very much a standard “Hero’s Journey” archetype done really, really well.

Well, that’s all folks! I got a couple of blu-ray reviews coming up sometime in the next month or so, but until then, Happy 2010!

All images taken straight from IGN Movies. You can see more stills by clicking that link there.