Thoughts on Inception

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

After watching Inception, one would think that they have everything figured out, well I really don’t have it all figured out. I do have some theories and ideas about the movie but that’s about it. Before I dive into some of my thoughts, for those who haven’t seen Inception yet, do not read as it will contain spoilers, yeah, last time I said that I didn’t want to say much but now I feel like sharing some of my thoughts and sharing some links on various interpretations. So WARNING: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN INCEPTION YET. Okay, now moving on. There are many different interpretations for the movie Inception as it is a very complex and deep movie. I want to start off by sharing some links with you that I have gone over and I find very fascinating, here is a great place to start:

NEVER WAKE UP: THE MEANING AND SECRET OF INCEPTION

inception: aftermath theories, thoughts, oscar buzz, and more

Inception Explained: Unraveling The Dream Within The Dream

The first link I really like, and one of the reasons that it sticks out to me is because it compares the idea of Inception performed by Cobb and his group to filmmaking. You think about it, Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the director, Saito is the producer, Ariadne (Ellen Page) is the set designer, Eames is the actor, and Mr. Fischer is the audience. Everyone performing Inception has a certain task that will help plant the idea into the audience. When we think about filmmaking, everyone involved in a good movie (one with a good story and theme) is trying to share the idea with the audience that will help them in their lives, yes filmmaking is about making money (as any job) but it is also to share a good story and good ideas with the world. Eames does say in the movie that in order to perform Inception, you need imagination, and that is very true with filmmaking as well. These ideas do come from the first link, but they are ideas that I totally agree with, so do give that article a read.

Now I do want to cover one part of the movie that a ton of people are debating about, the ending, was Cobb dreaming at the end, this one is easily debatable one way or the other. My opinion is that he is dreaming at the end. Here are some of my thoughts as to why he is dreaming at the end. Lets start off with when he enters the room to see his children, he goes into his apartment that he and his wife had, would have his or her parents kept the place, and the more interesting thing, his children are basically in the same place as they were when he left doing practically the same thing. They also look like they really haven’t aged, and they haven’t aged (which can be a hard thing to dispute entirely as we don’t know how long he has been gone) but they did sound a little older on the phone when he talked to them at the beginning of the movie. Here is another reason as to why I think he was dreaming at the end, for Fischer and Ariadne to get out of limbo they basically fell off the top of the collapsing buildings and kill themselves, and then they would end back in the 3rd level of dreaming. They needed to get out of all the levels of dreaming first before they could officially wake up. It seems like at the end when Saito killed Cobb and then himself, it’s almost as if killing themselves would only get them out of limbo and then back into the 3rd level of dreaming. At the beginning of the movie, Cobb shot Arthur in the head to wake him up but that only brought him back into the 1st level of dreaming.

Of course, this is my own interpretation, and these are only a few of the ideas that have stuck out to me, I could go on for a very long time, feel free to share your own in the comments section. Plus, I do recommend checking out the links provided, if I do find any more good ones, I will put them up.

Inception review

After seeing Inception, one thing is for certain now, Christopher Nolan is now one of the top directors of our time. He knows how to tell a good complex story. Trying to give you a review of this movie is very hard, as I don't want to give anything away really, I was one of those that did my best to stay away from spoilers of this movie, and that included not reading any reviews, except for skimming them to see how people felt about it. So when I went in, I went in expecting a good movie but had myself dedicated to pay attention to what's going on. I would probably say the biggest thing to do when watching this movie is to pay attention and focus on what's going on. I found the movie to be a mind blowing experience. The basic plot about this movie is about going into people's dreams. I don't really know what to say that won't give much of this movie away, the only thing I could really say is to go see it right now. It is a must see!

July update

Here with my recent update. Let me start off with the movie recommendations. Knight and Day, totally funny, unfortunately it didn't too well at the box office, which is unfortunate, as I found it to be a very good movie, and totally worth checking out. Another one that was very good and very funny was Despicable Me. Just a ton of moments where you bust out laughing. Grown Ups is also pretty funny, there were quite a few of those moments in the movie where you laugh pretty good. As for ones that you should avoid (yes, there are a couple of those) first off, Jonah Hex, nothing really good about it, the story just felt pointless, and my figuring was a movie that was only about 80 minutes long would have a lot more action sequences, there weren't very many in it, felt like it just had a ton of pointless moments, just overall not a good movie. The other one was one I bragged about wanting to see, The Last Airbender, I would like to see M. Night Shyamalan make a good movie, but unfortunately this wasn't a very good movie. The sad part was that it had potential to be a good movie, the set designs were good, but unfortunately the acting was terrible, the script had a ton of issues, a huge letdown, especially for Avatar fans. I haven't seen Eclipse or Predators, but I have heard Predators was pretty good, and I am sure Twilight fans enjoyed Eclipse.

As far as Blu-Ray and DVD releases go, there is Percy Jackson that came out a couple of weeks ago. I can't think of any other big releases that have made, nothing very exciting at the moment. I will share one movie that I found on Blu-Ray that came from Hong Kong, being a movie that was released from Japan, called Evangelion 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance. I saw Evangelion 1.0 You Are Not Alone earlier this year, and I thought it was a great movie, while Evangelion 2 is not available in the United States yet, I found a website that was selling a Hong Kong import on Blu-Ray with English subtitles and could play on region A Blu-Ray players, I decided to get it. While the first one was great, I found the new one amazing, very well done. The Blu-Ray was also in great condition, very good video and great sound. In fact, I am very excited for Evangelion 3.0 Quickening when that is released, which hopefully will be soon. The Evangelion movies are remakes of the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion that was released years ago. There are suppose to be four movies being released. As far as other Blu-Ray movies I discovered, I got a live concert of Kings of Leon that was performed last year, as I am about to see their concert next week, I decided to see how good they were, and they performed very good. The Blu-Ray was also in very good condition. I will soon have to go through a bunch of Blu-Ray releases within the last while and give you a good idea of what to look for as demo worthy material in your home theater, or just great movies overall.

As far as movies arriving soon. Look for The Sorcerer's Apprentice this Wednesday, and then on Friday, Inception will arrive in theaters, which is Christopher Nolan's (The Dark Knight) newest film, reviews so far have been excellent for the movie, I will share with you my review on the film once I see it.

Toy Story 3 review

I thought I would give you an update has arrived and what to expect the rest of the month, but first I would like to share with you with one really big surprise hit. Toy Story 3, it has been 11 years since Toy Story 2 hit the big screen. We have been given the opportunity to watch Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3D last October. I am sure there was a bit of doubt that they could pull off another Toy Story, and questions came up since Pixar has been making many great and wonderful original stories like Wall-E and Up, so why make a sequel to a great franchise, well, there was definitely one more great story to tell for the Toy Story franchise, about a kid who has grown up and is making one big move in his life, start college. So one of the big questions that comes up by his mom, "What are you going to do with these old toys?" Obviously Andy has out grown his play time and isn't into playing with toys anymore, and now all the toys are questioning what will happen to them, will they get thrown away, or what. I really don't want to ruin the movie for any of you, I am sure you all know that they end up at Sunnyside Daycare, and eventually they realize they need to get out of there, which of course is difficult. I will admit it was rather intense, especially for a family movie, but how they pulled it off was amazing, plus it had a ton of emotion to it. I am probably close to calling this the best out of the Toy Story movies, that's how great it is. You do not want to miss this one.

As for other recommendations, you should check out A-Team, it is a very fun movie to watch, with plenty of action and humor. Just a great movie overall. Another good one is The Karate Kid, I will admit that I do have my little problems with it, like the fact it almost felt like the first movie all over again, with little changes here and there, but honestly, all the little problems I had with it didn't really affect my overall opinion of the movie, I thought it was still a good movie, and I would recommend checking it out. Another movie that came out this weekend was called Jonah Hex, if you heard about it, I am sure you heard nothing great about it and the fact that it bombed at the box office.

As for what is coming out the rest of this month, expect Knight and Day this Wednesday, yes, I am really excited to see it, it looks like it should be a fun summer flick. We will also get Grown Ups this Friday, which looks pretty funny. Then next Wednesday, Twilight fans will be lined up for Eclipse. This has so far been a very solid month for movies, of course the rest of the month will determine if that's the case.

Of course we have July next with many different movies to expect, The Last Airbender will kick off the month and the Fourth of July weekend, along with Eclipse. Then July 9, we can expect Predators and Despicable Me, which looks funny. The following weekend, July 16, look for The Sorcerer's Apprentice with Nicolas Cage (should be a really fun movie) and then we will also get Inception, stars Leonardo DiCaprio and a bunch of other big name stars, and the director is Christopher Nolan (from The Dark Knight two years ago), so I expect this to be a huge hit, there is a lot of curiosity from watching the trailer, and the story seems so original, I am very excited to see it. So July looks to be a big month, I will go through more on July in a future post.

June update

Well, the movies that have come out this past month have been a bit of a mixture, but pretty good overall. Let me explain. First off, Iron Man 2, I really enjoyed it, while I didn't think it was as good as the first one, I still really enjoyed it and can watch it again and again. The next weekend, we got Robin Hood, it was good, but honestly, it fulfilled my expectations, except for the fact that they didn't exceed them, it was a good movie to watch, and it was a bit long, but I still think it's worth watching at least once. I also saw Letters to Juliet, yes, I can sit through a few chick flicks, I would compare this to Leap Year, it really wasn't entirely funny (according to me anyway) and it felt like it dragged in certain areas. The next weekend, we got Shrek Forever After, I wasn't looking forward to another Shrek, and I am sure there were many that felt the same way, but I saw it anyway, and I will be honest, it was actually pretty good, while not as witty or funny as the first, it was still entertaining and had some pretty funny moments, and I would recommend it. The next weekend, was the arrival of The Prince of Persia. This was not on my must see list at all, but I have to admit, it was good, plenty of action to go around, just a fun movie altogether. That is my review for May, some pretty good movies.

How does June look? Well, this weekend, I don't see anything that is really worth checking out, maybe something that a few will check out, but I am not really expecting any big hits. We have Get Him to the Greek, Splice, Marmaduke, and Killers. June 11, we have a couple of movies that should do fairly well, we have The A-Team which looks really entertaining and fun, and then The Karate Kid, while I don't think we need a remake to the original, this doesn't look bad and could be a decent hit, we will see though. June 18, we have Toy Story 3, which should be a huge hit, and I am sure there will be many families headed to the theaters for this one. We also got Jonah Hex, I really haven't heard anything positive about it, but who knows, it could be decent and fun to watch. June 25, look for Knight and Day, which has Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, judging by the trailers, it looks like it will be a fun movie to watch with plenty of action and humor, and then we also have Grown Ups, which has Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider, looks really funny, and should do fairly well. Then June 30, we have Twilight: Eclipse, what can I say, expect millions and millions of girls lined up at the theater to see Edward and Jacob. While this one crosses over to July, I am going to mention it, on July 2, two days after Edward and Jacob show up at the theater, look for The Last Airbender, the alternative for those who aren't wanting to see Twilight.

As for DVD and Blu-Ray releases, we now have Alice in Wonderland on DVD and Blu-Ray, just to let you know, for those who are looking at getting a Blu-Ray player in the near future, just get the Blu-Ray version that has everything, which includes a DVD copy of the movie, it looks great and sounds great on Blu-Ray, and is certainly great to look at. There is also The Wolfman for those who are interested. Another one I want to mention, for those who were excited for the U2 360 tour this summer, but were bummed when it got cancelled and pushed till 2011, you can get the U2 360 concert at the Rose Bowl last year on DVD and Blu-Ray, I picked up my copy of it on Blu-Ray, and it sounds awesome, also, it's great to see what they could have done if they had their concert this year, well, I am still holding on to my ticket for next year and see what happens. But nonetheless, it's still worth picking up for all U2 fans. I will continue to report on what to look for, and what my recommendations are.

One more thing, I mentioned a couple of posts earlier that there is a fan film for Mega Man, I would like to present the link for the movie, and for those who are interested, check it out here. It's actually pretty decent, but keep in mind that it's a fan film, and this isn't a big budget film.

Summer season starts with Iron Man 2

That's right, the summer season is here again, and it is time for our first movie to kick off this season. Expected to be a big hit, Iron Man 2 lands in theaters. How can you prepare for this new entry, watch the first one today or tonight, and then you will be ready for the new one. Maybe you already know the first one by heart, but still, it doesn't hurt to watch again. If you don't have it, pick it up, I am sure you can easily find it somewhere for a good price. I will try to see it sometime this weekend, if not, I will for sure see it on Monday.

Also, like I said in my last post, you can see the new Mega Man fan film tomorrow. It's free, and it will be on www.screwattack.com

I also picked up a couple of new Blu-Ray movies lately, Armageddon and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. They both look and sound great. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was Heath Ledger's last film he was working on when he died two years ago, and they were able to finish it. It is a very different movie, but is something that I think is worth checking out. Oh yeah, something I forgot to mention when I talked about the Avatar Blu-Ray, you may need to update your Blu-Ray players to play new Blu-Ray movies like Avatar, if some of you were having trouble playing Avatar on Blu-Ray, that was probably the reason why, you needed to update your player, it's fairly easy to do, just follow the instructions in your manual to know how to do so.

Well, this should be a great summer. I am excited.

Mega Man Fan Film coming May 7

I don’t remember if I ever brought this up, but there is a fan film for Mega Man in the works right now, and it’s in the final stages of being completed. I am excited to see how it turns out.



To start off, I am a big Mega Man fan, I have been playing the Nintendo games for it when I was about six years old, it was the series of games that I always enjoyed playing, and could play for hours, even today, I still play a lot of it, and honestly, I don’t play too many video games these days, but whenever I do, it is Mega Man that I will play. Right now, I have a GameCube game that has all the original Mega Man games that were for the original Nintendo. If you have never played it, I am sure if you have a Wii you can download a few of the original games of the series for it. You could also go to a game store like GameStop and they may have Mega Man Anniversary Collection previously played for the GameCube, Playstation 2, or even the XBOX I think. Anyway, they have been fun games for me growing up, and still today. There are many versions of Mega Man today, there is the classic Mega Man, there is also Mega Man X which was made for the Super Nintendo, then there is Mega Man Zero for the Game Boy Advance, and also Mega Man Battle Network for the Game Boy Advance, and so on.





Back in January of last year, I first heard about this movie, I saw the trailer, which you can view here. It wasn’t the type of movie that was made with $300 million, but it looked okay. I started to get excited for it, starting around July, I kept an eye out for news on when this movie would be available to watch. Well, a few months ago, they announced that it would be arriving on the internet on May 7. About a week ago, they provided a new trailer, which you can find here, and now I am more excited for it, I know it won’t be a huge movie like Avatar or Lord of the Rings, but it does look really good for a fan film. Look for the movie on www.screwattack.com on May 7, and it’s free. I should be receiving a copy of the movie on DVD sometime around May 7, so around that time I will be watching it and writing a review for it.



Also on May 7, look for Iron Man 2 in theaters! I am very excited for May, and there are several reasons why.