09-04-2010, 04:53 PM
somebody made a response to my thread over there, so i'm bringing it over here:
It was okay right up until the end. Then it went all Mission Impossible 2 on me. The sheer volume of near-misses broke the Suspended Disbelief contract: you have to be reasonable, relative to the story, for me to stay immersed. With the end being a series of instances that all conclude in the same instant when everybody is supposed to be merely human I'm like... :|
I accept that the characters were shallow as dirt and the movie was about some zany mind-fuck, but really? The whole development of Cobb's character was that he was a self-centered objectivist. Others' desire didn't bother him (ie; laws, he's a criminal), his partners didn't matter (the guy who was taken away in the beginning), life as a metaphysical concept didn't matter (committed murder/suicide to escape the lifetime he spent inside his own mind), his family didn't matter IF they were just projections (killed the projection wife several times, ignored projection kids every time). His character bewares the traps of self-delusion from all angles, which is what makes the whole multilayered mind-fuckery suspenseful.
But the conclusion. His totem was the core of his character. Am I supposed to believe his "real kids" faces were his real totem and the spinning top was an auxiliary totem? The Asian guy knew about his kids, so it's plausible they COULD have been a projection meaning the spinning top is still the only objective standard. When he left it spinning it was as if Cobb was torn into a million little pieces and thrown into the air like confetti. It wasn't ambiguous, it was asinine.
I know a lot of people like the movie. So here's a question. WHY?
It was okay right up until the end. Then it went all Mission Impossible 2 on me. The sheer volume of near-misses broke the Suspended Disbelief contract: you have to be reasonable, relative to the story, for me to stay immersed. With the end being a series of instances that all conclude in the same instant when everybody is supposed to be merely human I'm like... :|
I accept that the characters were shallow as dirt and the movie was about some zany mind-fuck, but really? The whole development of Cobb's character was that he was a self-centered objectivist. Others' desire didn't bother him (ie; laws, he's a criminal), his partners didn't matter (the guy who was taken away in the beginning), life as a metaphysical concept didn't matter (committed murder/suicide to escape the lifetime he spent inside his own mind), his family didn't matter IF they were just projections (killed the projection wife several times, ignored projection kids every time). His character bewares the traps of self-delusion from all angles, which is what makes the whole multilayered mind-fuckery suspenseful.
But the conclusion. His totem was the core of his character. Am I supposed to believe his "real kids" faces were his real totem and the spinning top was an auxiliary totem? The Asian guy knew about his kids, so it's plausible they COULD have been a projection meaning the spinning top is still the only objective standard. When he left it spinning it was as if Cobb was torn into a million little pieces and thrown into the air like confetti. It wasn't ambiguous, it was asinine.
I know a lot of people like the movie. So here's a question. WHY?
![[Image: rsz_jqvaz_1.jpg]](http://z6.ifrm.com/4805/72/0/p1022159/rsz_jqvaz_1.jpg)