[savantguy]

Ok so I saw inception a couple of days ago expecting to have some sort of intellectual challenge or some new insight on the world, etc... well nothing like that happened. I was wondering if INTJ's just see this movie vastly different from the other personality types as most everyone else (even people I consider intelligent) just had such a different experience with this movie. Checking IMDB it has a whopping 9.2 rating. I mean this is like in the top 250 on imdb, it still needs a couple hundred thousand votes to solidify that but come on.. a 9.2?? It was a good movie, but my expectations (because of how people talked about it) were not met in the intellectual content.

Some points:

- This movie referenced "memes"
- It didn't feel overly complex to me
- I just have a hunch that this movie used NLP and created a meme inside of the viewers to tell their friends about how amazing this movie is.

So what was your take on the movie?

 

[Malovane]

Well, the "twist" at the end was pretty funny.

I don't think it was a very complex movie, really.. pretty straightforward. But, I guess I thought the idea, while good, wasn't fully developed.

I've just always had other ideas... like, hey... wouldn't that technology be really damn useful for training people? You could give several lifetimes of knowledge in a single month of sleep time. Hey.. maybe we're all being trained right now. Wouldn't it be great to use in business? Imagine all the time you could spend innovating (and the way you could). The possibilities are huge, and if we all of a sudden had that technology, you can bet it would be bigger than the internet.

Yet, in the movie... the technology is apparently widely known, and has been around a while.. but it's use is apparently limited to corporate espionage, and giving some bums a good time. The really long honeymoon idea was pretty good, though.

 

[L'Empereur]

It's my favorite movie this year, after Shutter Island. ^__^

 

[very bored]

I saw the movie with my family, and I was the only one who knew what was going on, despite being the only one who didn't know the characters' names. :laughing:

I thought following the action was easy. I even predicted the "twist" when the scene started. My only disappointment with the movie was that I didn't notice a reference to the butterfly dream

Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.

Some points:

- This movie referenced "memes"
- It didn't feel overly complex to me
- I just have a hunch that this movie used NLP and created a meme inside of the viewers to tell their friends about how amazing this movie is.

What memes did the movie make references to?

 

[savantguy]

Well what I mean is when they said "dont think of an elephant". That was a flashing light for me to watch for NLP and meme creation inside the movie. Sort of like layers deep in the dialog. In other words, I can tell a story to someone that on the surface is just a simple story about someone, but under the surface it has a metaphor that also creates an idea. Sort of like "the moral of the story", but you can do it in a way that instead asks a certain question and steers the listener in a specific intended direction.

So as soon as I heard that line in the movie, I might have just shut off to be open minded about the movie. I have learned through research and experience that memes/propaganda are everywhere. I thought this movie might have been using NLP technology to "virally market" itself. From all the people talking about it, that itself is the meme. Its kinda like everyone watching the movie is a bumper in a pinball machine and when they leave the theater people hear the noise (talking about the concepts in the movie) and come see what it is.

I am actually kind of pissed that I didnt get the emotional high that EVERYONE seems to be getting from this movie. I didnt leave the movie with this new take on the world or even defend the movie as a freaking 9 out of 10 (yes I have argued with someone and they think I just didnt get it or I need to see it again).

It almost seems like I am more interested in the writers intentions of the movie than the movie content itself..

Anyways I wanted to post on the intj forum to see if this is just me being wierd/stupid or if this is something with my personality.

 

[Malovane]

Well what I mean is when they said "dont think of an elephant". That was a flashing light for me to watch for NLP and meme creation inside the movie. Sort of like layers deep in the dialog. In other words, I can tell a story to someone that on the surface is just a simple story about someone, but under the surface it has a metaphor that also creates an idea. Sort of like "the moral of the story", but you can do it in a way that instead asks a certain question and steers the listener in a specific intended direction.

So as soon as I heard that line in the movie, I might have just shut off to be open minded about the movie. I have learned through research and experience that memes/propaganda are everywhere. I thought this movie might have been using NLP technology to "virally market" itself. From all the people talking about it, that itself is the meme. Its kinda like everyone watching the movie is a bumper in a pinball machine and when they leave the theater people hear the noise (talking about the concepts in the movie) and come see what it is.

I am actually kind of pissed that I didnt get the emotional high that EVERYONE seems to be getting from this movie. I didnt leave the movie with this new take on the world or even defend the movie as a freaking 9 out of 10 (yes I have argued with someone and they think I just didnt get it or I need to see it again).

It almost seems like I am more interested in the writers intentions of the movie than the movie content itself..

Anyways I wanted to post on the intj forum to see if this is just me being wierd/stupid or if this is something with my personality.

Well, I understand where you're coming from. I'm constantly noticing propaganda in movies, and usually it's a big turnoff. Being INTJ, I believe, kind of makes you more insulated to the emotional (and mental) strings they like to pull. When you notice it, the aversion to being controlled kicks in full force.

I didn't notice any NLP in Inception. I just think that your normal person would find it entertaining and different. With all the re-hashed garbage coming out of Hollywood these days, that's not really too hard to do. The pink elephant scenario just seemed to be an attempt by the screenwriter to explain some basic concepts you might find in Philosophy or Psych 101, so those people who never really thought about any of this stuff would have some remote clue into what was going on.

Did it deserve a 9.2? Probably not, and I'm sure it will drop in rankings over time. Each of the Lord of the Rings was in the 9.x category to begin with. Did they deserve it? Not really. But they were "new and different", so there was a great deal of hype that went along with it. Same sort of thing with Inception.

 

[jbking]

Eh, well...

I found it to be a good movie, but not a great movie. There are some interesting points that one could discuss about the movie, like how do we project ourselves where Saito was old and Cobb wasn't in a couple of scenes, what sense of time do we have, etc. There are more than a few things not described well in the movie that may be a hang-up for some people,e.g. where does the architect's plans go to get into the shared dream? However, the movie did play on some interesting themes like redemption and manipulation that I can enjoy watching.

For myself, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd likely give it a 7. While it didn't change my life as I know it, which is what a 10 would be for me, it did give me some stuff to ponder as I have my own interpretation of the whole thing.

 

[dagdraumur]

I thought it was cute. Just a little brain teaser to distract my mind for a moment. Their attempts at manipulation were not as malignant as those present in Avatar. They laid out a few traps, and some people fell for them, but nothing horrible that I noticed. The plot was uneventful, and the main character is such an unreliable source of information that his motivations can hardly be taken seriously. In the end it was just a fun web of dialog, and a maze of thoughts and conclusions with no sustenance to flesh it out. I liked it well enough.

 

[akkadian]

Over-hyped. Underdeveloped. 8.7/10.

 

[Monkey Fritz]

Spoiler Alert

The first twenty minutes or so was the most entertaining because my mind was busy putting the plot together. Then it fell off to a decent movie. The "twist" at the end was not only predictable, but was not as good as the twist I was expecting, it also left a big logic hole.

They attempted to raise the question "did his wife die, or was he stuck in the dream?" which leaves a fifty percent chance that the entire plot never really happened. Yet he spun the top in previous scenes which proved (according to the film's logic) that his wife really did die. Which ruins the whole twist.

All in all it was a good movie (the fight in the hotel was worth watching the movie for) and I enjoyed the twenty minutes of brainwork necessary to figure out the plot before it was explained. Beyond that it had nothing on the Thirteenth Floor or The Matrix, both 9's in my opinion.

I give it a seven.
(most recent 9 I would call is Outlander)

 

[Branden]

I found the film very average, a 6/10 at best.

I thought there were a number of expandable plot holes.

The idea was sketchy and not as well developed as it truly could have been.

I also figured out the "twist" ending the instant the technology was explained (early in the film). Obvious.

Mind-expanding fiction, Bah. :bored:

 

[susurration]

The first twenty minutes or so was the most entertaining because my mind was busy putting the plot together. Then it fell off to a decent movie. The "twist" at the end was not only predictable, but was not as good as the twist I was expecting, it also left a big logic hole.

Have you considered the idea that the end scene was not a twist at all?

 

[very bored]

Spoilers

Have you considered the idea that the end scene was not a twist at all?

How could it not at least be intended to be a twist?









He goes home, sees his kids, and then we see the top, and the movie ends.

 

[Codger]

 

[Isis]

spoiler alert

The first twenty minutes or so was the most entertaining because my mind was busy putting the plot together. Then it fell off to a decent movie. The "twist" at the end was not only predictable, but was not as good as the twist I was expecting, it also left a big logic hole.

They attempted to raise the question "did his wife die, or was he stuck in the dream?" which leaves a fifty percent chance that the entire plot never really happened. Yet he spun the top in previous scenes which proved (according to the film's logic) that his wife really did die. Which ruins the whole twist.

All in all it was a good movie (the fight in the hotel was worth watching the movie for) and I enjoyed the twenty minutes of brainwork necessary to figure out the plot before it was explained. Beyond that it had nothing on the Thirteenth Floor or The Matrix, both 9's in my opinion.

I give it a seven.
(most recent 9 I would call is Outlander)

I agree that the film seemed predictable... what became somewhat interesting was considering whether the whole embedded matrix of dream events (ie every single layer of all the dreams) was in fact all part of the Leonardo di Caprio character's dreaming. (I know--he's attacked by some of the subconscious elements of the dream spaces, but his wife is supposedly one of these as well, and all of the supposedly "real spaces are constructed using the same cutting shot to shot as the disconnects that indicate dreams to other characters).

It was nicely done, and had I not previously seen Total Recall, Memento, The Matrix, Tron, Labyrinth, Existenz, The Usual Suspects, Blade Runner, Planet of the Apes, Ronin, and Lawnmower Man, it would have been quite good.

On a side note, I thought The Matrix was excellent until the two sequels came out, and it went from being a fabulous film to part of a rather crummy trilogy.

 

[dalsgaard]

Inception was overhyped, but that's inevetable. It was a good movie but I still prefer The Matrix. Inception lacks a greater backstory like a mythological overlay that explains everything on a more subjective level. As it is it left me leaving the cinema in wonder but not as a changed person. It didn't have that grand lifechanging impact that is usually associated with these epic movies.

 

[dalsgaard]

I can't believe you guys agree with me! That's a first! Everyone seems to be hyping this flick.

 

[OmarFW]

It was overhyped but it was still amazingly original and fluid. I would really have to nitpick to find certain parts of it that they could've done better.

It's one of my new favorite movies.

 

[Monkey Fritz]

On a side note, I thought The Matrix was excellent until the two sequels came out, and it went from being a fabulous film to part of a rather crummy trilogy.

just pretend the other two don't exist, or were filmed by a rival corporation in order to corrupt the original. At least, that's what I do, lol.

 

[Isis]

just pretend the other two don't exist, or were filmed by a rival corporation in order to corrupt the original. At least, that's what I do, lol.

If only.... even Cornell West couldn't salvage it for me...