Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Also, It Kind Of Made Me Sleepy
So, I tried to watch Inception, but after about an hour of watching DiCaprio act an annoying character in boring fashion and constantly muttering to myself "But dreams don't work that way" and contemplating the fact that my TV really is too small for movies that exist mainly to dazzle me with expensive special FX, I found myself getting distracted playing Scrabble on my phone, and half an hour later I gave up and turned it off. Possibly I was just not in the right mood. In fact, I'm sure I was not in the right mood. But, I dunno, mostly it just struck me much the same way The Matrix struck me when I first saw it. "Ooh, look how pretentious and full of myself I am about how clever and twisty and slick and original I am, when I'm really just serving up warmed-over Philip K. Dick!" Meh.
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I haven't seen Inception, but my reaction to The Matrix was much the same as yours. I was also annoyed by the daftness of the premise that you could somehow get more energy produced by humanity than would be required to keep everyone alive. It would have been far better to have left the reason for the Matrix shrouded in mystery than to have made it explicit.
ReplyDeleteYes, thank you! It's nice to know that I'm not the only one that bugged the crap out of. I mean, hey, I'm a Doctor Who fan, I can deal with bad science, but that was pretty egregious, especially in a movie that seemed to really want to be taken seriously, and it did not help my attempt to enjoy the movie at all. But the friend I saw it with just kept laughing at my angry grumblings about the second law of thermodynamics. :)
ReplyDeleteI think Inception definitely benefits from being viewed on a big screen, but I'd argue with the notion that there's nothing going on but expensive effects and warmed-over ideas. Then again, while I continue to find a lot to admire about Philip K. Dick, I'm not sure I've ever found a whole lot to love. Nor am I convinced that just because an idea isn't brand new, that means it can't be presented in new and interesting ways.
ReplyDeleteWhich, honestly, I thought both Inception and The Matrix did, in their respective ways.
The Matrix sequels, on the other hand...
Well, I didn't say there was nothing going on except for that, but there wasn't anything going on that I found especially worthwhile. And I very much agree that it's possible to do new and interesting things with an old idea. I just didn't think what Inception was doing with it was all that new and interesting. Or The Matrix, either, for that matter. And yet, I don't know, they both somehow give off these oddly pretentious vibes to me, as if they really think they're doing something more significant and impressive than they are, and something about that just annoys me.
ReplyDeleteBut maybe that's just me.