Allegiances

Note: I advise you don't read this if you haven't seen Inception yet.

There's one thing that I've noticed these days. In fact, it's not exclusive to the past few years at all when you think about it.

A certain people, or type of people, feel that there must be an allegiance with certain companies or products. I only really noticed this in the build up, and subsequent time after, the release of Christopher Nolan's new movie, Inception. A lot of people believe Christopher Nolan to be one of the greatest storytellers of all time. I love his earlier work, particularly The Prestige and Memento. However, I personally feel that he's become quite akin to Michael Bay, if Michael Bay had any shame. Both directors rely on their action sequences to push their movies forward.

For example, what do you think will be the most memorable scene from Inception? In years to come, what will be the scene that everyone remembers? What will be its The Matrix dodging-bullets moment? Will it be the scene with Eames driving around the Modern Warfare 2 snow level? Or the scene with Cobb and Mal walking around Limbo? Or even the climax of the movie when Fischer meets his father? No, it'll be the scene with Arthur fighting in the corridor while the gravity shifts. It was an awesome scene, that is undeniable, but it is an action scene that must be there, otherwise the plot doesn't move forward.

Take a look on the other hand at The Prestige. In my opinion, the most memorable scenes in that film is the climax. The 'oh shit' moment when you realise that there's one last twist left. That culmination of the entire plot told from a different angle is so well paced and beautifully scripted, no action is needed. The Prestige is a movie in which the plot is furthered by the mystery. The second half of Inception is basically one big action sequence. While yes, very exciting, and hellishly tense at moments; it reeks a bit of the Michael Bay School of Cinema at times.

So, what has all this got to do with allegiances? When The Dark Knight was released, a huge gust of fanboyism spread over many many people, and they felt that it was the best movie ever made. In fact, it made it to the #1 spot on the IMDb Top 250 list. People lapped it up. Only after the dust had settled have we been able to see how The Dark Knight is far from a perfect movie. Unnecessary moral dilemmas, dumb action sequences and questionable acting from the majority of the cast produced a movie that ultimately did not live up to the hype. However, the dest never seemed to settle for some, and they knew that they were going to love Inception from the moment they saw the first teaser trailer. They had a built-in allegiance to it.

Regardless of what you think of my opinions on both The Dark Knight and Inception, you can't ignore that it is currently #3 on the IMDb Top 250, just behind The Godfather and just ahead of The Godfather, Part II. You can't ignore that the same gust of fanboyism that swept over The Dark Knight is also sweeping over Inception. People feel that whatever Christopher Nolan releases turns to gold, when actually it's fool's gold. It looks like gold, and you can want it to be gold all you want, but it just isn't gold. The same thing will happen in a few years' time when the next Batman movie is released. That, I can guarantee.

I never really meant for this to be a review of The Dark Knight or Inception. I think I might actually review them in detail, and perhaps draw comparisons between them, and see how Christopher Nolan is evolving as a director and storyteller. Is he good? Yes, very. Is he amongst the greatest storytellers of all time? No, not yet. He needs to stop dumbing-down his movies. People complained that Inception was difficult to follow, and that I never understood. I was able to follow it from beginning to end without issue. Perhaps it's because I'm a sci-fi fan and have seen this type of thing done before, but I don't think so. I have a friend who said the exact same thing, and he's not big into sci-fi. If you compare Inception to The Prestige or Memento, you can clearly see how Christopher Nolan is much more into holding the audience's hand through the movie.

Also, I think the ending of Inception was cheap. It was made so that people would be talking about it and discussing it. How much better would it have been if the top kept spinning throughout the credits? I tell you, you'd be stuck to your seat. I feel Nolan should have come down on one side of the fence. There was no real reason to have the top spinning, apart from being a stupid ambiguous ending.

Anyway, these feelings are for another day. Let's move on.

Another example of allegiances come from brands. "XBox 360 or PS3? Mac or PC?" Really, all these machines are the same as their counterparts. Are the differences between the XBox 360 and the PS3 so huge that it's worth getting into huge arguments before. I personally own a PS3, but I have no allegiance at all to Sony or the Playstation line. Yes, I have owned a PS and (two) PS2s But those were the best consoles at that time. I preferred the games on the Playstation over the N64 or the Dreamcast, so I got it. The PS2 never really had a rival until the XBox was released, by which time I'd had my PS2 for over a year and was building up a library of games. This, ultimately led to my decision to get a PS3. My PS2 and PS games play on it, so I had a much bigger selection of games to play. Also, I never liked the XBox 360 exclusive titles, so they weren't enough to sway me. I could have easily have got an XBox 360 instead, but I didn't. Will I blindly support Sony and get the PS4 ahead of the next XBox or Nintendo console? No, of course not. If I feel it's a better machine, more worth my money, then I will. If not, then I won't. Simple decision.

Now, my decision to get a Mac stems from a slightly more different line of reasoning. I've used PCs all my life. I wanted a Mac originally because of how they looked, I'll be honest. I didn't get one at that point however, instead I got a Toshiba. After one year, and a startup that took over 5 minutes, I decided I needed a change. My best friend had recently got a Macbook and I'd been using it quite a lot. I loved how quick it was and the OS was really straightforward. I admit that if I want to code a game or something, a Mac isn't the way to go. In fact, at the time I was doing my A-Level ICT coursework which involved creating a database and GUI in Microsoft Access, which you can't get for Mac. To my enjoyment and to the hush of my classmates who were berating me for buying a Mac, I loaded up Parallels and booted Windows XP, with the full Office suite installed. I got 100% in that coursework by the way. Boo-yah, as I believe nobody says these days.

But, do I defend Apple and all their misgivings? Will I go out and buy the next Macbook or Macbook Pro? I might, but not based on a comparing of the facts. My dad would always point out to me how "This Dell laptop has blahdeblah more RAM and blahdeblah more HD space". The fact is that those things don't matter, if the operating system doesn't use them efficiently. Yeah, my Macbook may have only got 2GB of RAM when I could have got a Dell or an HP at the same price with double the RAM. However, they would have been running Windows (7, to be particular). I personally don't like Windows 7. I loved Windows XP, and my last 'PC' ran XP. I've never owned a laptop that ran Vista or 7, and I'm glad. While Vista did improve, I hated how brutally slow it was. My mum has a computer currently running Vista and it's absolutely hateful. Sometimes it boots, sometimes you have to reboot it to get it to boot. However, do I think that Macs are better than 'PCs'? No, because that's not the question. The question is, do I think that OS X Leopard is better than Vista or 7? And the answer is that yes, I do.

I have no allegiance to Apple however. I like their products, but I'd have no hesitation in buying a better one. When it came to getting a new phone, I looked at every phone other than the iPhone, because I felt that it was too expensive for what it was. It just so happened that by a lucky set of circumstances, I was able to get my sister's one, then lower the contract. The fact is that an HTC costs just as much as an iPhone. If you want a phone that is as good as the iPhone, you have to expect to pay the same amount as the iPhone. In which case, why not just get an iPhone? The attraction to the iPhone will always be the App Store. While I know how much more potential it has as I've experienced a jailbroken iPhone, I still think the App Store is the selling point.

Fact is, base your opinions on the current state of affairs, not on past records or achievements. Sure, when deciding if a movie is going to be worth going to see, looking at the director's CV is a good move. But, love it for what it is. Love it for tangible reasons, and recognise it's flaws, as nothing is perfect. Don't make yourself love it because the same director made another movie that you love. I loved The Matrix, but I didn't think that the others in the series were of the same calibre. I recognised that at the time. Don't feel you have an allegiance to a director. If you support them, then you should be searching for flaws in their movie. Point out what is wrong, what works and what doesn't. That way, a director can improve and create better work. Christopher Nolan is a director who wants to create smart movies, and he does. But his recent works are baby steps compared to the leaps his previous works were. In my opinion, Nolan needs to learn how to tone down the dumb action sequences and moral ambiguity which add unnecessary fat to a great movie.

I want to make this clear; I loved Inception. I've not been that tense in a cinema for a long time. I just hate the glowing reviews it is getting that say things like "Can it be any better than The Dark Knight?". I feel like people assume that it is a great movie based on Nolan's resumé. "He's Christopher Nolan, of course it's a masterpiece." That doesn't fly with me, and it shouldn't fly with you.

This was a long one folks, and I appreciate it if you made it this far! I'd really love to hear your opinions on this one, seeing as it seems to be something that is steeped in internet culture. I'm taking a break from blogging over at FringeFX, so I should be back up here for a bit! I'll be posting up a kind of back-catalogue of posts that I posted on FFX, so expect those soon.

Until then, be smart.

-Simon