I didn’t think a movie could be more hyped — both in my own mind and in the collective conscious of young adult males — than The Dark Knight, but Inception proved me wrong. Now Batman “3″ is going to take marketing and internet nerd frothing to yet another level. Casting rumors will continue to flood the internet until official announcements are made. Pictures will leak off the set. Viral marketing will consume fanboys. There will be teasers for the teaser trailers. I, obviously, will fully take part in the insanity, as evidenced by my blog content leading up to TDK and Inception.

How did Christopher Nolan get to be both a critical and popular hero by the age of 40? I believe it’s time for me to make a Wikipedia appreciation post for Christopher Nolan.

Some critics accuse Nolan’s films as being cold and methodical, and I can understand where they’re coming from; it’s not like I can imagine Nolan making a comedy any time soon. It may not come as a surprise then that it seems like his career has progressed in much the same way. The man has just been a machine driving towards Inception, which — by all accounts — was his epic passion project.

His first full-length film was Following, a cheap and short black and white feature he filmed on weekends with his friends. It’s here that we become acquianted with Nolan’s affinity for secrecy, non-linear storytelling, and intricate plotting. It’s not about the characters here, but about the ideas, and the enveloping mystery.

The talent behind the film was plainly evident, and it was enough to get Nolan greenlit to make Memento. If Following put him on the film industry’s map, Memento introduced him to the general public, if only still a small portion of it. But he parlayed a $9 million budget into almost $40 million at the box office. He had taken yet another dark idea (actually, his younger brother’s); constructed it yet again in a unconventional fashion; threw in a heapload of themes like loss, revenge, and paranoia; and succeeded in creating one of the most compelling films of the past decade. He had taken full advantage of his first big opportunity.

This meant that a major picture studio came calling in the form of Warner Bros., asking him to direct an Al Pacino-led remake of a Norwegian murder mystery. Insomnia was a totally unnecessary remake — one considered inferior to the original by many — but it was embraced by critics and audiences nonetheless. I personally think it Nolan’s weakest effort, and that may be due to him having no part in writing the screenplay — the only film in his career where he didn’t. Nonetheless, it’s a solid film, and like I said, it was a hit.  The Nolan machine climbing to the top of Hollywood would not be stopped.

Inception might have shown that Warner Bros. loved Nolan enough to write him a blank check, but Batman Begins showed that they had trusted him even five years prior. You don’t give the responsibility to reboot a beloved, but all-but-dead franchise to just some flavor-of-the-week director.*

*You know what — disregard this sentence: Warner Bros. gave Watchmen to Zack Snyder.

Considering the previous four Batman movies had sunk progressively further into camp territory, Nolan — with his aforementioned proclivity for secrets and darkness — was the perfect man to bring Batman back to some sort of grounded reality. He (and co-writer David Goyer) got rid of most of the Batman gadgetry, turned the Batmobile into a tank, and even crafted an interesting and plausible backstory of how a coddled billionaire child could morph into man who takes down criminals while dressed as a bat. Yeah sure, there’s obviously still some suspension of disbelief required, but I think he did about as good a job one could do considering the source material.

Of course, the movie was successful on pretty much every level Warner Bros. could have wanted. Its critical reception was very positive; it grossed more than double its $150 million budget; and most importantly, much of the gross was due to massive word-of-mouth, indicating people loved it, and that a sequel would most likely fare even better, but is there a skin trade 2 movie.

But before Nolan tackled the goal of topping one of the best superhero movies ever, he went off to do The Prestige, a film he had originally hoped to do even before Batman Begins. It’s the one Nolan film I don’t feel too comfortable commenting on, as the only time I watched it I was slightly drunk and not paying full attention. I still know what happened, but I have not watched a second time to allow myself to delve further into the film. It seems like a fairly devisive film, but most people I know seem to fall on the side of love, some even holding it up as Nolan’s best. It doesn’t take a second viewing to realize it dwells in many of the same themes as Nolan’s other work — really, doesn’t a magician seem like the perfect subject for him? It’s like I’m convincing myself to go watch it right now. If only it were on Netflix Instant Watch…

The Prestige feels like the one aside in Nolan’s oeuvre so far, though. Up until then, it seemed like every film built on the one before it in terms of building his…prestige (I’m sorry). So while it may be a wonderful film, and a successful one as well, being squeezed in between the brilliant resurrection of a franchise and its billion-dollar sequel — well, it’s hard to compete.

Because it’s all about The Dark Knight isn’t it? It’s about that perfect storm of sequel hype, cast member death, and actual quality that created the monster that made Nolan quite possibly the biggest director out there. Naturally, James Cameron had to come out a year and a half later and release a film that made TDK’s box office haul look minuscule, but he did it with a film that was totally uninspiring. Nolan had filmed the performance for which everyone will remember Heath Ledger; Cameron had made a really good-looking, action-packed furry cartoon.

The Dark Knight was one of those rare superior sequels. Batman Begins was the somewhat intimate origin story, establishing Batman as the protector of Gotham; The Dark Knight was a crime epic that established Batman’s limits. Both films have their issues — mostly with their final acts — but they are pretty much as good as superhero movies get.

So how does Nolan top that? By coming up with a “original sci-fi film set in the architecture of the mind” — at least that’s all we knew for months. But I remember that alone sending me into a frenzy. Oh, and Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role. These bits of knowledge were plenty enough to make Inception my most anticipated film for a full year, if not longer.

I spent a year building up the movie in the mind, and the trailers only succeeded in driving my anticipation through the roof. Somehow, Nolan managed to exceed my expectations. It’s not often that someone (or something) continually impresses me, but Nolan is now in my top-tier realm basically only inhabited by gaming companies Blizzard and Valve. But this isn’t about my slightly-above-philistine tastes in entertainment, it’s about how Christopher Nolan has managed to combine intelligent films and crowd-pleasing blockbusters much like Steven Spielberg before him. He gets the Kubrick comparison a lot due to his calculating nature, but he’s just not at that masterful level. Nolan now makes his films for as wide an audience as possible, and I think that stops him from reaching his full potential.

Nolan has to go back and finish his Batman trilogy, and that seems like just another massive hurdle to climb. Can he manage to finish out a full trilogy without misstepping? How can he top The Dark Knight? Which villains are going to show up? Is Nolan going to scale back after the massiveness of TDK? At this point, I can’t bring myself to doubt him. Whichever direction he goes, I’m sure it will be immensely entertaining, and it will be just another notch in his belt. There aren’t many completely satisfying trilogies out there, and even less all directed by one man.

But after, I would like Nolan to explore another original idea, but this time to go all the way. I don’t want him to hold the audiences hand. I don’t want to even see him try to insert too much action, because it’s his weak point. I want an R rating if that’s what it takes to fully explore the material. If this means not getting another $160 million budget, so be it. I just want him to push the boundaries again, but I’m not sure he can do this within the limitations of blockbuster expectations.

But he’s surprised me before.

Christopher Nolan did it. He took a concept that’s been rolling around in his head for a decade, convinced a studio to give him $160 million to film it, and created the most original and spectacular blockbuster in, well, a decade. It really happened.

Think about the BIGGEST movies of the past 10 years. They are comic book adaptations, or television cartoon adaptations, or novel adaptations, or sequels to comic book adaptations, or rebooted franchises — you get the picture. The one obvious exception would be Avatar — the highest grossing movie ever. Unfortunately, while “original”, it was also one of the most derivative, predictable, and hollow movies you’ll ever see. But it sure was a 3D spectacle, I’ll give James Cameron that.

But I don’t want to even get into this argument. I really don’t. I just felt the need to address it before anyone challenges the claim in that first paragraph. Sorry, but Inception is THE most audacious blockbuster in years in ways other than just special effects and filming technology. But it’s not exactly a slouch with regards to the former, either.

I will keep this post as spoiler-free as possible, and probably make ANOTHER post about it later on, where I totally go off about everything within the film. And there’s certainly a lot to interpret here — including an ending that seems to have pissed off some and totally impressed others. I personally think it fits perfectly thematically.

The movie drops you right into the action, almost immediately disorientating you, slowly feeding you some explanations, but also leaving some questions unanswered until later on; you might not have even realized you had these questions, but the answers shed even more light on what you saw. You learn about “extraction” first, and then hear the word “inception”, which almost seems to be a dirty word. It’s apparently never been done before, but a powerful man named Saito (Ken Watanabe) wants it done. Dom Cobb, the character played brilliantly by Leonardo DiCaprio, insists it’s possible, and once Saito offers the only thing Cobb wants in the entire world, he has no choice but to accept.

And that’s where we’re off. Cobb needs to fill out his team with specialists, and in the process you learn what each of them have to do, and also what they need to figure out in order to accomplish the job. As a result, much of the next 45 minutes or so are filled with exposition, and it seems to be the part of the movie most detractors focus on, but I was enraptured the entire time. How could you not be interested in the intricacies of such a cool fucking concept? I just don’t get it. But this is coming from a guy who absolutely loves I, Robot — the book, not the Will Smith movie that killed Issac Asimov all over again — which is just a collection of logic puzzles based around three fictional laws of robotics. So yeah, I’m going to enjoy listening to people talk about entering people’s minds and the rules of time and world manipulation and subconscious projections and architectural paradoxes. How could you NOT love that stuff?

Even the discussion about how to implant the idea into the mind of the mark (played by Cillian Murphy) was fun to listen to, aided by the banter between Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Eames (Tom Hardy), who both fit their roles perfectly. Ellen Page plays her part as Ariadne wonderfully as well, playing the role of inquisitive, but aggressive, novice thrown into the world of dream manipulation. She quickly picks up on the problems Cobb’s subconscious — manifested in his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) — has created for his team, which forms the emotional core of the film. And it’s a heartbreaking core that reminds one of DiCaprio’s other film this year (also the only other movie I’ve seen in theaters this year), Shutter Island. One scene in particular features DiCaprio’s tremendous acting ability, where he manages to hit the perfect note of anguish and shock with only two words.

The only other relationship that truly matters in the film is the one between the mark, Robert Fischer, and his dying father. Admittedly, this relationship could have been fleshed out some more, but there was just no room, and I think Murphy sells its payoff as well as any actor could possibly have. Murphy’s work in the movie as a whole, even with the relatively small part he has, is phenomenal. Maybe I’m just letting out some built-up praise here, but the man is just a great actor.

But as I’ve already started to say, everyone does great work: Page, JGL, Cotillard, Watanabe (when you can understand him) — with Tom Hardy probably being the standout, if only because his shit-eating grin and accent just make for an awesome combination. My friend and I agree that Nolan will try his best to get him in the next Batman movie. At least I hope that’s the case.

Have I even touched on the action? And how this is not the same Nolan who filmed the action scenes in Batman Begins? You can actually tell what’s going on, and the entire last hour of the movie is just one big interlocked action set-piece, set up in the most goddamn brilliant way possible. There’s a car chase scene in the rain that includes a train and a motorcycle and a bridge. There’s a hallway fight scene — actually two — that will blow your fucking mind. And then there’s a snow fortress firefight that is straight out of a Bond movie. But it’s really all about the hallway and the choreography needed to come up with THAT fight. Shit, I clicked on Jimmy Fallon two nights ago as a clip of the fight started and my eyes were tethered to my television until it cut off halfway through and made me wish I could see the whole thing all over again.

And that’s what I did tonight. Yes, I am writing this after my second viewing in three days. Inception is everything I wanted and more. Christopher Nolan went balls-out with this movie. It is packed with an insane amount of ideas, combines a heist movie with a tragic story about love and obsession, questions how we perceive reality, and serves as an amazing showcase for sharp men’s clothing. I just don’t know where he goes from here. As an internet buddy said, “How the fuck does he go back to making a Batman movie after this?” I don’t know, but I’m anxious to see if he can continue to top himself.

EDIT: SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGdQURlmsjc

I guess it’s time for me to speak a bit more about Inception, since this is the week. There are some people even seeing advance screenings tonight. Perhaps surprisingly, I think my hype is at its low ebb right now. There are tons of gushing reviews and posts on Twitter and endless TV spots, but I’m just nonplussed. Perhaps that would be the wrong word — let’s just say they haven’t augmented my hype. I knew months ago that I would want to see the movie, and I knew that the movie would be awesome. Only a flood of scathing reviews could have affected my anticipation.

So right now I’m kinda exhausted from looking forward to this movie for half a year. There has been nothing else for me to latch on to for any excitement. I thought about checking out Predators, but it’s still hard for me to imagine ADRIEN BRODY filling Arnold’s shoes, no matter how good of an actor he might be (although, I guess that’s part of the problem). But he did get pretty ripped for it, and from all reports, they went in a different direction since they knew no one could fill in the shoes of guys like Arnold, Jesse Ventura, and Carl Weathers. Nonetheless, I can’t be bothered to gather any friends for a trip to the theater to see it.

Oh, I could have checked out Toy Story 3, but there was no way I was doing that without female company. That actually almost happened, but when it fell apart, I wasn’t about to push it. It’s not like I was anxiously anticipating it, anyhow. At nine years old, I already felt too old for the original Toy Story when it was released. I was all about Mortal Kombat. So I am left with Inception. Left to make a half-dozen posts about it. Left to post retarded shit on Twitter about it. Left to ask my friends if they want to go a midnight showing.

Somehow I feel like I’ll keep my record of ZERO midnight showings intact. I guess that’s why I’m only somewhat nerdy. Oh wait, no, I’m only somewhat manly. Full nerd. Damn it.

Earlier today, an embargo on Inception reviews was lifted. What followed was a flood of gushing praise that caused gushing of another kind. With 10 days to go until the first midnight showings, it’s time for hype to hit critical mass.

I’m just going to pull the review quotes from Rotten Tomatoes:

A wildly entertaining and dazzling mind-trip not to be missed. Kubrick would have been proud.

Inception is an exhilarating cinematic experience that suggests there is still room, even in the blockbuster world, for big ideas and dangerous emotions, and that may be the single most thrilling thing about it.

A devilishly complicated, fiendishly enjoyable sci-fi voyage across a dreamscape that is thoroughly compelling.

a stunning achievement and the most completely entertaining film I’ve seen in years.

Inception is a masterpiece. Making a huge film with big ambitions, Christopher Nolan never missteps and manages to create a movie that, at times, feels like a miracle.

I’m getting the sense that this movie is going to be pretty good. And thus concludes one of the least substantial blog posts I’ve ever made.

Edit: /Film made a similar post, only with longer excerpts instead of short quotes pulled from RT. And they used the same header. Weird.

I’m wondering when was the last time I was this excited this far in advance about an upcoming piece of entertainment. I’m sure a list would be a more effective and/or popular post (since everyone loves those), and maybe I’ll make one in the future, but right now I’m just going to ramble on about things that made me both hard in the pants and soft in the brain. With regards to soft in the brain, I present the example of how I wasn’t even hearing Joseph Gordon-Levitt correctly in the Inception trailer, despite watching it a half-dozen times.

Does something like Call of Duty 4 count? I don’t remember how much I was looking forward to that game before the beta hit and blew everything out of the fucking water. Yeah, after playing that beta, I was certainly looking forward to the full game, but I feel like the beta was equivalent to watching the first 30 minutes of Inception, or arguably even more. It was the FULL multiplayer experience, just limited to three maps — three maps which turned out to be some of the best in the final game. I played the beta for almost 50 hours; I think I got my money’s worth right there. I guess what I’m trying to say is that two months before that beta, I wasn’t watching clips of COD4 over and over again.

While attempting to think of other hyped-up things in the past couple of years, I can only think of The Dark Knight, which is probably indicative of my terrible memory or my incapability to think of anything not related to Christopher Nolan. But I don’t think I was ever as hyped up as I am right now, despite the amount of posts I made related to the film leading up to its release. There was no trailer that was as awesome as this Inception trailer — the latter of which I haven’t even seen in full 1080p glory on my HDTV yet. I will make another post just for that when it hits the internet. And really, the fact that The Dark Knight was so great despite being set in a comic-book world is only more reason to be flipping out at the prospect of an original Christopher Nolan film. It’s impossible for me NOT to be more excited about Inception than TDK.

So what else has there been? I don’t get too excited about music albums until singles or live performances of the album start trickling out, and even then, I don’t obsess over them for hours. I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to a book; I think this is a result of never reading Harry Potter or A Song of Ice and Fire or any current fiction authors, period. And television? Yeah, I certainly get excited about the season premieres and season finales and everything in between for shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men, but they are such small doses at a time that it’s impossible to get into a frenzy. It’s only after an episode blows my mind that I go apeshit.

That brings it down to movies and games, basically. Advertising companies really do their job with regards to movies — maybe a little too well. I hope I’m not burnt out on Inception by the time the movie actually comes out. With games, it was always my constant checking of gaming websites and GAF that would fuel my anticipation. Nowadays, I barely read any gaming sites and I rarely venture over to the gaming side of GAF, and as a result, I haven’t been hyped up for a game in a few years. Starcraft II would be a very good candidate, but as I recently explained, that beta pisses me off so much sometimes that I rather imagine a world where it doesn’t exist.

So that narrows it down to movies then. That’s the only entertainment I’ll be going crazy about beforehand from now on. And possibly only Christopher Nolan movies.

I didn’t think I would allow myself to get so excited over a movie nowadays, but I would suck dick to see the completed film after watching that. The music, the special effects, the suits…oh my fucking God. I already think it’s getting to be pretty much impossible for Nolan to live up to the hype, but I’m still hoping for my brain to be splattered on the person behind me by the end of Inception.

Even the official website is slick as hell, with awesome music to boot. You have no idea how hard it is for me not to totally lose it and spill all my thoughts out in caps right now, e.g., HOLY FUCKING SHIT I’M JUST LISTENING TO THE MUSIC ON THE WEBSITE IN THE BACKGROUND AND I WANT TO RAPE SOMEONE’S MIND.

No, but really, I can’t stop watching it. Holy FUCK. And it gave me a new poll idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Crw85HvIFs

Phillies 2012: A Look Ahead – MLB Trade Rumors gives me hope that the Mets will be able to win the NL East in two years. Hopefully by then Fernando Martinez will be in the OF; Ruben Tejada or Wilmer Floree, 2B; Josh Thole, C; and Jenrry Mejia in the rotation. I wonder if that last sentence was at all grammatically correct.

Ken Blackwell, Author Of ‘Blueprint,’ Tries To Convince Jon Stewart That Obama Is A Tyrant, Fails (VIDEO) – I’m just kinda embarrassed for this guy. He wrote a book and he’s not even able to back it up. At all.

Team Fortress 2: 119th Update! – I haven’t played TF2 for quite a while, but it’s easily one of my favorite games of the past few years, and it’s certainly one that keeps on giving. Valve rocks. I need to load it up just to get my GRIZZLED VETERAN medal.

The Chase is on – Adam Rubin lobby that Chase Utley is “poised” to take the title of Most Feared Opponent of Mets Fans from Chipper Jones. I’d say that already happened. My mancrush is only proof of how terrified I am whenever he comes to the plate. For an opposing player to already have unofficially claimed naming rights to a section of a stadium is just impressive.

Apple shutting down Lala music service – I thought Microsoft was supposed to be the evil company? Now I can’t stream the albums The A.V. Club reviews? Fuck you, Steve Jobs.

Blame The Superstar Syndrome – Why David Wright was getting booed. Or why Mike Francesa was saying to trade him a year and a half ago. Or why sometimes I end up talking about trading Jose Reyes.

Batman 3 Release Date Set – I was really tempted to make this its own post. But all I have to say is July 20, 2012. I hope it doesn’t suck; I don’t want Christopher Nolan to go out on a bad note before the world ends.

I just thought you’d like a reminder, considering there is basically no other interesting movie coming out anytime soon. But who knows, maybe you’re excited for Iron Man 2, or Robin Hood, or The A-Team, or Sex and the City 2. I really enjoyed Iron Man solely due to Robert Downey Jr.’s performance, but I’m just not excited at all for its sequel. Robin Hood looks like Gladiator 2: The Middle Ages, which would have appealed to the teenaged me, but I can’t see it rising above mediocre now. I’m not even going to acknowledge the other two.

There’s also Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Karate Kid, and MacGruber – all destined to be instant classics, I’m sure. Ok, I concede that Toy Story 3 will undoubtedly be in line with the quality of Pixar’s previous work, but I’m not a rabid fan and I’m certainly not going to see that in theaters unless there is a female next to me.

So yeah, the three months leading up to Inception look pretty goddamn bleak. I just want my Christopher Nolan fix. I should probably get it by watching Following, huh?

Just so there’s something new in the post, hit the jump for a viral video for Inception.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEItJLwvsF0

The poster may be just cut from The Dark Knight Template, but it’s still boner-inducing — probably due to that very fact.

Every sign points to Inception being fuck-awesome. Christopher Nolan. Leonardo DiCaprio. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (a.k.a. Heath Ledger 2.0). Ken Watanabe. Sci-fi. $200 million budget. It’s the perfect storm.

Let’s run down Christopher Nolan’s directing history:

Following – An extremely low-budget film noir, which happens to be sitting on my hard drive right now begging to be watched. I’ll probably update this post once I watch it. Allegedly very good, as evidenced by the 80% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Memento – A fantastic mindfuck of a movie that’s on a metric shitton of Best of Decade lists — including mine.

Insomnia – A remake of a Norwegian thriller. I vaguely remember enjoying it, but not to any great extent. I’m sure Pacino is entertaining, though.

Batman Begins – Totally revitalized a sinking franchise and turned it into the most prized property of Warner Bros. after Harry Potter. Set a new bar for comic book film adaptations.

The Prestige – A solid, if not spectacular film about two dueling magicians, Batman and Wolverine. Also had David Bowie in it. The ending is pretty damn fucked up, which gives it bonus points.

The Dark Knight - Set a new bar AGAIN for comic book movies. Got an amazing performance out of Heath Ledger, flipped an 18-wheeler, and blew up a massive building. No CGI for Nolan.

I think what I’m trying to say here is that there’s basically zero chance of this movie sucking. At the very least, it’ll be solid. It all likelihood, it will tingle your balls.

Just watch this teaser trailer. The city fucking BENDS IN ON ITSELF. I don’t even know what the fuck is going on, but I like it.

HD resolutions here from Apple.