Extraction: what Hollywood could and should learn from Inception

Amen Ali. Couldn't have said it better.

(spoiler below features "Shutter Island" spoiler as well)
* And on another front, I don't get why some try so hard to look for another interpretation when the literal one...the one the movie lays out for us right on the screen...makes perfect sense. I mean, I guess I do undserstand why -- it would be really cool if it was all a dream -- but, if we were presented with all the theories as to how it was a dream, I think we could find a hole in every single one. If the explanation presented makes sense, why do we think another explanation would as well?
I was guilty of this to some exent with Leo's last movie, "Shutter Island". I thought it would be a 'cooler' story if Leo's character really was sane and it was all a set-up to make him crazy, but it just isn't there *

Oh, um....How 'bout that Marion Cotillard!? I'd like to incept something in her, know what I mean!

*I think any argument that says 'it was all a dream' kind of misses the point of the whole movie. If we were to take it as true, it'd be a total cop-out ending that doesn't really improve anything that went before it.

If so, it means we never get to meet Cobb, we have no idea whether any of the other characters in the movie are even real, we have no idea whether anything described actually happened or not.

It's a theory that does hold a little water, but not from a thematic point of view. Nolan obviously left ambiguous moments in, like the one you described and obviously the very last shot, but they're just that - little easter eggs to generate discussion.

To me, the film works much better with the anchor of reality. It has a proper narrative and a proper structure as it is. Fan theories are fun, and it's the sign of a good piece of work that people want to dissect and study it, but I think people are missing the very obvious fact that it becomes a much worse film when you project this theory upon it.*

Edited at 20:20 on 23/07/10

*When Cobb was in the bathroom splashing water on himself he was about to use his spinning top but was interrupted and never tried it, that for me (when sampling the sedative) was when it all became a dream as up until then it had worked to "prove" he was in the real world.

No idea WHY that was the start of a dream, or who's dream it was, or anything like that...*

I also prefer the literal interpretation, my brain is still struggling with that let along loads of other theories.

Defo need to see it again asap!

I'll take the literal interpretation of the movie and be happy, instead of driving myself mad trying to come up with some explanation for how * it could all be in Cobbs' head *. I've seen it twice thusfar, the second time almost exclusively to try to get all the information straight (and to see Marion Cotillard all dolled up again, of course), and I just don't think any of the alternative theories work. Not for me, anyways. I left the theater after my first viewing, after the much-discussed last shot, going "Wait, what!?!?" like I assume many people did, but the second time cleared it up for me.

(I think now is a good time to state that I am by no means an expert on the movie...I'm just a dude that saw it in the theater...so wtf do I know

((Also, my apologies for all the Edit updates....me and the "spoiler" function almost had a fistfight))

Edited at 02:49 on 19/07/10

That theory you posted, for me is perfect, and although just someones theory does make a lot of sense!!