Sigil Reviews: 'Inception'

SPOILER ALERT! (Well no, not really)

Inception.

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Part sci-fi, part heist flick, part James Bond adventure, part desperately sad love story.

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Certainly a movie that most likely wouldn't have been made had it not been for a certain other little movie making a killing at the box office. In all the interviews I've read and seen of Christopher Nolan at work, he always appears a rather restrained, polite yet imaginative child set free in his own little sandbox environment, and that feeling comes across even more so in this movie than his Batman endeavours.

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It's been a few weeks now since I saw this, with much ho hum dreary work in between. I should see it again - it's certainly a movie that demands at least a second viewing.

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So what's it all about then? Well that's the trick you see. On one level it's an adventure tale about a group of dream invading thieves trying to give something rather than take, on another it's about a man dealing with a lost love who might not be lost after all.

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This is one of those movies where the actual outcome is up to how you interpret events. Some have commented that the last scene is one where the viewer is beaten too strongly with the 'Aha! See what happened here!' stick but I don't agree.

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In fact, I felt that the scene dares you to think the opposite. In this age of often far too clever for themselves movies with their surprise endings, I took the last scene as one that dared you to think 'No, this is not a trick - for once, what happened, happened.'

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You really need to see the movie to understand what I'm getting at. I don't intend to really go into plot details here at Sigil as to be honest, movies to me are more about how I feel when I leave the theatre - far better that you go and see a movie (good or bad) than me tell you what happened in it.

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Highlight was the gravity defying hotel fight concertinad inbetween two other existing and simultaneous action scenes. Lowlight (unfortunately) was probably Ken Watanabe's mangled English. I've never had a problem with it before, but he was just a bit hard to comprehend in certain scenes - perhaps it's my ears finally giving out after too much loud music. Oh, and Leonardo DiCaprio was rather good, too. I've tended to write him off over the years, but he actually seems to have become quite the actor (Shutter Island was quite a treat as well - although the characters were not dissimilar).

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I give Inception 4 levels of dreams within dreams out of five.

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Next up, another movie laden with special effects and interpretation: Scott Pilgrim Vs The World!

Druchii - Part 6

In a masterful show of understatement - let me simply say "It's been some time."

Having said that, my thoughts have often returned to hobby when not dealing with work or child rearing. In addition to the variants of Warhammer, I've been knee deep in exploring Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition which, despite some intital scorn, has grown on me. More of this latter.

The Dark Elves have circled my thoughts often, with ideas (both consistent and contrary) popping in and out at whim.

Here, then, is proof of concept of something that I've been toying with in my mind for some time - a converted harpy:

The original harpy models are quite old and not very dynamic - not to mention ugly. This conversion uses the body of the new Slaaneshii daemonettes with the wings of the recent tyranid gargoyle models.





The conversion was one of the simplest I have ever attempted, and in my own opinion one of the most effective. The only work required is a small trim to the bottom portion of the wings, as the original sculpt has the membrane running down the length of the gargoyle body at the bottom of which is another tyranid claw. This doesn't work with the daemonettes who have a different shape completely.


I'd originally balked at the price of taking on this coversion - just under $90 for a box of daemonettes and gargoyles is pretty heft for 10 models (or five for a minimum unit), but ease of the conversion and how good it looks has sold me (and I'll certainly find a use for the left over parts).


I can't wait to paint this model - it has really revived my excitement in the hobby.