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"Vanilla Sky" was based on this movie, almost scene for scene, but transplanted from Madrid to New York. I liked Vanilla Sky when I saw it, but Abre los Ojos was much better (just finished watching). The acting was better, all the scenes held together more as a whole, and it was more poetic IMO. Vanilla sky did manage to deliver the general feeling of the original--a 2-hour mindfuck FA, basically, with themes of isolation and unreliable perception.
Anyone else seen the original? Thoughts?
WooT. I saw the trailer. Vanilla sky, which i have seen and think is one of the best Lucid Dreaming films ever, looked like a total ripoff from this movie. Even with penelope cruz as "Sofia"! I gotto see this movie.
Well...I wouldn't consider it to be a lucid dreaming movie at all, IMO. I think the concept is terribly misused. Lucid dreaming means to be aware that you are dreaming. In no point in the film does he ever do that. Therefore he is not lucid dreaming. He is technically not even dreaming, but then again that is going too far. Anyway, I saw both versions and liked the original one much better...
I would say the movie was built around false awakenings, more than LDs, but he does become lucid at the end ("Es un sueno! Es un sueno!"). The infinite FA idea isn't totally original--in book 1 of Sandman, for instance, Morpheus curses the magician who captured him to "Eternal waking."
You're right, Truthbearer, the situation wasn't exactly a dream; I would say it was kind of a cross between dreaming and waking reality, most of it coming from his own mind, but also having some outside contact (the company, L.E.). Still, he had to become conscious of the nature of his situation in order to shape or escape it.
When I first saw "Vanilla Sky," and also when I finished "Abre los Ojos," it struck me as Buddhist allegory, like a tour of the six realms. He starts out in the God realm of pride and ease, steps down to the human realm of desire when he meets Sofia, and then gets busted down to the angry hell realm after his accident. Then, having had this tour of samsara, his challenge is to end his own suffering by recognizing the world around him as an illusion and "Opening his eyes."
Well, I have seen and liked ver much, vanilla sky.. so I downloaded the original, abre los ojos, but I didn't like that one as much... I must admit that I haven't seen the whole movie, but the thing that captures me is the scenes in vanilla sky, I mean the music, scenery and so on...
The ending with the beach boys going in the background is great from there on out. Much better than the original, allthough the original might be better when it comes to telling the story....
Yeah, I'm not exactly Hollywood's target audience, and I can see how Vanilla Sky was a good translation for that audience of something they never would have glanced at without it being slicked-up, Beach Boyed and Tom Cruisified.