Inception Review

Dir: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Running time: 148 minutes

Warning: there may be some minor spoilers in this review, but I actually think I did a good job with avoiding any of the major spoilers.

What a fascinating, mind-bending, masterfully made movie this is. If Christopher Nolan doesn't outdo himself in quality, he certainly does outdo himself with the overall scope of the film. In Inception, the stakes are higher than they've ever been and it's done with very smooth, wonderful looking action sequences. But not only that, Inception has an emotional core that critics have wrongfully dismissed. You can argue about whether or not it's executed as well as it could have been, but it's definitely there.

What you have to understand about Inception is that the movie isn't really about the plot. Cobb (Leo DiCaprio) and his elite team are to perform a job for Saito (Ken Wantanabe). What's the job? Inception. In the beginning of the film, Cobb and his team primarily work with going into people's minds and stealing ideas from them. But the job that Saito wants them to do is the opposite: to go into someone's mind and implant an idea. What follows is some complex discussions about how an idea is planted, but all you really have to know is that you have to go deep into a person's subconscious in order to plant an idea into their head. But the film is really more about Cobb's personal struggles than it is about what he and his team are actually doing and throughout the film, you find out just what is wrong with Cobb and why he is doing this job in the first place.

Basically the film is broken up into halves. Once Cobb agrees to work with Saito, the first half of the movie is basically about all the things that go on inside the person's mind. Christopher Nolan does a great job of breaking it all down and he uses Ellen Page's character, Ariande, to be the "newbie" that needs to have everything explained to us. For me, this was all ok because Nolan knows how to make exposition sound interesting. This was another complaint about the movie, but I was fascinated by all the things Cobb shows Ariande. And you know what? She eventually figures it out (and so should we) and is given the role of the Architect. The one that has to create these dream worlds.

But you know, and this is perhaps the film's only true flaw, even though these characters are given specific roles, the movie is really about Cobb and his own struggle. So we don't really get enough time to explore these characters beyond what their purpose is in the film. For me though, that type of complaint doesn't take me away from the film at all because what eventually follows, after we learn everything we need to know about dreaming and the subconscious, is some of the most breathtaking action sequences ever made. The last half of the film is basically all action, but the action has such specific purpose. Explosions don't just happen for no reason, they are done so that these characters can wake up from their previous dream world. Everything done has a purpose which is what makes these sequences so unique and compelling. Basically, what I'm saying, is that the last 45 minutes of the film is pure filmmaking bliss. I doubt we'll see anything like it for the rest of the year.

So does that mean Inception is, and will remain, the greatest film of the year? Is it a perfect 10 out of 10? Since so little is given about Inception before we actually see the movie, it's easy to get caught up in your own expectations of the film. You want to learn about all the characters, you want the movie to have a certain amount of emotion, you don't want so much exposition going on... but those types of criticisms are only made because they don't align with our expectations. That doesn't make the film itself bad, it just makes it unpredictable. Imagine an "action" movie where you truly do not know what's going to unfold, that's Inception. It's packed full of surprises and it does everything it was supposed to do in order for the moviegoer to be entertained. For that, Inception is a nearly perfect film, but it would be dishonest of me to give it a perfect score because I need to see it again. These types of films don't reveal all of itself to you in one viewing, it becomes richer with each subsequent viewing and becomes something bigger than you previously imagined.

But know this, as far as summer blockbusters go, there'll never be another movie like Inception. Nobody but Christopher Nolan has the ability to take such a massive budget, combined with a personal and unique vision, and make it so successful. That's what sets him apart from other filmmakers. This is one of the most original action movies to come out in a long time.

Rating: 9.5/10