Inception

Inception
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio
Ellen Page
Joseph Gorden-Levitt
Tom Hardy

Introduction
Let me start by saying that after all these years, I finally have a favourite film. This movie is the product of what happened when you let a mastermind like Christopher Nolan write and direct a movie with no hollywood limitations on creativity. Christopher Nolan has made a movie that stands out amongst others and should be an example to every movie made from this point forward.

Acting
Inception features a terrific cast of both old and new actors. The movie focuses mainly on Leonardo DiCaprio’s character of Dom Cobb, a person who enters the minds of others and steals their most precious secrets. Cobb has a troubled past with some demons of his own that keep creeping up and effecting everyone in the story. DiCaprio gives a downright amazing performance, showing a strong character who is also emotionally unstable. The weight of the acting obviously is lifted by DiCaprio, however, it is definitely not overdone and the limelight is shared by all of the characters. DiCaprio’s interaction with the other characters is highly believable, especially with the character of Ariadne.

Ariadne played by Ellen Page (a fellow Nova Scotian I might add) delivers a stunning performance of the newb to the team who shows amazing potential and intelligence. A student of Dom’s father, Dom’s father (Michael Caine) introduces Ariadne to Dom (at his request) to be the architect of the dreamworld. She is charged with the responsibility of building everything in the dreams. Ellen Page pulls off this brilliantly innocent character who sees the amazing potentials in an unreal world. Page’s character becomes sort of an anchor character, one that is very important to the plot in general and to DiCaprio’s character as well. The two of them share a fair amount of screen time and they share it quite well. She is bold enough to pry into Dom’s demons and get him to face the facts.

I had previously seen Joseph Gorden-Levitt in a movie called “The Lookout”. In it he played an autistic kid caught up in a bank heist. I was not overly happy with the character and so it kind of shed a bad light on Gordon-Levitt for me. However, in Inception, Gordon-Levitt plays the right hand man to Dom. It was actually not until after I had finished watching the movie that this was the same guy that was in “The Lookout”. I must say I am highly impressed by how he was able to pull off two characters and seem like two different people. I think we have a new Johnny Depp in the making.

Tom Hardy may be familiar to you Trekkies having played the part of Shinzon in “Star Trek Nemesis”. In Nemesis he played a really dull and disappointing character and the acting seemed very bland. Inception changes that. It turns him into a more badass style character who impersonates characters in real life that are relevant to the client. His relationship with Gordon-Levitt’s character is also classic, both are sort of condescending to each other, yet you can tell they don’t actually really hate each other. Not much time is given to Hardy’s character unlike most of the other ones, but Hardy gives this character a lot of depth without us ever going into his background or anything. He has the personality and character traits nailed down.

As for the rest of the acting, there are a lot of terrific acting moments for each character in the movie, every one of them believable. You can tell a lot of time was put in on everybody’s part to get the characters right, no matter how insignificant they were. That is part of what makes this an exceptional movie, every detail is not overlooked or considered not significant enough to be made “real”.

Cinematography
Where to start on this section! If I had to sum it up in a word, it would be perfect. The technicalities of this movie are so organic that it’s like a living organism. The shots feed the editing which feed the sound which feed the soundtrack which feeds the editing which feeds the shots. It’s an amazing circle that I haven’t really seen done before. Everything feels like it means something. For instance, in the layers of dreams, each dream layer has more time then the one preceding it. To help with this effect, the music is slower the more layers into the dream we get. The shots are all slowed down enough to to give the illusion it is all happening at the same time. Also, the way the film is shot is just enormous. Instead of filling it with flashy effects (though it does have its share) a lot is dependent on simple things that the camera actually sees. The way the video is woven makes it seamless and seem like it’s all one world that is many worlds within worlds. It is fairly complex to explain without giving too much away, I will say however that on a technical level, you can’t get much better than this. The way the film is presented visually gives you the feeling you are a part of it. You seem to feel everything happening around you things such as “the kick” which gives you the sensation of falling. It is quite extraordinary because it is very much like you yourself are dreaming and you get that falling sensation. This is much more effective than any 3D film out there with elements popping out at you and going in and whatnot. This film is 2D and gives you a much more realistic and personal integration with the film.
Once again, Hans Zimmer pulls of a terrific score, perfect for everything happening in the movie. All of the emotion, drama, character and story could probably be summed up in the score for this film. Hans Zimmer is continually proving himself worthy as a composer and each work he does just gets better and better.
As I’ve already said, the editing is seamless. The storyboard must have been well crafted for a film like this to have such perfect editing. Everything that is shown feels intentional, like there are no mistakes whatsoever. No jump cuts, breaking the fourth wall or anything. Most movies have quite a few of these (even the well done ones) this movie however is so captivating that either there are no imperfections, or it is just so engrossing that the imperfections are so minute that you can’t even tell that they’re there. Either way, it is an inspiration on many levels.

Story
Here’s the cruncher. With the three main components of film, if two are done well, then the third is usually overlooked. So you’re probably wondering what massive plot holes or convenient factors are in this movie. From what I can tell, there’s only one and that is that the person who hires Dom can make his legal problems go away with one phone call. This seems a little unlikely considering what happens in the real world (we’re seeing quite a bit of it lately with examples such as Lindsay Lohan, there’s no one call for her and she’s a celebrity!). However, this fact is only mentioned two or three times in the film (despite how very important it is to the movie) so it is very easily overlooked. It would have been more preferred had the character maybe have to contact some lawyers, do something in court, buy somebody off or something. But ultimately, it’s not such a big deal. The movies is already two and a half hours long and cluttering it up with elements like that to make it more realistic would probably have done more damage than good.
On some other notes, this story is extremely well crafted. Nolan definitely knew what he was doing with this story and probably had a lot more re-writes then most script-writers care to do on films with much larger budgets than this (a certain Avatar movie comes to mind). It is a highly complex story, what with the like four levels of consciousness going on in the film. This film is akin to perhaps a heist story similar to the Ocean’s movie, except much better crafted with a lot more detail and elements put into it. Nolan makes sure that everything is on purpose in this movie and each element in the story is elaborated on enough to make it believable.
With the elements he throws in here (especially Dom’s wife) the story leaves you wondering what is and what isn’t reality. In the movie though, there is the fear of it being cliche in that everything was all a dream. Nolan makes sure to stay clear of this over-used plot device, but rather throws in his own suspicions that leave you asking questions and finding answers long after the movie’s over. You still feel caught up in the lives of these characters even after the film is over.
Everything seems confusing, yet makes sense at the same time. And of course, things don’t go according to plan in the movie, but the improvisation that the characters pull off do not feel superficial or flat or convenient. If there’s one thing Nolan tried to steer clear of in this film, it was things being convenient. That is one of the things that really kills a story is when you can start pulling out plot elements that are there simply so that the next plot element can occur. This movie is like water, it has an ebb and flow to it rather than a choppy series of events that are there simply for the sake of us having a movie to watch.
Now those of you that watched Shutter Island will notice some similarities in certain plot devices revolving around DiCaprio’s character, mainly the one about Dom and his wife. However, Nolan elaborates on it much more than Scorcese did in his movie making this version of it much more believable. In fact, you relate to the characters better as it deals with regrets and things done in life that are your fault and it deals with how we cope with this. This story is more than just an action movie where they’re there to do a job and that’s it. There’s a lot happening on an emotional level that the audience can relate to, because how many of us have tried to steal dreams? By throwing in these simple elements to the plot, the audience has something to hold on to that we know is real, that probably all of us will have to deal with at some point and that is regret and mistakes. At the heart of this story is pure humanity. This movie does what science fiction was originally intended for, dealing with us. Dealing with how we can do certain things, how we regret, make mistakes, grow and move on. This is especially strong between DiCaprio and Page in the movie.

Conclusion
So I suppose I should finish up now. I’m sure I could probably continue on for another few pages, but it comes to a point where you simply have to stop reading reviews and actually see this movie. Unfortunately, I don’t think this movie will do well Box Office wise which is unfortunate, because this movie is the first of its kind really. It’s the first “big” blockbuster that has more to it than mindless action and flashy effects that is claiming to be an original movie. This is about as original as it gets. Nolan knew exactly where to put the focus in this movie and realized how important even the smallest things are. That is perhaps what makes this movie so captivating, things aren’t overlooked because they’re “too small”. This movie makes good use of everything a filmmaker has at their disposal, but most importantly, it makes use of the imagination. Beyond what the movie does, one of the most important elements to this film is the audience. The audience is meant to interact in a way with this movie and that is partly what makes it so unique. It’s like it was actually written for us for once and not do things like assume we’re stupid, in fact, you have to keep up with this movie, not just action wise, but intellectually. No I’m not saying you need to be a genius, but this movie is not for the masses as much as it is meant for the masses. I’m sure everyone will like it for its action and visual stunning, but there is something deeper going on, something to be appreciated. This movie is for us!

10/10 (I’d give it a 12/10 but that might seem cheesy!)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

But man... That's a massive review, going to start reading it once i've finished the last part of my UFO AI review.

it's over 2,000 words in length, so it took more like 40 minutes to write

Ah! I saw teaser of this film, but I came in late and missed the start. I didn't know this film was inception. With luck, it'll be in the cinema here no, I forgot we now have a four-screen cinema 30 mins the other direction away so I will see this film.

yay, a 4-plex! I work at a 7-plex, 2 of which are now digital screens Say good bye to the 35mm one by one

Ah well, one is even 3-D apparently! What's the brand again, wait a momemnt...

EDIT: It's an Apollo. And seems great: http://www.apollocinemas.com/apollo-carmarthen.aspx

Now why must that happen just when I'm leaving the area for uni?

actually both are 3D and the brand is RealD

It's an Apollo. And seems great: http://www.apollocinemas.com/apollo-carmarthen.aspx

All four screens are 3-D

Now why must that happen just when I'm leaving the area for uni?

dunno, in the city we have an 18plex. It's very big!

Well, this one-up manship is lasting well, I see!

Remember, this place with the cinema has 13,000 residents and a hinterland

Halifax has 300,00o in the city and is the state centre.

Well... I think that sooner or later I'll give it a try... My movies to see is getting bigger by the moment, so... this one goes to the bottom! xD

make it go to the top J. This film is probably better than 95% of whatever you have on your list to see

Ok... Thanks for the tip Your movie got the the bottom of the first 5% xD

Nice review, i might have to check this out soon.

i jsut watched it, it was a very inspired and intersetin i noticed a few gaps

Spoiler:

definatly worth buying on dvd 10/10

Wow... I watched the movie today as you recomended it at a theatre... It was FUCKING AWESOME! Especiallly the part of "Why didn't you imagined something bigger?" XD

Is this necroeing?

Anyways, I thought it was kinda confusing. Dream, within a Dream, within another one...

This kick, this limbo...that Jap guy....I dunno.

too complicated for you, not surprised. that's not meant to be rude either BTW

After I assimilated it. Got it now.

The old man in the end is the jap man, and the guy asked the jap to honor their arrangement, and they remmeberd, and the jap guy shot himself, and then he made the call...

Excellent movie! It was so good I saw it twice!

BTW, I WANT Ellen Page in the worst way. She makes me think very VERY dirty thoughts. YES!! YES!! MEEEOW!!!

:cough: umm.. I said that out loud..

Anywho, It's strange, because physically, she's not what I would consider "hot". She's just very cute. In fact, it would be impossible for me to properly describe her physique. She has a blinding presence. There's a certain... vibe she puts out, that seduces every molecule of my attention. It's a savory longing that eats away at my stomach like starvation and a sponge bath simultaneously. I wish I could hold her in perpetuity. In her dazzling radiance, time becomes obsolete; and in her brevity she whispers symphonies. and........ Ok, I'm getting carried away....

Sorry guys.....

Really? I always think she has a flat face.

Oh, and by the way, trying to be the court jester doesn't make you popular.

Yes it does.

It's a character that I play well... and I'll probably be done with it by tomorrow. (when I say tomorrow, I mean when I wake up this afternoon. So you have only a few minutes left of pain, that is, unless you go back and read any of my previous posts....)

Anywho, Inception is one of the few movies I will buy. BTW, nice review DW.

She's not that pretty... Actually, she's below average. The dude's wife was pretty hot though.

Everyone has a different perception of what's good looking and what isn't. Anyways though, I wonder if she knows my Great Aunt and Uncle cause her mom's from Lockeport which is where my relatives have resided since forever and Lockeport's not very big

Thingy wrote:She's not that pretty... Actually, she's below average. The dude's wife was pretty hot though.

I agree actually. Physically, she's not that good. But like I said, her vibe hits me. I have no idea why.

@ DW

If she's related to you, that will explain everything. JK

well, I highly doubt she's related to me, but like I said, it's possible either her or her parents know relatives of mine, you never know

Maybe she influenced their lives significantly, causing you to inherit some of her awesomeness from your parents. (through social interaction of course)

I doubt it considering how infrequently we've seen them over the last 20 years

Do you believe in telepathy? LOL

(Wait, remember that conversation we had about weird gut instincts? Ya never know....)

Oh, I loved the film. The best film I've seen ever.

Darkjedi wrote:BTW, I WANT Ellen Page in the worst way. She makes me think very VERY dirty thoughts. YES!! YES!! MEEEOW!!!

:cough: umm.. I said that out loud..

Anywho, It's strange, because physically, she's not what I would consider "hot". She's just very cute. In fact, it would be impossible for me to properly describe her physique. She has a blinding presence. There's a certain... vibe she puts out, that seduces every molecule of my attention. It's a savory longing that eats away at my stomach like starvation and a sponge bath simultaneously. I wish I could hold her in perpetuity. In her dazzling radiance, time becomes obsolete; and in her brevity she whispers symphonies. and........ Ok, I'm getting carried away....

I understand you. Completely. And you saw Ariadne, who is clever and rational. Juno (even though the film itself is much worse than this one) is much, much cuter....

Finally! Someone who understands my point of view!

And yes, her character in Juno is better. I think it's just because it's a deeper role.

I think it all boils down to confidence and coolness, which to me is extremely hot.