Inception Review

Here is an old review of mine from when I first saw Inception. Enjoy!

A dream within a dream within a dream. This is the setting to Christopher Nolan's mind thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joesph Gorden-Levitt, and Ellen Page. Makes sense, right? They portray a team of mind searchers who have just received a new job from an once-enemy businessman (Ken Watanabe)-to do the impossible. They must plant a new idea inside the mind of an owner of an energy company-Inception. Leonardo Dicaprio plays Cobb,or "The Extractor", a man with a troubled past who sees this as a way out. Joesph Gorden-Levitt portrays Arthur, "The Point Man", a man good friends with Cobb, and is very intelligent and all about business. Ellen Page plays Ariadne, the new "Architect", who is just learning how to be a part of this team-and of Cobb's secrets. These three lead a team of 6 who plan and excert this impossibility. What follows is pure brilliance.

If you have read my "top 20 favorite films", then you may already know that I am a Christopher Nolan fan. I really enjoyed "The Presitge", and, of course, I absolutely loved his Batman films. According to the director, he spent 10 years developing Inception, and it shows. The plot is so engaging, that you find it hard no to pay attention and not be interested. There are so many layers of story that you will not get everything out of it in one showing, something that DEFINES a good film. As the story unravels itself, you are caught up in this universe, waiting for the next door to take you places you've never imagined going in this movie. The plot keeps active until the end, when you are astonished and exillerated, wanting to see it again. It will be the quickest 2 and a half hours ever spent in a movie theater. The characters were astonishing. The actors did a really good job making you feel for the characters and be willing to go on this journey. Leonardo DiCaprio was pretty good and the main character whom we are not sure if we can trust, and Joesph Gorden-Levitt (one of my favorite upcoming actors) added a nice touch as the man who knows it all. Ellen Page probably had the hardest job because the audience see's the main character through her eyes, so whatever she felt about him, we felt about him. She was very good in this role. Other actors also worked quite nicely. Ken Watanabe was great, and Tom Hardy (Eames) was, I must say, very good in his role as the "cool comic relief" guy. This was a great combination of direction, story, and acting. Christopher Nolan is the real star here for showing his idea in an Oscar-worthy extravaganza.

The special effects blew me away. Whoa. It is very rare for me to wonder about special effects now because I know everything's just done on computers. But there were a couple of scenes (particularly one in a certain hotel) that made me gasp and think "How did they do that??!!!" With some research, I am happy to report very little CGI was used in this film. This movie deserves a merit there for it's mind-bending effects that, unlike every other film, make you wonder.

This was a great film and THE summer blockbuster to see. If you haven't seen it already, I would strongly recommend it to anyone willing to see it, or anyone who likes either action films, mystery films, or both. This isn't a perfect film, but I can't think of anything really wrong with it, except that it may have been confusing at times. Christopher Nolan once again gets my approval for this magnificent festival of film. This was a brilliant job.

My grade: A-