Inception Review
Jul 15, 2010 by Vic HoltremanDoes the long-anticipated Christopher Nolan film ‘Inception’ deliver what we’ve been hoping for? In a word: Yes.
Screen Rant’s Vic Holtreman reviews Inception
So where does one start with a movie like Inception? It’s arguably the most anticipated film of this summer, if not the entire year. Without revealing terribly much in the clips and trailers (thankfully!) it’s been one of the most hyped films of the year as well – if not by the studio, then by movie news sites (including this one) and their readers. Following a monster hit like The Dark Knight is a heck of a task for Christopher Nolan, who not only directed Inception but wrote and produced it as well.
Well now that it’s done and hitting theaters, I believe Mr. Nolan can relax – because this film is all kinds of awesome.
This is one of those movies that’s difficult to review without revealing at least some minor spoilers, so be warned. It won’t be anything that will even remotely ruin the film for you, but I do have to bring up a few things in order to describe the story. Let’s start by explaining exactly what “Inception” is in the film: It is the process of imbedding a thought in the mind of a subject in such an incredibly subtle manner, that they end up thinking that they came up with it on their own. No, don’t think hypnotism, this is a much more sophisticated thing. As a matter of fact, Nolan makes a point to get at least one “oh, I know what this is going to be” thought out of your head within the first few minutes of the film: This is much more than the old dream within a dream plot line.
Leonardo DiCaprio is Cobb, a man who works with a team stealing corporate secrets from the minds of executives while they sleep. The 1984 film Dreamscape may come to mind, but things are much more complex here. In order to retrieve what Cobb’s clients want, he can’t just enter the dreamworld of the subject and poke around until he finds it – an “architect” is required to construct a world and settings that will lead the subject where Cobb wants him to go, and there is a backup man who also goes into the dream (Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur) in case something goes wrong or it’s a two man con game.
As the film opens, we find that Cobb has failed in his mission for a client for the first time ever, and for this failure the corporation is out to kill him. Besides the obvious, Cobb has another problem: He is the father of two small children who he has not seen in quite a while yet both of whom he loves very much. Sadly for him, the last place he can go is back to the United States to be with them (there is another major reason as well). However an opportunity to fix all that lies between him and his children presents itself in the form of Asian corporate mogul Saito (Ken Watanabe). If Cobb does an almost impossible job for him, Saito is powerful enough to call the dogs off Cobb and to fix everything so he can return to his family.
The plan involves implanting a thought in the mind of one Robert Fischer Jr (Cillian Murphy), the son of a competitor who is on his deathbed and whose death will make the rival corporation so powerful it will rival that of a government. To carry off this plan, Cobb needs a new architect and an additional partner – so he finds his old teacher (Michael Caine) who despite misgivings points Cobb to a young woman named Ariadne who has inherent skills surpassing those of Cobb himself (Ellen Page). While hesitant at first, she becomes intoxicated with the idea of being able to create worlds as if a god, and signs on for the task at hand.
From there begins the exceedingly complex and multi-layered process of not only building the world in which they will place Fischer Jr, but the script they will have to follow in order to lead him to an initial seed of a subconscious thought that will eventually grow to a major, conscious decision that he would not otherwise make. The story is riveting and will take you through one level after another, until you’re not quite sure where, exactly, you are.
Continue reading our review of Inception…
Our Rating:
5 out of 5
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I’m not sure Ken they needed to stay mobile and the bridge drop was part of the kick/plan.
Plus as we saw in the first dream the projections would use explosives. And even an armored tank would be vulnerable.
The van taking heavy damage was forgivable but would have been less distracting if it at least had bullet proof glass. Throw me a bone, anyone in production paying attention? Sheesh.
just saw the movie !!
loved it !!
very stylish / engaging / epic – as my son says
anyways.. a very smartly written movie
characters that draw you in and you want to know more
dicaprio is gripping – as usual
the storyline is filled with multi layers
got to keep on your toes to follow along
definately one to see again –
rate it 5 out 5 – must see
Probably the longest I’ve wished that I’d been asleep.
Rubbish!
Just went to see the movie and i liked it. Probebly one of the best of 2010. Good story, visuals completed the story and where not the story.
START SPOILER****
The ending was fun. Many people in the theater yelled at the screen when it turned black. I loved it!
END SPOILER****
I was surprised about Gordon Levitt’s preformance. Like the entire cast, acting on a high level. I only know him from third rock, so it was difficult for me to see him acting in this movie. Put he nailed it…
Watch 500 Days of Summer and The Lookout. He’s excellent in both. Along with Inception Co-star Tom Hardy (Weams) one of the best young actors working today.
I just saw this last night and I couldn’t have been more happy with it. Joseph Gordon-Levitt knocked my socks off: his two dream sequence antics were my favorite parts of the film.
I don’t understand the hoopla about the ending. I didn’t read a single spoiler for the end of this movie but found it not surprising at all. It could go one of two ways and that was one of them. I was satisfied and didn’t feel left with a sense of wanting.
I’m a big movie music person. I believe it can really make or break the movie. There is a scene where shots are being fired as a character or two runs down a hall. You can hear the bullets strike the plaster and the score is still playing in the background – - softly and subtlety. It was the perfect combination.
The movie was outstanding. My mind was blown away.
Good movie….but…a bit talkative….much of the movie was spent on actors explaining something or asking why this, why that…also it had some action scenerios (snow mountain fortress) that played like a pc/console shooter game and although this may be enjoyed by shooter game fanatics, I would like to see more imagination….interesting but not one of Nolan’s best…..I would like to mention that Leonardo continues to mature into one of the more interesting/intense actors working today…..
The movie’s idea would be hard to grasp for some people, I guess that’s why he used much dialog in it; so “those” people who won’t get it without dialog won’t say it’s “stupid”.
It’s about time we had a sensible reevaluation of this film: http://bit.ly/9xBJSz
I certainly hope you don’t actually get paid for espousing this overblown rubbish. Take up something simpler and more suited to your obviously limited abilities…like professional diaper-changer.
The answer to the puzzle of the movie is LIMBO!!! the whole movie is a LIMBO and it shows to us that there is no such thing as reality as there are infinite realities. It is true for our life also, we are all in one LIMBO and whoever realizes it can become the architect of its own reality
Life is a LIMBO 
)) Ok I cracked the puzzle, now take me away, I’m waiting 
The answer to the puzzle of the movie is LIMBO!!! the whole movie is a LIMBO and it shows to us that there is no such thing as reality as there are infinite realities. It is true for our life also, we are all in one LIMBO and whoever realizes it can become the architect of its own reality
Life is a LIMBO 
)) Ok I cracked the puzzle, now take me away, I am waiting 
Didn’t anyone else find it peculiar that Ellen Page’s character is the name of the goddess that help a god out of a labyrinth? Cobb dreamed her up. She knew from when she ‘met’ cob that his mind was a labyrinth of sorts and his demons
I think I’m going to go and watch Inception for a second time.totally loved it.
I personally LOVE this movie and will watch it over and over again. About people debating over the ending of the movie, I thought that it wasn’t the end that I’m worried about. I’m more worried that Nolan IS practicing inception with this movie (hence, the title). Most people would have left the theatre thinking…”What is reality?”
Sorry, it was just for fun
I just hate it when I got stuck between two extremes of a comment about the ending. One of the best movies I’ve ever watched, hands down.
Amazing spectacle, quite a work of art
the extended trailer you guys edited yourself is incredible. better than the studio trailers. great editing work.
I just finished watching Inception.
I have always liked the concept of dream minipulation, which isn’t exactly a new concept. Every B film that ever featured a mad hypnotist had him, in some way, employ a variation of dream manipulation, but I have never seen a film that so deliberately set out to utterly confuse the viewer so that the viewer would not realize that what the viewer was seeing made no sense whatsoever. If you are a drug addict and are really high on LSD I’m sure you would say, “Hey man, straight on! Now, that’s the way I see things!”
I forced myself to see this abomination through so that I may not later have to say, “Hey, maybe it got better after I stopped watching it!” The only way this film could get better is to not watch it at all. I could go on ranting about this horrible excuse for creativity, but if I tried it would take me into late spring. The flaws in this thing are mind boggling.
Now, I can see the thinking behind this. If the most popular films lately have been based on comic books, the average moviegoing mind must be so childlike that we can give them something they won’t be able to figure out. They will then think the film is so profound that it must be Academy Award material.
I may be all wet, but my reasoning is just as good, or better, than the reasoning of those who made Inception.
Really, your reasoning is not anywhere near as good as ANYONE else’s…This is why:
You did not reason anything out; all you did was complain…and mildly insulted those of us who DID enjoy the film (“childlike”? REALLY?).
I hope this was NOT your best effort at commenting.
When a movie has to be explained in so many ways by so many different people, who can’t all be right, then something is lacking in its presentation.
That is an important distinction you fail to make. It does not HAVE to be; people are enjoying the various explanations and theories as stimulating mental exercises sorely lacking in MOST other movies of the last decade or two. For many people, this film was not merely entertainment (of the highest order, in many cases)…It was relief.
the ending of the movie was very rosebud-esk, here is a joke I saw about inception,
http://ponderingstuff.com/2011/05/15/extractors-inception/
Okay, I’ve finally put away my biases and seen Inception; I imagine it would have been very visually mesmerizing on the Big Screen. I’d say Nolan’s best film. Too much like Shutter Island though in back story — Leo de Caprio’s back story. Comparing the films: they are both good, each director has his pluses but I liked Scorseses’ enough to actually be considering buying a copy.
Dom Cobb was the SUBJECT throughout the whole movie. And at the end of the movie was the only time he was acctually awake. The clues are obvious once you realize that he was the subject and not Fisher.
Dom Cobb even said in one scene, the only way I can get to see my kids again is if I get back to the real world. At that scene the architect ran into the elevator real fast so he didn’t realize that he was being incepted.
There was no Cobol or Cobal however you spell it.. This whole plan was a setup to plant an idea in Dom’s head so that he could realize what the real world was. The person behind the idea was Michael Caine’s character, thats why he was at the airport. The real extractor was Saito.
It’s obvious he was in a dream throughout the whole movie. And they said that the totum was so that you knew that you were never in someone elses dream, not reality. Thats why when he went to the indian guys place he went to sleep and woke up in a someone elses dream. Thats why he never got to spin the totum in the bathroom.
Another thing.. Dom never got attacked throughout the whole movie, because he was the subject! Everybody else was getting attacked. Especially in the scene when the train came crashing through the middle of the street. Do you remember Dom being attacted in that scene? I didn’t think so.
There were flashbacks of Dom in the real world, but the Inception started when the so called “cobolt guy” told him that it was now or never, and gave him airplane tickets. Rember, there is no cobolt and that guy was part of the team in performing the inception on Dom. This explains why the kids are in the same spot when he got home wearing the same clothes. Because he was only asleep for a few hours.
Dom realized they planted the inception on him when he arrived back to find Saito sitting at the table an old man, the Dom says with a bewildered look on his face, I’ve come to remind you something, that this world wasn’t real. Thats when he realized he had the inception done to him. As he awoke on the plane you see everybody sitting there with a smile on their face knowing that they just did it to him, otherwise Fisher would have been like, you were in my dream and you and you were there and you were there! Right?
Think about all of the clues given to us. Its actually obvious if we pay attention a little harder. And about the top, it clearly started wobbling and no it did not start spinning again before the movie went to black.