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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This film goes above and beyond any concept you have had in life. Layers upon layers upon layers of deep action and mind bending complexity leave you stunned and contemplative when you leave the cinema.
I always thought I could keep up with even the trickiest plots eg Memento….Nolans first film that explored the complexity of paralell events converging to a climax that literally took your brathy away. Inception took me so deep that I found myself lost in the best way possible. For those that have seen the film, you will know what I mean when I say I completely forgot they were on the plane originally. The layers (and I have experimented a lot with various mind altering chemicals) blended so seamlessly it blurred the actual reality of the film it was as close (while being sober) as I have come to having trouble defining what was real an what was in my head, when a thought lasts a second, but you are so deep inside it when you return to reality, you can’t belive it’s not real.
5/5 on every aspect. A true mindf•••
Inception is the re-occurring dream of Shutter Island.
Although, it’s mise-en-scene is mind awakening compared to Shutter Island’s green screen usage.
However, this film can’t catch a wink to Fight Club, Memento or Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
I really looked forward to this movie, as I LOVED Momento. After the first 20 minutes I lost interest in the film.
My mind kept wandering and I eventually dozed off. Not good, since you really have to stay awake in this movie. All the positive reviews make me want to give it another shot when it hits DVD. If anything, theaters could make some extra dough if they sell explanatory notes with soda and popcorn.
First of all, if you’ve had someone close to you take their own life, YOU PROBABLY DON’T WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE. Although their are some good parts, the whole really isn’t very good for two main reasons. First, the number one rule of fiction is broken in a huge way – Don’t explain but instead show and reveal. The first half of the movie is packed full of characters explaining what is happening or what will happen, all to establish the premise of dreams within dreams with varying passage of time. Secondly, the movie makers trap themselves into this premise and plod away at the final suspense/action sequence, cutting between the multiple layers of dreams to the point that each cut starts feeling like a gag – “Oh, now we’re in a shooter video game set in snowy mountains…oh, there’s the van falling in slow motion again…oh, there’s the sidekick rolling about on walls and ceilings. Once the sidekick lassos his buddies together and moves them around in no gravity I couldn’t help but laugh out loud, as did a number of people in the theatre. Other than these two big flaws there are many others such as – 1. More key characters should have gone through a discovery process across the entire film, figuring out layers of dream and reality along with the audience. 2. The most intense altered reality scenes are all used up during the young lady architect’s training. 3. Aren’t your dreams way, way, way more bizarre and intense than 99% of this movie? 4. We are given no reason what so ever to really have any concerns about the “bad guys” in this film, nor is there anything that really convinces us that the “good guys” are really in peril. 5. The moral question of “Is it OK to pirate someone’s mind and mess with it?” is never really addressed. 6. We are given no reason to believe that the inception being executed is really justified or important. 7. Why doesn’t the grandpa just take the kids on vacation out of the country so they can visit their Daddy? 8. If you could live a whole life time in a dream world you created with your spouse, would you create a weird, ugly, urban world? Would you really want to spend that whole life time alone together? 9. The Asian bossman mumbled at times. 10. I thought that a life time in the deepest dream level could leave you with scrambled eggs for brains, but apparently the Asian bossman was fine when he woke up. 11. I can not stand chase/fighting sequences where you can not at least have an good idea of where people are, where they are specifically rushing to, and who is who. This movie was full of this kind of badly filmed and edited junk, especially the winter fighting scenes. This movie is OVER RATED. Oh yes, as a 35 year fan of mystery and sci fi – the plot WAS NOT COMPLICATED OR HARD TO FOLLOW…IT WAS VERY, VERY PREDICTABLE.
Interesting how the latest reviews aren’t that glowing,,,
I’m going to try and see this some time this week,,,
It’s ego 790. Some people have trouble giving overwhelming credit to others. Those poor reviews are just reflections of human frailty.
*OR* they simply didn’t like the movie for the reasons stated…
Maybe you’re right, maybe this movie is the ultimate in flawless movie making and anyone who doesn’t like it is just a “reflection of human frailty.”
Meh 790 as I’m sure you know from experience with films the moment something becomes well liked or popular a counter active backlash always happens. I’m not saying every one that’s turned against the film is doing it simply because Nolan and Inception are huge right now but a large number certainly. To point out something you may be more familar with the same thing happened with the Matrix when it became widly popular the backlash swiftly came in and attacked. Most of the negatives that people bring up or just wrong. For instance a recent post claimed that Inception did to much to tell and not show. Yet a lot of people are complaining that they were not told enough. I personally found the film easy to follow as long as you have am attention spam but the vast majority of people think the should of been shown less and told more. So when one guy comes in and says he was told to much it’s a strange thing to hear.
Personally after giving it some thought I really don’t think this film is for you. You have a crazy hate on for Nolan and really seem to hate him even more because his popularity. It’s a great film but it’s 100% Nolan style film making and he has gained even more fans with the film so it seemed that he is more popular and you probably wouldn’t be able to unbiasedly view this film. My guess is that you’ll already have decided to hate it and anything Nolan makes before you see it.
I have more of a “disgust/hate” for the fans to be honest… Nolan’s just going through his motions,,,,
^
I’m going to see/dream Inception this week. I’ll be sure to chime in with my first person perspective soon,,,
Well, even though I personally liked the movie, I have to say the recent negative reviews are much more well thought out than most of the “DIS WAS THE BESTEST MOOOVY TO EVAR BEE MADE!!!!11″ comments…
I have to say they have some very valid arguments, I too believe they had far too many breaks in the film for exposition. And a few other things I don’t feel like getting into to prevent sparking some huge war between the fanboys and I, but overall I still enjoyed the film a lot and thought it was worth seeing.
See that doesn’t make sense why you would hate his fans. Just because you are not one is no reason to hate the people that are. I don’t hate the fans of Tim Burton or Bay I just hate those two guys. I see no reason to hate people for what they like. For instance you think Burton is a genious I disagree but i’m not gonna hate you based on that. I just don’t understand why you would hate people for being fans of Nolan.
Hell I don’t even hate Twilight fans. Just Twilight it’s self.
Interested in what you think of the film and I hope I’m wrong but I’m pretty certain I already know what you will think about it. Don’t mean that in a negative way you just seem to of already made up your mind on all things Nolan. Hell you were saying you were not even going to watch this because people like him. It’s hard to believe you can objectively watch this.
I don’t hate Twilight fans either… unless they’re wearing a Team Jacob/Edward T-shirt or have it tattooed on their backs.
Come on humanity. What have you reduced yourself to…?
This really has nothing to do with Inception. I haven’t even seen it yet. I want to though. Can anyone tell me if it’s any good? lol
Did you just imply 790 is narrow minded and biased? HOW dare you sir
(please note the sarcasm)
Vic,
Just curious, how many movies if any have you given 5 stars to before?
BlueCollarCritic:
http://screenrant.com/tag/5-star-movies/
Vic
BlueCollar, you can read the reviews based on their ratings. 5, 4, 3 etc,,, at least I think you still can.
Access that in the
review section.
Okay, so let me understand this correctly.
If someone doesn’t like the director or the persons involved in a film then a viewer will go into the movie with an pre-concieved negative bias on the project and rip it to shreds even if it is well made?
If so, I can believe that and feel it happens more than most is aware and in many different genre’s of entertainment as well.
i want to see it this weekend, my firend says if you leave to get popcorn sometime in the movie, when you come back you are lost and confused about the films story.
Well, I think leaving a movie to get the popcorn it’s just dumb, so you deserve to be confused.
As regards this movie, story is great, realisation is great, eventually a very fascinating movie, and without at least 20 action-scenes – can’t stand all this bloody gun battles, and I find them useless not only as they don’t add up to the movie but also because they distract you from the core of the movie – and a bit more of subtlety it would have been a classic already.
k loved the movie , but confused ’bout the ending lol
yah i totally agree psylo if u went to get a popcorn u wont understant the movie,plus the movie is already confusing so dont make it worse =3
Seriously, not just talking about this movie, but is overpriced popcorn really THAT important that it’s worth missing a few minutes of a movie you just paid $10 for???
Get the damn popcorn BEFORE the movie starts like smart people do, or just eat afterwards! For the same price of that popcorn you can get an entire meal at Wendy’s!!
Inception is one of those films you can watch over and over, and discover something new each time you watch it (imo), and for those of us with tight budgets who can’t afford to go to the multiplex to see it a second or third time, the Inception DVD would be the more practical route.
BTW… did anyone get the Inception soundtrack yet? I did, and it’s absolutely amazing.
Odd Stephie. I hardly noticed the soundtrack. I did notice that vans are bullet proof in your dreams!!! Lol
^
Wow great ride. Loved the film I don’t think I’m going to run out and see it again but it was good…
Couple minor gripes:
I thought that Ellen Page was too young looking for her character and the fortress fight could have been edited down but overall cool film.
On the ending I think its clear that Nolan wanted to have several possibilities. The audience is left in limbo. So to speak.
@790
Funny you should mention the bulletproof van, because if you can indeed just dream up what equipment you want, like that guy dreamt up the grenade launcher, why did they dream up a van for goodness sakes? Why not an armored personnel carrier, aka APC?? Or heck, a Bradley Fighting Vehicle???
While Im sure I loved the film a bit more than you did 790 I have to agree about the fortress scene it was a bit long and didn’t seem to need to be. I think about a minute or two less and a few less dead guys in the fortress and it would of been fine. Page always looks young I think her part could of been better cast with someone who looks a bit older. I never have been a fan of hers, but I’ve noticed no matter how old she gets she always looks 14 lol. Technically her actual age fit with the character but she doesn’t look it.
Interested to hear how you would score the film. I only ask because people say they like a film all the time but it never really gives a good idea of how good they thought it was. That’s why I like scores. I’m not a fan of the five star system but based on Vics system id say 4.5/5. My personal prefered way to rate with a 100point system. I’d say 9.4/10.
I hate 5/5 and 10/10 both are way over used. Personally I think if you give more than three films a perfect score you over rate things and over use the perfect score. I honestly have never given a movie a perfect.
I look past her appearance when it comes to Page because her acting is top notch.
And by that I meant her looking young.
Daniel,,,
I have to admit the more I ponder the films ambitious script and original dream conceptology, even with all the film’s flaws,,,
breath,,,
I have to give “Inception” a 5 out of 5 easy.,,!
^
Whatever problems I had with TDK have been eclipsed.
Nolan has created a new genre the genre of dreams…
He’s pretty clever left alone,,, dangerous.
Totally agree Jake the Snake,,,!
Ellen’s going to look smoking when she hits 40…
On account she’s (I think) 23 and looks 9 years old,,,
Lol guess I was wrong you like it more than I did and I loved it.
I’m still trying to decide where to place it on my top films of all time. You see I’m a weird crazy guy lol I collect DVDs like crazy but I suspect hardly anyone stores them like I do. I’ve discovered most people either randomly place them on a shelf or put them in ABC order. Me I rank my DVDs very top shelf first movie would be fave of all time next up is my second so on and so forth all the way to the bottom.
My friends actually love it they always like to make a specific joke. If they want to borrow something they usually say.
“I’d like to order a DVD. Top shelf please”
like they are ordering top shelf whiskey lol.
Yea I’m weird so now I’m trying to figure out where I’m going to place Inception Top 5 for sure maybe even number one need to watch it a few more times to decide right now leaning toward number 3.
Only exception to this is Comic book/superhero flicks I seperate them because I
have alot and my DVD shelf only holds so many films so in order to fit more regular films I give comic books and TV show box sets and animated films their own tower. Comic films are still ranked on their shelf but seperated from the regular DVD tower. TV shows are not ranked only non ranked.
Speaking of anyone know a good place to get a large DVD shelf tower black. I umm sort of ran out of room.
I don’t understand the appeal of page or Juno. I mean I don’t think she is bad but she isn’t great either and in all honesty hearing her name always makes me hesitate. Inception is the only film that I like involving her. I hated Juno for a lot of reason. I don’t think it was a very good film despite popular belief. Hard Candy was watchable but I could never watch it a second time it wasn’t impressive it was like a take that sicko and that was it. The only thing that made it watchable was the pleasure center of seeing that guy get what he deserved. X3 was crap obviously. I’ve seen more but that’s it off the top off my head. Over all I think she drug down the film her performance could not keep up with this incredible cast she was way out of her league.
Just saw it last night with my husband. He was bored within minutes. I found the movie gripping. Mainly because there were so many dreams within dreams and flashbacks, that you really had to pay attention to get what was going on. I found it kinda confusing at times.
I thought DeCaprio was great. The visuals were stunning. The special effects didn’t feel like effects.
Definitely a movie to see at least twice to get all the subtletys.
I don’t know where I would put Inception.
As I get older top 5 and best film lists are a bother. (Look forward to the burning apathy of your 40′s Ricky18).
^
Ken I think they were going for stealth. Using a visibly armored car/tank would have alerted the projections. Of course that didn’t matter once they got into his dream and found out he was trained in the art of subconscious attack,,, I’m guessing had they done the due diligence they would have used a different vehicle.
@790
Exactly, I know it’ll attract attention, but since they were already getting attention ANYWAY, if they had dreamt up an armored vehicle, that chemist wouldn’t even had needed to drive. He could have just sat there in the warehouse eating a sandwich while the bad guys try in vain to shoot through the vehicle’s armor. Then when it came time for the kick, he just had to leisurely drive to the bride and then drive off, all without breaking a sweat, lol.