Inception (2010)

Directed By: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy

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Everything about Inception feels big. The scale, the characters, the music, the action, the visuals... Nolan has definitely has the ability to give a film an "epic" feeling. While being held back in only a few areas, like a plot that is perhaps a little too big, Inception provides for a very entertaining ride. 

The opening to the film is initially very confusing. You jump right in with our main character, Cobb (DiCaprio), transcending different dream levels as he attempts to extract secrets from the mind of Saito (Ken Watanabe), a wealthy Asian business mogul. I was totally lost in this opening, and not in a good way. Soon, all of the characters wake up, and you start to find out what exactly is going on. 

Cobb is part of a corporate mercenary team that specializes in infiltrating other's dreams to steal secrets from their subconscious. The opening scene was a "dry run"; Saito was testing out the team before dropping his hard earned dollars. Not much explanation is given into the past of this team, nor the technology behind it. Its not a huge issue, but I would have liked to have heard more about the mysterious machine that is used to sneak into other's dreams, other than "it was a secret government training project". 

Cobb is also haunted by the memory of his dead wife. She haunts his subconcious, making it increasingly harder to preform his job. He is also wanted by the US government under suspicsion that he had something to do with her death, making it almost impossible to re enter the county to see his children. Saito offers him a deal: Preform an extremely risky operation, called an "inception", which involves implanting an idea in someone's head, rather than stealing one. In exchange, Cobb will be able to enter the US again to see his son and daughter. The majority of the film is taken up by planning the inception. It also explains all of the rules of the dream world, which makes the film's opening scene finally make sense, as well as prepare the viewer for the film's finale. The finale is ingenious, if not a bit too complex; consisting of a dream, within a dream, within a dream. 

Nothing confusing here....

Apart fron the intriging story, everything else about Inception is top notch. The visuals are the best part, allowing for us to see some truly mind bending stuff when the characters enter the dream world. The action is typical Nolan, with plenty of PG-13 rated gun play and car chases. The hard hitting and ominous score by Hans Zimmer has the same feeling, shaking you right to the core during action scenes, and perfectly helping to set the tone for others. Once scene in particular blends action with a true "how did they do that?" moment. A fight between two characters happens in an upscale hotel, as gravity does all kinds of weird things around them. 

Not for those with vertigo. 

Now, onto the bad. I've mentioned a few times already that the plot can get a bit convoluted. You can get lost easily if you miss only a couple of lines of dialog. For example, Cobb and his team encounter armed resistance upon entering someone else's dream. I had no idea who these goons were, or why they were fighting our main characters. On my second viewing of the film, I caught a couple of lines I had missed on my first time through. Apparently, people who fear having their secrets stolen via the dreamworld have trained their subconscious to fight any intruders. It was really easy to miss, so make sure you aren't distracted while you watch. To add onto that, make sure you have the time to sit and watch, as Inception clocks in at a two and a half hour runtime. 

Also, just a pet peeve of mine, an AED (Automatic External Defibrillator) is used in the completely wrong way to revive a character that has died. Yeah, you could say it works because its just a movie, or they were in a dream at the time. I'm not going to subtract anything for this, but it had my inner medicine nerd yelling "YOU CAN'T DO THAT!". 

Bottom Line: 9/10: While it gets caught up a little in a complicated story, Inception pulls through with flying colors. Once you can understand whats happening, the story will pull you and and won't let go. The dream worlds are beautiful, characters are interesting, and theres plenty of bullets and explosions for the action fans. On top of that, one of the most well done ambiguous endings I've ever seen.