sportsjabber.net

It’s official: not only was Inception this year’s most anticipated movie, but it’s also the hardest to review. Let’s get something straight right from the get-go, this review will, at times, seem all over the place. What is there to say? What can one possibly say about Inception without diving into discussion on its endless possibilities and theories? To be straightforward, Inception, thus far, is the movie event of the summer. Not only are everyone and their dog going to see it, but it sincerely lives up to the hype that it produced.

To spare what is sure to be the few that haven’t seen it – Inception deals with the subconscious, the mind and dreams. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) has the unique job of entering people’s dreams to steal ideas and works with a team that includes an architect, a forger and an extractor. Does it sound like a technical and intellectual masterpiece? That’s just the beginning. For two and a half hours, the viewers will be taken on the adventure of their lives exploring realms that can only exist on screen.

Inception offers the viewer something special: endless possibilities. I, like what I’m sure is many others, left the theater claiming that Inception would be talked about, discussed, and debated about for years. It is rare that a blockbuster with the budget the magnitude of Inception’s could offer one the most ingenious writing and one of the most mind bending stories of all-time. In the three days following the film’s release there have been countless remarks along the lines of: “it isn’t hard to follow at all.” Yet, if that’s the case then shouldn’t the majority of people truly understand what happens and how everything really goes down? Inception is that rare breed of film in which the viewer would be lucky to know the half of it upon several views. Some of the theories are astounding. Let that speak for the amount of detail the film goes into to keep the viewer on edge and alert. Inception is that type of movie that film buffs must eat up; one in which the experience can be lost even if you look away for one critical second, a film in which normally obscure and minor details could hold extreme significance and could be used as excellent evidence in trying to argue what has happened one way or another.

For director Christopher Nolan, his impressive streak keeps on going as he continues to provide beautiful direction and writing, truly making the audience think and work towards an answer. With writing as twisted as the story itself, Nolan doesn’t make it easy, but in doing so offers about as much fun as one can have at the movies. What is most impressive perhaps is how Nolan goes about handling his star studded cast. Obviously, Inception wasn’t like anything most of the cast has ever worked on before, yet there wasn’t one scene in which any of them appeared out of place or as overwhelmed as their audience must have appeared. From a technical standpoint, Inception is breathtaking as the movie was filmed in several different countries and offers top of the line graphics from the beautifully shot no gravity scenes to the unbelievable capturing of true, constant suspense in many of the film’s most powerful scenes.

Possibly the greatest treat the audience receives is the exploration of Cobb’s subconscious, which, to no one’s surprise, is central to the story. Yet, it is how Nolan presents DiCaprio’s co-stars that is perhaps most intriguing. There is a vast amount of vagueness behind Cobb’s partners in crime; however, that isn’t necessarily to be seen as a negative. Rather, the characters lack of depth further put Cobb into the spotlight and may just offer the viewer the clarity they desire. There is, obviously, a lot more to that otherwise that’d be a big spoiler.

Inception is such a masterpiece visually, intellectually and impresses so much from a technical and directorial standpoint that one might easily overlook the magnitude of the casts’ performances. As previously mentioned for lack of depth, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe and Cillian Murphy all play the roles to a tee and really appear to be nothing more than guidelines to Cobb. DiCaprio and Marion Cotillard (who plays Cobb’s wife, Mal) are the standouts as they receive the most amount of screen time and their stories are present more often (although perhaps not more clearly) than the others. Both are to be applauded for their performances as they appear to be professionals and masterminds of their crafts, yet hold an air to them that blatantly calls attention to being overwhelmed and, maybe, not as knowledgeable as they might believe. For DiCaprio, he follows up his performance in Shutter Island valiantly and is bound to receive some recognition for either role. As for DiCaprio and Cotillard’s on screen chemistry, one can only use one word to describe it: chilling.

Let’s just come out and say it: Inception is everything we hoped it would be. It’s intelligent, it’s a marvel to look at, it features stellar direction, incredible writing, beautiful acting and, above all, gives the movie public something to talk about. Inception will keep people debating too. To put it bluntly, Inception will stay with you in your mind long after you have walked out of those theater doors.

http://forums.sportsjabber.net/sjforums/showthread.php?t=59577