Inception (2010) Movie Review
Inception (2010) Movie Review
Well, I finally got around to seeing this movie, arguably one of the most iconic and definitive films of the 21st century, and one of the most significant films I had never seen. Part of the reason I procrastinated so long with it (years) was because I thought it would be one of those movies that is so sophisticated a normal person can’t understand it. Usually with complex movies like these I actually follow along pretty well until about the hour-fifteen minute mark, at which point I cease to understand anything that’s happening (examples include Minority Report, The Fugitive, and Flightplan). To my surprise I ended up following along pretty well and enjoying the movie much more than I anticipated I would. I’ve had a slight grudge against anything Christopher Nolan-related since I saw The Dark Knight for the first time several months ago, which underwhelmed me completely. Part of the reason I didn’t enjoy that film as much was because I had a headache the entire time while watching it, but still. Anyways, I had had Inception on DVD for quite a while and I decided that it was due time to see it. And I’m glad I did; it is very well-made and actually I think most people will find something to enjoy about it. I’m not gonna act like this is some unknown movie that I’m the first one to discover, but I will say that it is quite good.
The plot follows Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a skilled “extractor” who goes into people’s subconscious to find information in dreams. Cobb and his fellow extractor Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are tasked by a businessman named Saito (Ken Watanabe) to perform “inception” inside the subconscious of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the son of one of Saito’s rival businessmen. Inception means putting an idea into a mind, instead of taking one out, which is a lot more difficult. In this case, Saito wants Cobb and Arthur to put the idea of destroying his father’s business into Fischer’s head. To do this, Cobb must assemble a team of other people who can pull this off, including Eames (Tom Hardy), a conman, Ariadne (Ellen Page), who will design the dream worlds, and Yusuf (Dileep Rao), a scientist who is basically their getaway driver. As the team starts to execute their mission Cobb has trouble because of his dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) constantly entering the dreams. That’s the basic idea; there is a LOT of other complicated stuff that could be considered spoilers that I also won’t get into here.
I definitely enjoyed at least 80% of this movie. In terms of originality of concepts and creativity, Inception has a lot to offer. In fact, I’d even go as far as to say that it centers around one of the most original movie ideas of the 2010’s. The special effects and visual art are very well-done. It’s kind of a shame I didn’t get to see it in theaters, but I would’ve only been five years old at the time and I was busy watching more ~appropriate~ movies (shoutout to all my Planet 51 fans out there). Christopher Nolan did a great job directing this, you can tell it took forever to make. There were multiple scenes where I thought to myself, this must have cost a lot of money. Because visually, it is extremely impressive. The performances are decent and decent only, which is fine because this kind of movie doesn’t require much advanced acting, although I would say DiCaprio did an especially nice job. I think it is also important to point out how smoothly and suavely Inception blends science fiction with the other genres in this movie: action, thriller, drama. If you aren’t usually a fan of the sci-fi genre, chances are you won’t mind this film. It’s almost like it apologizes for placing itself in the science-fiction/fantasy category, and makes up for it with emotionally intense scenes and cop-movie-esque street shootouts. Despite this, Inception will still more than satisfy a sci-fi fan’s needs for the bending of time and space. I will now take the time to praise the movie’s ambiguous and very memorable ending, in which Cobb tests whether he is in reality vs. a dream by spinning a special top that will topple over in reality, but stay spinning in a dream. He spins it, and then walks away without seeing the result to go play with his kids. The camera pans back over to the top, which is still spinning, but also looks like it could fall over. This, I would say, is now one of my new favorite movie endings.
I have a few small complaints about the movie, but they aren’t anything extremely important. My biggest problem with Inception is, especially in the first act, how the sound effects are almost ridiculously loud and the actual dialogue is kinda quiet and hard to hear. Then, whenever you turn the volume up to hear what the characters are saying, there’s a huge crash or something and you have to turn the volume back down again because that was just so loud. So that could get annoying at times, but by the end I wasn’t really noticing it much. Another complaint I have, which technically has nothing to do with the film itself, but rather the way I watched it, is I HATE WIDESCREEN! Watching movies widescreen sucks, plain and simple! I can’t stand the huge black bars on top of the picture, and then the picture itself is so small-seeming. I’d take some good old fullscreen over that any day. And everyone who I’ve talked about this with doesn’t even mind widescreen. I guess I’m the only one. Anyways, another tiny complaint with Inception that I have is that sometimes it can get a little difficult to determine whether I am watching something that is inside of a dream or not. But I would imagine the filmmakers were aware that it could become hard to tell, and maybe even kept it that way on purpose.
Safety Chart:
Violence: 7/10- Shootings, people are shot. Explosions, car crashes. Not much blood. A man dies in a hospital bed, in a non-violent way.
Language: 5/10- Not much, mostly minor stuff. Hell, a**, d**m, “Jesus Christ” are all used in profane ways.
Drinking/Smoking: 3/10- Some drinking, not very notable.
In the end, I’m glad I can cross Inception off of the overwhelmingly long list of movies I need to see (yeah, it’s a pretty lengthy list… even though I’ve seen hundreds of films, there are always more to watch). If you like action movies or movies that are more than two hours long, then I would expect that you’d enjoy this film. It’s definitely one of the landmark films of uber-contemporary cinema, and for good reason. It’s nonstop action and drama that never fails to entertain. And if you’re into intelligent and challenging-type movies, then there’s something for you here, too. All around, this isn’t one to skip.
