Inception (Review)

So, here it is. The movie that has had every movie buff peeing their pants in anticipation since the first teasers were released. A big budget was given to rising auteur Christopher Nolan, who in the past has given us such films as Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight. Now he gives us Inception, a film that has the highest aspirations a summer blockbuster has had in many a moon. A film that wishes to treat the audience as participants, not as observers of a cheap special effects show. It all comes down to that one crucial question: is the end product worth it all?

Duh.

Emerging from Inception I was sure that I had seen no less than a cultural event and not just a film. Not long ago I wrote about 2001: A Space Odyssey, and while the two films have very little in common at the surface, they are both extremely similar in one crucial way: They are films that are unlike anything that was made before them, and there will never be another film that can replicate them. In a Hollywood that pumps out sequels, remakes, and “hey, has THAT toy been made into a movie yet?” films, Inception is an assault of originality that will leave anyone that watches it utterly captivated.

Now, I should note that despite the fact I mentioned 2001: A Space Odyssey in this review I will not join the hordes of people championing Christopher Nolan as “the next Kubrick”. This I disagree with, as there is very little similarity between their works stylistically. What is similar is the passion they have for the medium of film, and their endless attempts to use it as it has never been used before. Is Inception a modern-day 2001? That is not a question that can be answered directly after seeing it. A film’s legacy can only be formed over time, but I do know what my reactions to this film are at this moment, and they are pretty incredible.

If anyone asks you to describe the plot of Inception to them, just shrug your shoulders and say “see it.” You may say it involves dreams and such, but any true attempts to explain it never end well. That is why I will not focus on plot description here, as that would be difficult, and hamper the viewing experience for anyone else that may see it.

Inception is brilliant in that it begins with you merely saying “cool”. As time goes on, the story deepens as do the characters, and by the end you are utterly blown away, down to the brilliant final shot that makes the audience lean forward in their seats. Something glorious has just happened in front of our eyes. It aims no less than to take us inside our own minds and our own dreams. We realize the power of a simple idea, and the damage it can cause, or even the healing. Christopher Nolan shows us the subconscious of our characters, and in end we realize we have just peeked inside our own.

Have I also mentioned it’s just an awesome action movie as well? Joseph Gordon-Levitt spends much of the movie fighting the Dream Police (they live inside of my head!) in a hallway that seems to rotate at will. There is an extended sequence with Levitt in zero gravity, and it is breathtaking. The special effects here are some of the best CGI I’ve ever seen. Nothing looks like a cartoon, but completely authentic. Oh, and by the way, there is no 3-D here. It’s all 2-D, and it’s much better off for it.

Hollywood studios themselves never get much credit, but here I think that needs to change. Thank you, Warner Bros., for funding this film with such high ambitions. Thank you for giving it a summer audience, and believing the audience would take it. Thank you for giving money to this man, Christopher Nolan, one of the few who can do the blockbuster right. It takes a lot of courage to get behind a movie like this, a movie that virtually no other studio would make. Go over to Paramount, which seems to crank out junk at every turn. There is no end to my gratitude, and I believe for your bravery you will be deeply rewarded.

Inception makes every other mainstream movie released in recent years seem behind the times. Earlier this year Leonardo DiCaprio starred in Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, a film which is very good in its own right. However, Inception makes Shutter Island appear to merely be an opening act. You all know I love Scorsese (I’m devoting my summer to the man) but Christopher Nolan has done something else entirely. This is not merely a psychological film, those are a dime-a-dozen, but this is a big-budget thriller with imagination, originality, and vision the likes of which has not been seen in a long time. To the rest of Hollywood, the message is loud and clear: The bar has just been raised.

Rating: (out of 4)