Inception...Evan's Take

Every so often a movie comes along that delivers a truly unique movie experience. The plot is something imaginative that audiences have never seen before, which is very difficult to do in this day and age of rehashing what's considered to be tried and true (see Knight and Day). The cast is filled with brilliant actors who nail every scene and make the story believable. And the movie making itself is filled with amazing cinematography and fantastic story telling. "Inception" is definitely one of those movies. It might as well have written the book on that type of movie. As a result...I feel silly writing about it considering that it is definitely not a "mindless" movie. But in the interest of keeping my immense fan base happy and avoiding countless irate e-mails asking for some sort of explanation as to why I have neglected this movie...I will try my best to offer up some opinions.

Let's start with writer/director Christopher Nolan. I think it is safe to say that Nolan is one of the greatest film makers of this generation. If you have a look at his body of work it includes inspired movies like Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight (one of my favourite movies ever) and now Inception. The guy just doesn't seem to make a bad movie (I now want to watch The Prestige and Insomnia). The really impressive thing to me is that he seems to take his time when making movies, as evidenced by the fact that he has only directed 6 films since 2000. He isn't out there making any old thing just to try and capitalize on his success (screw you M. Night Shyamalan!). He appears to have a passion for making movies that are truly amazing and well thought out, which becomes abundantly clear when you see the final product on the silver screen. Ok...that's enough gushing about my man crush on Christopher Nolan.

The movie itself is an absolute masterpiece. I was surprised to find out that despite the critics calling the plot complex (which it is...) I was able to follow and understand everything that was going on. After the movie, as we were all standing around talking about the movie, there were some new questions that were raised which I hadn't thought about but they didn't affect how much I enjoyed the movie. I also found it curious that I didn't know much about the plot going in to a movie. Oftentimes, I will pick up enough from the trailers to get the gist of the plot or I will read some previews and some of the critics will let slip some rather important aspects of the storyline. In the case of "Inception", my guess is that Nolan gave you just enough to pique your interest ("Oh...It's about stealing dreams? Cool!") and the critics just didn't know how to explain enough of the plot in a coherent manner to fit their word limit. "Inception" is really something that you need to experience to appreciate the simple complexity of it.

I was really impressed with the acting in this movie as well. I expected great performances from Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Caine and Ellen Page (the Canadian acting sensation!) who are all proven Hollywood commodities. But who knew that Joseph Gordon-Levitt had more acting skills than playing an alien posing as a teenager on 3rd Rock from the Sun? (It wasn't until I was in the car that Jeff Lipkewich pointed it out to me...I did not recognize him at all!) Word is that he is a front runner to play the Riddler in the next Batman film...sounds like this guy is a rising star. Not to mention the fact that he is part of one of the coolest fight scenes that I have seen in years that happens in a hotel with shifting gravity where they run all over the walls (Watch the trailer below and you get a very brief glimpse of it between 38-41 seconds...dont blink!). You might ask yourself, "How is there shifting gravity in a hotel?"...well after you see the movie it will seem so simple and you will also appreciate how awesome this fight scene really is! (As a side note...doesn't the music in the trailer give you chills?...Good music in this movie...it was done by Hans Zimmer...I looked for it because of Benjy).



I don't know what more there is to say. This movie is by far the best movie I have seen in a few years and probably ranks right up there as one of my favourites of all time. I am giving it 10 dreams out of 10...and I am not dreaming!*

*(...I think...)

PS - I would like to point out that I finished my review before Benjy did...this is a first...and it might very well be the last time this ever happens.

Also, we went to this movie as a large group and tried to convince some people to contribute to our blog (or the larger blogosphere) with their thoughts...You can check out what Amy thought about the movie here.