Inception

To take a break from what I hope to be a mostly professional review:

OH MY GOD THIS MOVIE IS AMAZING.

That is all.


Category: Science Fiction Action Drama

Premise: Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are experienced extractors, thieves that enter your mind by entering your psyche through a chemically-induced shared-consciousness dreamstate. After a botched extraction job, Cobb and Arthur are offered a chance to perform an inception, where instead of stealing information during the dreamstate, they must plant an idea into their target. After assembling a talented team, Cobb and his crew face the difficult task of planting an idea into someone's mind and making them believe it is their own.

To be honest, the premise is extremely hard to explain, but you should GO SEE THIS MOVIE.


Zer(o)verview:

Again, this movie is incredible, and exceeds all expectations I had for it (which were extremely high to begin with).

Christopher Nolan, director of the critically-acclaimed Batman: The Dark Knight starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, now gifts the world with Inception, a surreal, gripping action drama set within the subconscious of the characters involved.

Right off the bat, the audio cues and visual effects are breath-taking. You thought James Cameron's Avatar was aesthetically impressive? Wait until you see the dreamscapes that Ellen Page, DiCaprio and Gordon-Levitt create for the characters to traverse.

As I said before, the movie is very difficult to review without giving too much away, and it's absolutely thrilling to watch. I'll do my best to review it without giving any spoilers.

To perform a successful extraction or inception, you need these key things:

An Extractor: Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the most skilled extractor in the world (so he claims, and lives up to his reputation throughout the movie). He was extradited from America after some legal trouble (What kind of trouble is a HEAVY SPOILER), and he's been working freelance with his Point Man.

A Point Man: Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) plays the Point Man, a type of extractor that, during multi-layered dreamstates, specializes in delaying subconscious security and convincing the target that they are not in a dream if they are abruptly kicked out of the lower dream layers. That sounds extremely confusing, but you'll understand when you watch the film. Arthur utilizes paradoxical architecture, improvisational 'kick' and combat tactics, and other methods to deter the target's subconscious security from converging and rooting out the extractors or inceptors.

An Architect: Ariadne (Ellen Page), pronounced Air-e-ad-knee, is the architect, the member of the inception team that constructs the dream world that the dreamers experience. She develops a constantly evolving, changing, labyrinthine environment meant to delay subconscious security and allow the inception team to navigate the subject's mind more efficiently.

A Forger: Eames (Tom Hardy), is the forger, the team member that impersonates a figure that the subject trusts in order to make them more susceptible to coercion. A Forger must memorize mannerisms, diction, and all physical discrepancies.

A Chemist: Yusuf (Dileep Rao) is the chemist, the team member that mixes the sedative that keeps the dreamers in the continuous dream-state even during circumstances that would normally wake people up.

A Subject: Fischer (Cillian Murphy) is the subject, the target for inception.



Some terms you'll want to familiarize yourself with:

Kick- A way to abruptly end the dream-state, usually associated with falling or water.

Totem- A trinket that only you know the precise features of, to know whether you are still in someone else's dream or not.


Now, to the review.

All the characters do a spectacular job in their roles, and everyone performs at or above expectations, which were already very high. I already mentioned the breath-taking CGI and visual effects, along with well-placed, vivid audio cues (since there isn't much of a music track to speak of). As it takes place mainly the dreamscape of the heir of a powerful corporation, I can't really say anything without spoiling it, so I won't. I may have said too much already, to be honest.


GROUND ZERO:
A mesmerizing new film from Christopher Nolan, Inception delivers, and then some, on all levels. I saw it twice in one day. TWICE IN ONE DAY. That should say something. The cast is brillant and compelling, the plot is full of intrigue and never gets boring, the CGI and sound is spectacular, I really have nothing bad to say about it at all.

But please.

Please Christopher Nolan.

DON'T MAKE A SEQUEL. You may get hate mail from people who were confused by your ending, but I thought it was brillant.

DO NOT MAKE A SEQUEL. YOU HAVE A MASTERPIECE, DON'T RUIN IT.


5 out of 5.