Reviewed By: Riley Beam

The unofficial three word review generator of Christopher Nolan's Inception: (Choose one word from each number)

1.) Fantastic. Extravagant. Illusive. Chimerical.
2.) Mental. Cerebral. Subconscious. Psychical.
3.) Breakdown. Disruption. Disintegration. Psychasthenia.

In Inception, dreaming is the only path to reality, but one is often not discernible from the other.  It is a mind game with no time frame.

The story is best left briefly explained.  Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief, who works in the subconscious of his victims and steals their ideas.  He is offered an opportunity for redemption from a mysterious Asian businessman, Saito (Ken Watanabe), which he quickly agrees to.  His mission is not to steal an idea, but to plant one, a task that is "bloody difficult" to accomplish.  Cobb gathers a team of mental moles, played by Ellen Page (Juno), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer), Tom Hardy (Bronson) and Dileep Rao (Drag Me To Hell).  Each of these team members have a special skill set, much like The Magnificent Seven (or Captain Planet), and one cannot survive without the other.

Most of the characters lack depth, but in this rare instance that partly benefits the movie.  It adds to the dream-like feel, as many of the characters seemed lifeless and robotic but carried the plot along.  If there was more emotion and humanity to the characters, that would inject almost too much reality to the story and take away from the atmosphere of the dream worlds.  The mysterious woman (Marion Cotillard) who appears in Cobb's subconscious may be one of the most frightening and unpredictable antagonists since Heath Ledger as Joker in The Dark Knight (also a Christopher Nolan film.)  The environment of the subconscious takes on its own personality as well, which is really what makes this movie stand out.  It is an uncomfortable experience because not only is the story a mystery, but every subsequent scene is entirely unpredictable.  It will not let you rest.

In a new era of visuals and special effects, Inception has set a new standard.  Buildings and entire cities are toppled, warped, flooded, and destroyed; and not once does it feel or look unrealistic.  While 3D is on the rise and movies look better than ever, the worlds of Avatar and Toy Story 3 fall short of the vast, imaginative landscapes of Inception, which absolutely must be seen in theaters to be fully appreciated.

The uniqueness of this film is not in its plot, characters or dialogue, but in the way the story is told, the atmosphere is built, and its visuals.  Inception has everything one looks for in a mental thriller, plus all the eye-candy and sound effects of a summer blockbuster.  Christopher Nolan successfully followed up The Dark Knight with an equally impressive and game-changing film and should be noted as perhaps the greatest filmmaker of the last decade.  (Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, and Inception)

Don't Sleep on Inception.


9/10