This is my 100th review!
Since the first review I wrote was Inception, I thought it would be fitting that I re-watch and re-review Inception and compare it to my original review.
Click here to read my eariler Inception review.
I watched Inception right after it was released on DVD and Blu-Ray. Recently, I watched it again so I could write this review. Not wanting to offend anyone but I completely understood the movie the first time I watched. I especially like movies that require me to think. After watching Inception, I read that some people did not like Inception because they did not understand it. If you do not pay attention while watching the movie you will miss numerous key points of the movie. Also I will have a few spoilers in this review but they will be highlighted in Red so you will know what to look out for.
Thoughts: This is one of my all time favorite movies. It has a perfect mix of action, thrills, acting, special effects, and original concept. Inception should have won the Oscar for Best Picture. It was easily the best movie since Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. This is by far Christopher Nolan's best movie, much better than The Dark Knight. The concept of going into someone's dreams is an incredibly original idea. The acting and characters in the movie are impeccable. The performance from Leonardo DiCaprio was Oscar worthy and the other supporting cast was also great, including: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy. While I liked all of the characters, my favorites were Eames (Tom Hardy), Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio). Additionally the action scenes in Inception are some of the best I have seen. The "Rotating Hallway" scene is one of the best fight scenes ever. After the team enters the dream the movie is a non-stop thrill ride with perfect character development, suspense, and plot twists along the way. This is not a story of your prototypical hero battling evil, it is much more complex. Dom Cobb is a criminal of sorts, who steals information from a target like a thief steals money from a bank. However, he is doing this for a good reason, to reunite with his family and children. For this reason the character is very likeable, although what he is doing is board line illegal.
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Genre: Sic-Fi, Action, Thriller
Release Date: July 16, 2010 (2010-07-16)
Running Time: 148 minutes
MMPA rating: PG-13
The Good: Most original concept for a movie since Star War (not including comic book and book adaptations), Amazing action scenes, Spectacular special effects, Excellent acting, Tests your intelligent, One of the best opening scenes ever, One of the best ending scenes ever, Very unexpected plot twists, Excellent pacing
The Bad:
Plot: The following plot summery is copied from Wikipedia.com.
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his business partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) perform illegal corporate espionage by entering the subconscious minds of their targets, using two-level "dream within a dream" strategies to extract valuable information. Dreamers are awakened either by a sudden shock (a "kick"), or by dying in the dream. Each of the extractors carries a totem, a personalized small object whose behavior is unpredictable to anyone except its owner, to determine whether they are in another person's dream. Cobb's totem is a spinning top which perpetually spins in the dream state. Cobb struggles with memories of his dead wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), who manifests within his dreams and tries to sabotage his efforts.
Cobb is approached by the wealthy Mr. Saito (Ken Watanabe), Cobb's latest extraction target, asking him and his team to perform the act of "Inception"; planting an idea within the person's subconscious mind without them knowing. Saito wishes to break up the vast energy conglomerate of his competitor, the ailing Maurice Fischer (Pete Postlethwaite), by planting this idea in his son, Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), who will inherit the empire when his father dies. Should Cobb succeed, Saito promises to use his influence to clear Cobb of the murder charges for his wife's death, allowing Cobb to re-enter the United States and reunite with his children. Despite Arthur's insistence that inception is impossible, Cobb accepts the job and assembles his team: Eames (Tom Hardy), an identity forger; Yusuf (Dileep Rao), a chemist who concocts the powerful sedative needed to stabilize the three-layered shared dream required for inception; and Ariadne (Ellen Page), a young architecture student tasked with designing the labyrinth of the dream landscapes. Saito insists on joining the team as an observer and to ensure the job is completed. While planning the inception, Ariadne learns of the guilt Cobb struggles with from Mal's suicide and his separation from his children when he fled the country as a fugitive.
The job is set in motion when Maurice Fischer dies and his son accompanies his father's body from Sydney to Los Angeles. During the flight, Cobb sedates Robert Fischer, and the team brings him into the shared dream. At each stage, the member of the team who is "creating" the dream stays behind to generate the "kick", while the other team members fall asleep within the dream to travel further down into Fischer's subconscious. Watch the movie to see what happens next.
Plot: 10/10- The concept is extraordinarily original and the pacing is perfect. You cannot get much better than this.
Action: 9.8/10- Since most of the movie is in the "Dream World" the laws physics do not always apply, therefore the action can be somewhat realistic yet spectacular at the same time. The movie is action packed after the team enters the dream with some of the best action scenes I have ever seen.
Acting: 10/10- Inception has one of the best casts ever assembled, with standout performances by Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Special effects: 10/10- The special effect in Inception were amazing. It used a perfect combination of practical and CGI effects.
Soundtrack: 9.7/10- Hans Zimmer’s excellent score fits Inception perfectly and builds tension.
Comedy: N/A
Overall: 9.9/10- Overall Inception is a masterpiece of film.
Closing comments: Inception is a must see movie for anyone.
Recommended for: Anyone, Action fans, Thriller fans, Sci-Fi fans, Suspense fans, Leonardo Vicario fans, Movie fans,
*Warning Spoilers! Skip to the bottom of the page to comment if you have not seen the movie!*
If you have seen Inception, do you think that Cobb is in the dream world or the real world at the end of the movie? I think that he has made it out of the dream world and has returned to the real world. One reason I believe this is that Cobb was not wearing his wedding ring at the end of the movie. In all of the dream scenes he is wearing his ring. The second thing that I noticed was that his children were wearing different clothes and he was able to see their faces. Earlier in the movie he reveals that he could not see the faces of his children in the dream world because that was his last memory he had of them.
For another opinion click on the link below to Kalya at Jedi Filmaker review of Inception,
Inception Review
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