Inception = Incredible

Pancho and I, on an impulse, decided to catch Inception early (9:40am early!) Saturday morning.  I have to admit that I was incredibly surprised the theater had an IMAX showing that early; and I was even more surprised at the number of people in the theater.  Settled in my seat, it was time for the movie.

We showed up a bit late, meaning we missed the previews (sad face) and I think the first 5 minutes of the film.  I don’t think either were super important as we were able to get up to speed very fast.  Spoiler free review after the jump.

Plot

The story is focused around the ability to share dreams.  It is through this interaction that the cast of characters perform corporate espionage.  The hook for the movie involves the team being given the task of planting an idea,  (hence, the name Inception) rather than stealing the idea.  A simple concept on the surface, but Writer/Director Christopher Nolan (Dark Knight, Momento and Insomnia fame) does a wonderful job of weaving a complex and beautiful story.

Not since the first Matrix film, have I encountered such a fresh and intriguing concept in the main stream media.  The film does a great job of making the premise very believable and never resorts to “hand waving.”

Characters

There are some familiar faces among the crew in Inception.  Most notably are Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  They have the lions share of the screen time and pull their fair share of the weight in making this movie a success.

Leo, once again returning to the dark and angsty role that he has had great success with in recent years, turns in a great performance.  While the role may not have been anything new, in terms of scope, he nails the character perfectly.  Why develop a new solution when the current one will do?

Ellen Page (from Juno fame), takes a slight step out of what we are used to seeing to deliver an interesting performance.  She plays a very brazen and fearless character in this movie; entirely comfortable in the dream world.  I was very happy with her performance.  My only comment is that a few times I felt that her character too easily accepted what she was experiencing.

The biggest surprise for me was Mr. Gordon-Levitt.  After years of watching him as Tommy on 3rd Rock From the Sun and 10 Things I Hate About You,  I had a sinking feeling in my stomach when I first saw him in the film.  I call it the “Topher Grace Efffect.”  Wow, was I wrong.  It did not take me long, but he certainly proved that he has what it takes to escape his teen acting roots.  His character also had one of the most epic fight scenes I have ever seen!  Kudos Mr. Gordon-Levitt, kudos!

The rest of the cast turns in a splendid performance.  There are some other notables, be sure to check out the IMDB page for specifics.  Great job of casting the film by the producer.  (Couldn’t locate the name on my first try.)

Special Effects

Subtlety is key in today’s special effects.  With technology, it is too easy to go over board and throw the kitchen sink at a movie. Inception manages to maintain a balance.  We are shown things that are totally unbelievable, yet with the premise of a dream and blend of real life effects (things done the old fashioned way) with digital effects, we are given a scene that our minds acceptably say, “Ok, I buy it.”  The action scenes are very grounded.  Mythbusters would likely give a passing grade to every action sequence in the movie.  The fight choreography is very believable given the context of each fight and the end result is an incredibly “realistic”, gritty and intense action packed movie.  This film should be used as a scholarly example for all future special effects artists.

Pacing

I never once thought I was bored, looked at my watch or yawned.  (Remember it was early in the morning, I should have been yawning!)  On the other side of the coin, I never felt like they left out any important detail.  The only character that seemed rushed into the story was Ellen Page’s character.  In fairness, they likely could do an entire prequel to the movie that focuses on Ellen Page’s character and the process she went through to gain the skill set she has.

IQ

It’s refreshing to find a movie today that does not hold the audiences hand throughout the entire movie.  This frees the writer to tell the story rather than provide a lesson in common sense to the audience.  I thought the movie filled in the answers to my questions very well.  Anything that the movie did not state explicitly was easily filled in given the surrounding information.  They created such a believable set of concepts and environment that the story was able to be told without constantly validating the plots direction.

Leaving the movie, I figured that pretty much everyone should be able to handle the movie’s concept.  Wow, was I wrong.  On the cab ride this morning, I watched NYC Channel 7 review (they have in cab TVs here in NYC) and the guy said something to the effect of “Enjoyable movie, but it was too ‘heady’ and made my head hurt, so I didn’t really like it.” Give that a moment.  Wow.  These are the kind of people that are destroying worth while entertainment.  Don’t be that guy.  Don’t be afraid to use the precious lump of grey matter between your ears. (Note from Matt, Corinna over at Geekdad said that even her 14 and 11-year-olds were able to mostly follow along and definitely enjoyed the film)

Entertainment

This movie is on par, if not better, than The Matrix for me.  (The first one, not the other 2 lukewarm films.)  For those that don’t know me, that’s saying a lot.  No matter what you enjoy, I feel that the price of the movie is completely worth it.  You will be entertained.

Final Evaluation

See it.  By all means see it.  See it in IMAX if you don’t get motion sickness watching IMAX.  If you need someone to go with, let me know.  I will see this again and again.  I can only hope that when the DVD comes out, it has tons of extras about how they did the special effects.

-Sim

Matt’s Thoughts

I won’t go into as exhaustive detail as Rich, since much of what I’d say would just be rehashing the same points, but I will say it was the best movie I’ve seen in some time, and that is saying something coming off both Toy Story 3 and Predators, both of which I loved.  The action was great, and not over the top, the plot is intricate without overdoing it, although I’d definitely like to see it a second time, both to see what other details I can pick up, and just because it was that good.