Inception (revised)

A+ (10.0)


I have been reviewing movies and when I think about film, it is a form of art. And I have done that for almost nine months. And it was hard to look at the film for what it's worth. 


One thing that gets me interested in that movie while watching is if it was based on the value it should give to audiences or if there's something that's has some interesting quality to that movie. The majority of movies I see everyday is based on the second option since I choose what I wanted to see very closely and wisely.


Inception is a huge example.


I have to admit that my initial review of this great movie from last year was way too vague and doesn't make any sense. I didn't like the sentence structure and there were numerous errors based on grammar and also because I didn't explain how good the film was properly. If the review was an essay for either high school or uni, I would've been given a zero.


So here's my opinion of this special movie I will enjoy for countless lifetimes.


I won't give out the plot so here's some snippets of it. Leonardo Dicaprio plays an extractor Cobb who goes into a person's dreams and will either do two things: steal secrets from layers of subconsciousness or plant an idea into someone's subconsciousness that the person will keep forever hence changing his life completely. This is called an Inception. Cobb is hired by a Japanese businessman (Ken Watenabe) to perform Inception on his competitor Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) and he will hire a crew to do this. Ranging from a point man, forger to an architect. Played by Joseph Gordon Levitt, Tom Hardy and Ellen Page respectively.


Inception represents one major reason why I go to movies. Before I was analysing film, I go to movies to be entertained. I was entertained and Inception had given me something to do while watching. To think. 


Christopher Nolan had been making this film for almost a decade. Given that there are many science fiction influences towards Inception, influences especially films like 2001: A Space Oddyssey and The Matrix, it has a variety of logic and philosophy that will impact film buffs for years. Nolan had previously bended our minds with his breakout film Memento and Inception have delivered many interpretations since its release. 


What I like about Nolan is that his other gift is to bring a devastating emotion (mostly grief) to the heart of his films. We've seen Guy Pearce playing a widowed amnesiac in Memento, Christian Bale as Batman who is riddled with choice and grief in The Dark Knight, and now to Dicaprio's character Cobb who like Peace and Batman together has dealt to losing his wife (Marion Cottilard) and the decisions he makes with his dream missions. Dicaprio is both charismatic and melodramatic and given how he played the same character in Scorsese's Shutter Island, it is still convincing.


The casting is pretty good. Joseph Gordon Levitt and Ellen Page plays people who look's after Cobb's grief. Page plays therapy with Cobb and does a huge role for this movie. But I reckon that the best person out of the lot is  Marion Cottilard and Tom Hardy who both play the psychotic wife of Cobb and the person who shapeshifts in a dream. Hardy delivers much of the film's comic relief and such while Cotillard plays the confused wife who becomes Cobb's memory and sabotage his missions. There is also a nice cameo from Michael Caine.


Nolan thinks expansive, from the gravity-defying fight scenes to the quasi-looking art set, it feels like I'm in it.


While Nolan's intention is to play games with the audience, how to understand it does not count on the number of viewings. Given the numerous concepts, it should be based on how much you have paid attention to the whole movie. For some people who haven't seen the movie, you should give this movie a try if you not only wanted to like it but to try and make sense. Those people who did are doing the right thing. But the others who dismiss it because it's hard to understand, you're doing the exact opposite.


Nolan has made an impact to the film industry. He defined the reboot for Batman's Begins, invented odd and exciting story structures and created a perfect impact to everyone watching a thrilling movie that will grab you into the screen


When Inception was first released, it was a summer of films recycled from other source material. Inception would be either be a positive sign for Hollywood showing it's redeeming itself or just an exception to this era's laziness in pop culture.


Nolan join the ranks along with David Fincher, Danny Boyle, Jason Reitman and Darren Arronofsky as our best contemporary filmmakers in this time.


From this point on, Inception will be a classic.