Inception Movie Review

Inception (2010)

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Written by: Christopher Nolan
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Marion Cotillard, Pete Postlewaite, Michael Caine, Lukas Hass
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
A thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a CEO, but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.

Verdict
This movie is such a trip. While it's a relatively simple heist, it's the different dream levels that add complexity. This creates a surreal world, but it's the level of detail and thought in how to wake from dreams, how the level above affects the current dream, and the time dilation of dreams that really makes this a lot of fun and gives you something to think about. It's a neat story, but the details really make this. Of course this does take full advantage of CGI to create some neat dream worlds. It's incredibly creative and such a fun ride.
Watch It.

Review
If you haven't seen this movie, you have no idea what's going on as it seems to jump around. It's clear Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, but this isn't exactly how it looks. The movie doesn't take long to tell us what's happening. This is a dream.

I love how this movie thought about how real life affects the dream. To wake up from a dream you need a "kick" initiated by free falling. That sense of falling alerts your brain to wake up. Real world stimuli like acceleration, feelings like the rain spraying in your face, and sound also translate into the dream world. Cobb and his crew of Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eames (Tom Hardy), and Ariadne (Elliot Page) use this to aid them in their heist. If you can get into a person's dreams, you can steal valuable information. 

The introduction to this is really cool because they are auditioning for Saito (Ken Watanabe). He states they failed because the deception was obvious, but surprise, they're still asleep.

Cillian Murphy and Leonardo DiCarpio play Robert Fischer and Dom Cobb

The plight in this movie isn't to steal information, but to implant an idea during a dream into Robert Fischer's (Cillian Murphy) consciousness. Of course a few characters state its impossible to add to the tension, but Cobb believes it's possible. Cobb has a vested interest as success means his criminal past is erased and he can return to America. I don't know what the other guys get.

The movie provides so many neat ideas related to how this works. Each dreamer needs a totem, something that only they know like a weight die, so that an architect that creates a dream world can't create that item in a dream because they can't predict how it would fall or spin. This helps ground you so you know if you're in a dream or not. While someone creates this dream, the person whose subconscious you invade will create projections that attack if you they realize it's a dream. Five minutes in the real world is one hour in a dream. If you enter a dream of a dream, time moves even slower.

Dom experiencing a kick

This is basically a heist movie, but this foundation of how it's executed is what makes this movie. Their reconnaissance is planning dream mazes and determining how to implant this idea. The plan consists of three levels of dreams to get deep enough, but then you also have to get out of those dreams. They need a kick that penetrates three levels to wake them up from each level.

The creativity of this movie is captivating. It's almost more confusing than it should be as we keep track of three levels of dreams and who is doing what on each level. With battles raging on all levels you wonder how they will ever escape. The tension is incredibly high, and if the foundation of the story wasn't so secure this movie easily could be bad. It excels.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Elliot Page play Dom Cobb and Ariadne

Nolan wanted to do this movie after Insomnia, but felt he needed to do a couple of big budget action movies to prepare for a movie like this. Those movies were Batman Begins, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight. This started as a horror film with dream stealers, but was modified when he came back to it.

The end of this scene has led to a lot of debate. Cobb 'completes' the inception and returns to the real world despite us never seeing him ride the kick up and out. He returns home and sees his kids, but it's the same memory we saw before. They haven't aged and aren't dressed differently. Nothing indicates he actually made it out other than his totem beginning to wobble before the movie cuts to black. It's a great way to end the movie and generate debate, but it's clear