Rating of
4/4
Life is but a dream
Jr Movie Lover - wrote on 07/25/10
I just got back from seeing Inception a second time and I must say it truly is a magnificent work of art. Let me say I have seen movies with equal and better usage of effects and there have movies with better acting but none that combine all elements to create the essentially the perfect summer blockbuster.
Let me start with Effects. Christopher Nolan is a genius with effects. Batman Begins had great effects like the fire in the ninja temple and the train explosion. Also the Dark Knight was filled with great effects which included the explosions of the Prison, The locations where Dawes and Dent where being held, and the Hospital where dent was taken after the accident. Inception had probably the best effects yet in a Nolan movie at least to myself. How Nolan manages to combine beautiful imagery with gripping plot lines is astonishing to me. Not many directors can do so.
Now to the Plot. The plot is a simple one to follow if you pay close enough attention. Dom Cobb(Leo) is trying to earn money to buy his way back into America for a crime he did not commit. He is hired by Saito(Ken Watanabe) to break into the mind of Robert Fisher Jr.(Cillian Murphy) and implant into his dreams the idea to break up his late father's company. Leo then recruits Adriene(Ellen Page) the dream architect, Eames(Tom Hardy) the dream forger, and Yusuf(Dileep Rao) the sedatives man to help him commit the Crime. They end up drugging him on a plane flight back to LA and enter 3 levels of this dream maze. Battling dream security, time and Leo's late fiancée Mal(Marion Cottilard) they finally make it to the 3rd and lowest level. You have to wait to see what happens. The plot is put together well and the concept of the dream, totem, and building unto dreams is easily explained and easy to follow if you pay attention.
Finally acting. I really do believe all the acting of the characters I mentioned in the last paragraph is well done. Ellen Page did better in this role then I think she did in Juno. Joseph Gordon-Levitt made up for that atrocious GI Joe movie. Leo did better in this movie then he did in Shutter Island and Cillian Murphy was as good as he has been in his other 2 Christopher Nolan films, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Finally I feel that Michael Caine, Tom Berrenger, and Pete Postlethwaite all had excellent performances as Dom's Father, Robert's God-Father, and Robert's dying father Maurice.
I really do think this film has Oscar worth although I don't know if it will get Top Tier nominations(Best Actor, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Picture) or mid tier nominations( Best Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Supporting). I do predict it to get 3 or 4 low tier nominations ( Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing) and actual come out with 2 to 3 wins. Go see this movie.
