Inception

Rating: 9.2/10

Genre: Action Thriller

Overall value for time and money: 9.0/10

The lives of a top dream information snatcher (Leonardo Dicaprio) and his partner are put into danger when their recent dream invasion mission failed. However, they recieve an unlikely proposal from the supposed target, Ken Watanabe for another mission, which promises to solve all their problems and have them return to their normal lives... in exchange for successfully accomplishing a near impossible mission of planting an idea into a target's (Cillian Murphy) mind.

As much as I would like to brag about how near perfect this deep sci-fi movie is, it's not. It is indeed very thought-provoking, but because of its genre, it forces us to think... and when I think... I tend to overthink and find loopholes with such movies. But it could easily be one of the best movies of the year. It gave me a similar vibe to Shutter Island when the credits rolled but I still preferred Shutter Island because of the cinematography and the unexpected twist within a twist... *major spoilers ahead* This movie had a twist at the end, but only introduced a new concept of a dream within a dream.

What I really liked about the film is that it allows for "impossibilities" since the concept of dreams and fantasies provides a legitimate window for them. So when you see your entire world becoming distorted and if there's like a random train derailing and coming out from nowhere, it's acceptable. If dinosaurs were to pop out, or a volcanic eruption in the middle of your apartment, its still acceptable. The concept allows it to explore new boundaries and has a ring of Matrix-ness in it. Good choice of actors except Leonardo Dicaprio's wife which I personally felt wasn't very compatible to him.

And thanks to its 2.5hr runtime, we get to draw into the characters' emotions and to feel for them, especially Leonardo Dicaprio's character. Joseph Gordon-Lewitt also delivered a top-notch performance as Dicaprio's partner (you'll recall seeing him in Third Rock from the Sun and have moved on to more serious roles... a similar path taken by Aston Kutcher and Topher Grace) and he added "character involvement in the movie". He was in one of the best action scenes of the movie, the anti-gravity scene which featured Gordon-Lewitt fighting off bad guys and trying to find a way to wake his team up. That is true for Ellen Page as well (from Juno and Hard Candy). What I'm trying to say is that though the main focus is Dicaprio's character, there is also a good amount of focus on Dicaprio's team members... which makes viewing more involving.

Finally, let's get down to the true finesses of the movie. Ken Watanabe might be a refreshing face to the big screen (since I've only recalled seeing him in Last Samurai and in the Cannon ads), he seriously need to articulate his words more clearly. Most of the time, I had trouble figuring out his speeches and even the mandarin subtitles provided little help. As a result, I had to infer most of what he said... which was very important since he was the employer and the rationale of the mission is what drives the movie plot.

Took me a while to figure out what they were actually doing... to implant a new idea of having a billionaire's son break up his company after his father's death and to set up his own. The dream within a dream concept is cool and convenient in such that it allows them to orchestrate a series of events to lead up to "planting the idea" since they cannot do it forcefully and have to work their way through the "layers" of the dreams. Its convenient because every layer down, the time difference increases since the deeper you go into the brain, the faster it functions... so a 3rd layer dream of 10 years would only equate to 1 hour of sleep time. This gives the team, and the movie more reason to extend its scenes and yet make sense after it all.

Initially, I thought the explanation of Leonardo Dicaprio's "inner demon" (which is his wife) was a little vague since he said he implanted an idea into his wife's mind of not being in reality and it manifested... but thumbs up for the more detailed explanation at the end which really tied things up. The first part of the movie which featured his wife sabotaging his mission was a great subtlety in throwing you off the road since they didn't explain it only until the middle of the movie... at the start you might think that Ken Watanabe employed Dicaprio's wife to prevent him from succeeding because apparently its created by Dicaprio himself...

The feeling of free-falling to wake a person up from deep sleep is a very interesting notion since most of the time when we dream of free-falling, we actually wake up. For someone like me who did experiment on my dreams before, I wouldn't totally agree with that because I have tried to control my dreams and I did reach the end of the free-fall... as a result I no longer have those kinda dreams. But for those of you who still dream of free-falling and it freaks you out by waking you up... then this idea would make sense.

*irrevelant critique* Since I'm already at it, if you're someone who has constant nightmares of free-falling, it means you're very stressed and your subconscious mind is telling you that. To counter it, you have to tell yourself every night to be aware of it being a dream... it's tough but possible (I was only successful after dreaming up 3-5 identical dreams) and when you're finally aware of it... then tell yourself you want to know where is the end. Don't wake yourself up and when you hit the ground.. and it doesnt hurt you, you know its a dream.. and the best irony in that it reinforces that you are in a dream. Enjoy that moment because after that, you'll never dream of another free-falling dream ever again.

Back to the movie... I was thinking it more of a loophole since Cillian Murphy was not "trained" or "conditioned" to wake up after feeling the sensation of free-falling, but he did anyway. So the above would provide a good explanation for that.

Perhaps the most "cool" and thought provoking moment of the movie was the ending... where the top (Dicaprio's totem to keep track of reality) kept spinning... which signified that he was still in a dream. It makes sense since there was a scene of him explaining to Ellen Page that he was lost in Lomo (like a black hole in your dreams) and I was finding it peculiar how he managed to get out... So it kinda leads up to that ending even though some may not like it... especially since back then when I was in secondary school my teachers would always dissuade us from writing compositions that were of dreams because it would mean that your entire compo was.. was.. "redundant". Well, Christopher Nolan did the unthinkable by bringing that idea to the big screens, and getting an impressive rating and compliments from its viewers. This movie really tells us that we should challenge ourselves to attempt breaking conventions.

And like I've said, no movie is perfect.. now for the lows about the movie which I didn't like. Didn't quite get why Dicaprio would be able to enter Ken Watanabe's Lomo (opening sequence) towards the end since he was in his own subconscious dream. Is Lomo the same for everyone? How did he manage to get there right after his wife died in his hands? It makes sense for Ken Watanabe to be an old man and Dicaprio being still young because of the time-layer concept but it doesnt explain how Dicaprio could "magically" enter the same dream of Watanabe's. But.. but... ironically, it would make sense if... everything is a dream. Because that way, you don't have to link everything up since conveniently, in dreams, you don't remember how you get to a place, or how you get out, or even how stuff don't link in dreams... But I believe that can't be the case because if it was intended that way, then you don't even need to make sense out of the movie... such an oxymoron.

That's why when the director dabble into such concepts of dreams and fantasies, it allows leverage on the rationalism and logic and even if something, or some link doesn't makes sense, its acceptable since its just a dream...

There were times when I tried to stay focus since the jargons used were pretty deep and it makes it hard to keep track of logic... and made it slightly draggy at times. Overall, a highly recommended movie, but be prepared to have your mind "tortured" since it's one movie which requires lotsa attention and involves lotsa thinking.