Concerning Inception

Are you living in reality? Or are you in a dream? Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a master of extraction - entering into a shared dream with a corporate giant in order to extract information from the corporate giant's subconscious. When he tries (and fails) to extract information from a man named Saito (Ken Watanabe), Cobb is surprised when Saito turns around and offers him a job. If Cobb can plant an idea in the mind of Saito's rival, then Saito will fix it so Cobb can return home. Unwilling to pass up this chance to see his two children again, Cobb agrees. Even he is completely unprepared for what he and his team will encounter.

The story in this movie is absolutely incredible. It's complicated, but not so much that you feel completely lost during the movie. It's only after the movie when you start thinking about it later that it becomes confusing. Luckily, I had the chance to watch this three times in two days, so I think I have the story straightened out. (Except for the ending - I don't think Christopher Nolan wanted people to understand that.)

The story may be confusing, but it's also a really cool idea. It's completely impossible, of course, but the very ideas of layered dreams and being able to change your dream however you want in the middle of it are just plain cool. Another cool thing is the graphics. The only time they don't look one hundred percent realistic is when your mind is telling you that what's going on is impossible. Your eyes believe everything, but your brain isn't as credulous.

Inception is extremely well done in more ways than just the story and graphics. The acting and characters are superb. At first, I wasn't very impressed. Dom seemed like a boring character, and I wasn't too impressed with Leonardo DiCaprio's acting. But as the movie went on, Dom's character began to have all sorts of little twists and turns, and suddenly I realized that DiCaprio is a very good actor indeed. All the little things about Dom that I took as DiCaprio trying to make a character out of nothing were revealed as being intentional parts of Dom's character. To stay on the acting, everyone else was really good as well; Ellen Page as Ariadne and Cillian Murphy as Robert Fischer in particular.

My Rating: T (violence, language)

Picture from impawards.com