Summer movies. Back in the day, I used to be at the theaters every weekend for opening night. Harkin Cinemas in Bricktown used to be my second summer home. These days I catch about two or three films at the actual theater, while catching up with some of the others later. This year so far I have seen Toy Story 3 and Inception. I’ll probably post my review for Toy Story 3 in a couple weeks. Today I’ll cover Inception. And don’t worry, this is a SPOILER FREE ZONE.
Two years after the successful The Dark Knight Batman sequel is released, director Christopher Nolan follows up with the highly anticipated Inception. Fans of Nolan outside of the rebooted Batman series will recognize the skill and style of Nolan, with mind-bender and discussion-inducing films like Memento and The Prestige. And for those who enjoyed those flix, Inception is in that sort of vein as well.
Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb, the leader of a team of “extractors,” thieves-for-hire who steal ideas from people’s minds when they are in a dream-state. Cobb and his partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) get hired by an energy corporate head named Saito (Ken Watanabe). This time instead of taking an idea, Saito wants Cobb to plant an idea into a competitor’s head, a process called inception (thus the name of the movie, haha). The energy competitor, Robert Fischer, Jr. (Cillian Murphy) will get taken on a wild ride of deception while Cobb and his team try to plant the idea of splitting up Fischer’s father’s company.
But before Cobb can get started on Fischer, he recruits his team to construct and deploy this dream world. He brings along Eames (Tom Hardy), a long-time “counterfitter” with the ability to appear as someone else in these dream constructs. Yusuf (Dileep Rao), an underground chemist, is taken in order to put Fischer in a prolonged sleep-state. The final recruit, Ariadne (Ellen Page) is drafted to be the “architect,” someone who can create whole levels of the dream environment. Some of the construct is developed as a labyrinth for people who populate the dream world, or “projections,” who end up in some cases as protectors of the subject’s self-conscious. Cobb has problems dealing with a projection of his own while the team is inside Fischer’s subconscious, his dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard).
Still keeping up? It seems a bit complicated, and reading all of that beforehand can be a little intimidating.
But while this runs smarter than your average summer blockbuster, I found Inception pretty easy to follow with the way Nolan spends his time explaining the background and then executing the story. The best part of the movie is the layers of the dream worlds they operate in. At one point some characters are in a fourth level of the dreamscape (don’t worry, not a spoiler…and if you want to know what I meant by fourth level, I mean a dream in a dream in a dream inside another dream…and yes it is crazy, in a good way). The special effects are typical Nolan, fantastic enough to keep you engaged, but realistic enough for you to believe plausible. CG background fit in seamlessly with the live-action. The action was actually a plus, although nothing really groundbreaking there. But then again the action was never really meant to be. And while you may read from some critics that it lacks emotion, I found enough in the story that made me feel attached at least to Cobb and Fischer’s characters (I say that and I'm not even a real big fan of DiCaprio's "auto-pilot" acting style).
I have to say that Inception is my favorite movie of the year so far. I will say this, it is definitely not your typical popcorn summer movie. Think of The Matrix meets Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. Yeah, don’t expect to go to the theater and turn off your mind. This film is probably not for everyone. Like many Nolan films, this requires multiple viewings. I remember watching The Prestige for the first time and loving it, but appreciating it more on the second and third times I viewed it to catch the subtle things throughout the film. I’ve only seen this movie once, but I imagine it’ll be much the same. And who knows, after another view or two we’ll see if I’ll have to change my rating. I will definitely own the BluRay when this one comes out. If you are interested, see this in the theater.
the Meat Life rating: 8.5/10
In August, I’ll have the Meat Life Summer Movies Review, looking back at flix like Toy Story 3, Iron Man 2, the big hits, the disappointments, and everything in between.
Next entry I will have to focus my attention to college football. Yes, my friends, it’s the third annual Meat Life College Football Preview!
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