Review: Inception

Like most of you, I was hooked by the buzz over Inception. Shots of Leonardo DiCaprio talking about entering people’s dreams, dudes fist fighting while floating in air, and buildings colliding over a cool soundtrack made my eyebrows go up. It was all very Matrix-like. Only Inception reminded me of the first Matrix, not the crappy ones that came later. So, despite the lack of a stripper pole or hot leading ladies (Ellen Page looks like an underdeveloped 14 year old to me) I wanted to see it. Hell, even my wife wanted to see it. Then the reviews finally came in from Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes. Both showed that the critics loved it. That put it over the top: we were go for Inception!

So, with the sun just 6 inches from our heads and nothing to protect us from its blistering rays save my beloved Chrysler, we headed off to the movies. All I could do was hope that it was worth it. Well, I was also hoping the car’s air conditioner would cope with the 5,000 degree heat. But that’s beside the point.

Bet I know what you’re thinking. Was Inception worth the sweltering heat, or did it suck like that family get together at the state prison last year?

Let me start by saying that my wife loved it. I think she was sold on the effects, which were far less digitized than those from the Matrix and lots of other movies these days. If you saw those half hour commercials for Inception on any movie channels, you know that Christopher Nolan wanted to use as many “real” effects (non-CGI) as possible. It shows. The effects were great. There was plenty of action. And it even had a story.

There’s this guy, named Cobb (NOT pictured to the left) who can somehow enter people’s dreams and steal their ideas. He’s a pro at this. Apparently, it’s an entire field of study that began with the military. Michael Cain (as Miles) even has a student he recommends to Cobb to be an architect (someone who designs the levels of the dreams, like a level designer of a video game). This architect is played by the shapelessly prepubescent Ellen Page. But now, someone wants Cobb to implant an idea instead of stealing one. Somehow, Cobb has to do this without interference from his wife, who only exists in his memories now. She’s dead, but she still haunts his dreams as a projection of his subconscious. He can’t return to America to see his children again because the cops think he killed her.

Dude.

I’m recommending Inception, so that’s all the details I will give. But I have to say, like the last Batman movie, it started to get a bit long toward the end. Also, the opening didn’t quite grab me. So if you like to judge a movie based on the first 2 minutes, you might want to hold back until things really start happening.

It might interest you to know that I actually thought Inception had something to do with a Phillip K. Dick story, as this could surely have come from his paranoid, delusional mind. But it seems that Nolan came up with the idea himself. Didn’t know Nolan was that nutty, but if you’ve seen his Batman movies … well, now it’s all starting to make sense. There’s also a nifty preview of the new Tron movie before the film starts.

So go see Inception. It may not quite change your life the way the Matrix did (it did … didn’t it?) but it’s a good movie. And there’s only so many of those for geeks like us.

P.S. If I had the power to control dreams and fill them with hot chicks … Hell, I’d never leave the house. Just sayin’. Peace.