Early Review: Inception

Dreams are fascinating things. They can scare us, they can thrill us, they can make us feel happy. Many times, they're reflections of what we put to our subconscious, everything from people in the back of our mind to things in our past that still haunt us.

Equally fascinating, then, are the study of dreams. What drives our dreams? How can we further understand them? How can we gain control of them? Philosophers, existentialists and regular people alike continue to ask these questions.

And now, Christopher Nolan, the heralded writer/director of Batman films Batman Begins and The Dark Knight as well as the mystery thriller The Prestige offers his thoughts on the manner in his new film Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Ellen Page.

Read on for Dylan's spoiler FREE review!


What if you could hire someone to go into another person's dream in order to steal valuable information? It may sound crazy, but that's exactly what Cobb (DiCaprio) does for a living. Using a very specialized team, Cobb constructs entire environments to be placed in a person's dream, an environment that can be controlled and set up as a depository for whatever information is needed.

One day, Cobb is offered a very unique, very risky job: rather than extracting information from someone's mind, he is asked to perform an inception, or the implanting of an idea into their mind. Cobb decides to take it, and begins a search for the best team for the job.

At this point, I'm going to avoid explaining the plot any further. I believe that part of what makes Inception so incredible are the mysteries of the plot, and how much Nolan has kept from us; he's done an incredible job so far (check out the incredible teaser trailer at the bottom of this review), and I'd like to honor that.

 What I can tell you:

• Nolan's eye for visuals is probably more evident here than any of his other films. With a combination of claustrophobic close-ups and wide cityscapes, he leaves the viewer in awe of the environments of the film.
• The performances are all around fantastic. The cast here is an all-star one, and a lot of these actors have worked with Nolan before. I can't think of a bad performance in the entire film.
• The script is one of the best I've ever seen, and in my mind, Nolan should win the Best Original Screenplay Oscar (though unfortunately, a July release might be too far out for consideration)
• The action is some of the most exciting and surreal I've seen. Unlike repetitive blockbusters such as Transformers, it continues to keep you entertained.
• Inception is incredibly smart. I almost think of it as the "thinking man's blockbuster"
• The film packs plenty of exciting action, but it also succeeds as a fascinating and emotional character study.

Bottom Line: Inception works not only as a thrilling summer actioner, but also an emotional study of character and what dreams mean to us. It's also smart as hell, and doesn't insult the audience's intelligence; rather, it celebrates it. Inception is the best film of the year so far, and undoubtedly Nolan's masterpiece.

Grade: A+