About a year ago, I heard someone say that Hollywood has officially run out of ideas and if there was proof of this, it was during 2010 as it saw the release of many remakes and sequels. It's my belief, however, that 2010 also proved that original ideas are still out there and one need only look in the right place to find them. And today I'm going to get into, what I thought, was the most original film of 2010. This is the Illusive One's Review of Inception.
Released in the summer of 2010, Inception was a sci-fi thriller directed by Christopher Nolan and starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine. In a world where technology exist to enter the human mind though dream invasion, a powerful business man, (Wannabe), hires Cobb, (DiCaprio), a man very skilled at stealing ideas from dreams, to implant an idea into the mind of Robert Fischer, (Murphy), whose corporation is threatening to gain a monopoly over energy. The problem is that implanting an idea is nearly impossible and the team Cobb assembles has to come up with a plan that will make it work, all the while dealing with his own subconscious and the defenses Fischer’s subconscious has set up against them.
On the positive side the plot was incredibly well put together and is where the film shines. While the idea of being able to invade a dream wasn’t entirely original, this film perfected it. The dilemmas and challenges the team faces were also well put together and kept you on the edge of your seat. The multiple levels of dreams was an incredibly unique idea and kept the lines of what was a dream and what was real blurred. Last to mention, the visual effects were great and there were plenty of action scenes to keep any action junkie satisfied and once things got moving you weren't able to keep your eyes off the screen.
On the negative side, so much effort seemed to be put into the plot that the rest of the movie seemed to suffer. My biggest issue with the film was the video editing. It seemed that when a shot hit someone it took a full second for the screen to cut to the person who would only start to fall the moment the shot switched to said character. While the plot of this film was great it took a lot of explaining and a good hour or so to get started and that may put some people off. Last to note were the characters and acting. The characters were just boring and I didn't feel attached to any of them. Likewise, the dialog and acting just felt very bland and uninspired.
Finally, there's the ending. I don't really count it as a positive or negative but it still pissed me off, (and I'm fairly certain I'm not alone in this).
Despite its faults, I still found Inception very entertaining, if a little overrated. If you're looking for Oscar bait, then I'd go elsewhere. If you’re looking for an action movie, I'd go for The Expendables. But if you’re looking for something original, with great visual effects, and good action, then Inception is the way to go.
All Around
8.5/10
