Movie Review: "Inception"

[jpskewedthrone]

I went to see Inception on Saturday night and I believe my general reaction coming out of the theater was:

OMGOMGOMG! THAT WAS THE BEST MOVIE EVER!

And I still feel that way. The movie was spectacular! It was edgy, it was new, it had a convoluted plot that I still followed, it had nothing that wasn't needed, and the script impressed the living shit out of me. As a writer, I am in awe. It's the kind of book/movie that I would love to be able to write (and hope one day I will write). The actors were great, all of them, even DiCaprio, who I usually have reservations about. I will admit that at the beginning of the movie I thought DiCaprio didn't quite have a handle on his character, but that he sort of settled in as the movie progressed. I'm not sure if this was because they filmed those segments first and he and the director hadn't worked things out yet for this character, or if we as an audience just didn't know enough about the character to make me care (we learn a lot more about this character as the film progresses), but in the end DiCaprio's character became meaningful and his acting was good. Everyone else did a stellar job with their characters immediately.

This movie has the potential to confuse the audience, since it involves dreams within dreams within dreams, and I'm certain that a sizable chunk of the audience this past weekend came away from the theater going "WTH?" Take my group for instance. I went with two other people. I followed everything, almomst literally. But I realize that I'm a writer and convoluted plots are my thing, so I expected to follow everything. If I hadn't, this wouldn't be the great review that it is. One of the others said he followed everything, but had tons of questions about how come this and why that. So he followed the plot but didn't pick up on all of the mechanics of how everything worked. The third person said that he got lost about an hour into the movie. I'm expecting this to be the general breakup of the movie-going public that sees this. For those that got confused, let me just say that absolutely everything in this movie worked and fit together and is there for a reason. I found nothing that they didn't tell us that wasn't used somehow during the course of the movie, which impresses the shit out of me. There were moments in that first hour where I thought, Ok, ok, ok, let's move on, but after seeing the whole thing realized there wasn't anything that they could have cut really. That said, the movie doesn't really get going until they enter the first level of the main plot's dream. And after that, the movie doesn't stop.

A spectacular movie. I strongly suggest that everyone go see this one. And if you get confused, go see it again. Trust me, it all makes sense and fits together. And I sincerely hope that Hollywood realizes what the success of this movie really means: we don't want bad sequels to blockbuster movies, or restarts of old ideas. We'd really like to see some new shit, like this, up on the screen.

Comments

[lindaabdavis.livejournal.com]

My husband and I saw it Saturday night, and we loved it also. It was the first movie to truly engage us in a long while. I will say that you'd better be settled before the movie starts because you don't want to be getting up to go to the bathroom or get snacks. You need to pay attention in order to keep up.

The two girls sitting behind us yapped, yapped, yapped through the previews but shut up during the movie. I suspect this was because they couldn't yap and keep up at the same time.

I thought it was very Matrix-y-like, but frankly, I found it to be a smarter movie than Matrix. I agree that it was fresh and well-acted, definitely worth the money.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I do think it was a smater movie than Matrix. It wasn't all about the special effects or the concept. There was more going on than that.

[djkc.livejournal.com]

Matrix + Oceans 11 + Memento was my general impression. Stole the best elements of each while being more accessible than Memento.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, "best ever" was my reaction as I came out of the theater. I don't think it beats LOTR, for example, and it might not stand up after a few viewings (although I think it will). I certainly plan on seeing it again.

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

Honeybear's reaction: Five stars! No, wait, can I give it MORE than five stars?

My reaction: COOL! Stuff blew up ALL OVER THE PLACE, and there was a really good psychological explanation for the attack on Ice Station Zebra! AWESOME!!!!

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

We also both thought perhaps we should invest in personal totems to carry about our person, to make sure we were in the correct level of reality. But that plan fell through when we realized we couldn't 100% guarantee we were currently at the top level of reality. So what would be the point?

[jdawson001.livejournal.com]

You know it's one of THOSE movies when you keep thinking about it nights later. I loved it.

One of the few movies we went to opening night... and it was worth it...

Jenn

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

I feel heretical for saying this, but I was bored. Yes, it was a good movie, but I knew pretty much what going to happen about half way through. Being a long movie (almost 2.5 hours), that left a lot of time to watch everything play out as expected.

All that said, I loved how it was filmed and I liked how they brought everything together. And... Michael Caine!

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

A very good movie, but about 40 minutes of car chases and gunfights too long. Hitchcock could have created twice the suspense with half the firepower, and let us concentrate on the much more interesting questions the movie raised (of course, they were first raised by Chuang Tzu, but still interesting).