Inception - A Wavy Davy Review

Rating: 9/10 (18 July 2010)

I am sick and tired of hearing rumours about Marvel or Universal wanting to do yet another remake or reboot. Surely after the disgust that was 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' remake, Hollywood would have realised how poor these kind of films are, but alas, no. There are still faint rumours that the Hulk franchise might be rebooted AGAIN...
So Christopher Nolan has created something so fresh, new and exciting that I must praise him to the heavens. The idea is simple: what if you could enter someone elses dream and find their subconscious thoughts. The film, however, becomes much more complicated.
The best in the world at this process of 'extraction' is Cobb (Leonardo di Caprio), who goes into the minds of certain targets in order to obtain valuable secrets. He must alter his process to Inception, which involves planting an idea in someones head, rather than stealing one. He and his team (Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Lewitt, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanbe and Dileep Rao) must carry out this final job in order for Cobb to be allowed back into the United States to see his children.
The film is quite complicated, admirably, but it is not nearly as difficult to follow as many reviews have stated. If you are watching with a good amount of attention, it should be easy enough to follow, even if it takes a few minutes to understand some of the more confusing parts.
Di Caprio is not completely engaging in the emotive action (mainly revolving his deceased wife played by Marion Cotillard), but he does a very good job all the same, and makes a believable action star. Ellen Page is slightly miscast as the teams 'architect', as she does not carry off the thoroughly intelligent look. Joseph Gordon-Lewitt and Tom Hardy are most impressive as slick team-players, and it is a shame they are not developed more than Lewitt's slight romance with Page and Hardy's slight rivalry with Lewitt. Michael Caine pops in for a neat cameo, too.
The film manages to convey the grand-nature of how our dreams feel through a number of set-pieces. I find it baffling that some critics say that Nolan misses the fact that our dreams are not so clear, and instead are very hazy. This argument does not make sense to me since when we are in the dream, it feels completely real, and so Nolan's vision makes sense. I'd say this film is more engaging than the Dark Knight, as it does not feel so overlong and overbloated, and manages a very, very good ending which makes you feel good and then suddenly makes everything dubious...
Go see it, you'll love it!