Masterpiece of the Year

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2010)

It is the rare film that can completely immerse you in its experience to the point where it is hard to speak afterward. Inception is one of those films - beyond breathtaking, an incredible mind-bending tale full of action and suspense which takes us in to the world of dreams and back.
Inception is not only the most intelligent film of the year, it makes the rest look like a finger painting. Christopher Nolan has again manufactured a masterpiece of cinema, the story beyond intricate and full of psychological twists and turns through the mind of dreams which turns the action on its head - sometimes quite literally. The acting is exceptional, with Joseph Gordeon-Levitt standing out and proving again that he has more than enough acting chops to tackle bigger and better roles. What is really incredible is how Nolan manages to carry such an epic film with such a huge scale and yet maintain strong, well-rounded characters. Leonardo DiCaprio's Cobb is at the center of the story and the focus is never taken off of him. Through Leo's performance and through sitting in Cobb's dreams, Inception manages a new way of getting us to feel what the film's characters feel.
Hans Zimmer's score perfectly compliments Nolan's actions on screen to create an experience films rarely give us anymore. Both epic and serene, Zimmer adds to the dream-like quality of the film and makes the action set pieces that much larger.
The set pieces of Inception are amazing. Not only is it refreshing to see so many special effects without the use of CGI, but the implementation of these special effects are the best I've seen. I only wish I hadn't seen any trailers for this film, as going in to this movie with a blank pallet would have given the movie even more exceptional moments, instead of hoping or waiting for "that moment" or smiling when a humorous line from the trailer showed up in the film. I could talk about the one central fight scene of the film for hours, which is nothing short of a benchmark of set design, camera-work and cinematography. I could watch this scene on loop for hours just to be knocked out over and over again by the sheer scale of it.
I cannot describe Inception as anything short of a masterpiece. Especially in the dredge of summer cinema, Inception reminds us why we go to films in the first place, giving us an intelligent film which doesn't fly over our heads (not that I'd recommend stepping out of the theater for ever a minute during the movie).