Inception

Rating: 8/10 (3 August 2010)

Walking into the new science fiction film Inception, I was really not sure what I was going to think of it, or if I was going to like it at all. I had seen many reviews for the film on the internet and although most of the reviews said the film was great and had endless praise for it, there were a few negative reviews that I read, that got me a bit concerned. Overall, I think I was worried about being stuck in an almost two and a half hour movie that was not going to make sense and would be really heavy on special effects and overblown action sequences. Well, once I ended up seeing the film and thinking about it, I was sort of right, and also sort of wrong about the film. To dissect the film easily, I would have to say that the first part of the film, I absolutely hated. In the first half I found the logic, or what they were trying to pass as logic and the basic synopsis, or plot of the film was ambiguous and really not going anywhere for me. I was not sure exactly what was going on and I felt the film did not give me a chance as a viewer to understand, or even care about the people and events going on in front of me. Everything was so out of order and chaotic and there was no ounce of character or plot development anywhere to be found. What, I was watching for the first half of the film were characters mumbling about riddles and the dream world and your subconscious and it was neither intriguing, helpful to the story, or entertaining. There was also a lot of special effects and visual gags and scenes in the first half, that kind of looked neat for a few seconds, but then I found myself getting bored with it. The first half of the film where they are just forcing us to try and accept and have some sort of fun with this preposterous and ambiguous logic they have in this film, I found to be absolutely boring as well as the eye candy and special effects scenes. Several times I glanced over at my watch in a dark theatre and was able to make out the time and hoping that the film was moving faster according to my watch than what I was observing because I could have easily have fallen asleep anywhere at this point. In other words this was the first half of the film and I hated it and could not wait for it to be over. Then to my surprise, the film actually got better, a lot better. We soon got to know more about the main characters in the film and one in particular about his past and the demons he has been haunted by in both his dreaming and waking life. I found this to be interesting and fascinating. As the film moved along in this pattern, I also found myself understanding the film more and what was once ambiguous and boring, became understandable and quite thrilling. The second half I found to be more philosophical and a thinking person's film, but in a clear and coherent way where you could actually understand most of it and the parts you didn't made for some excellent thought provoking discussions you could have after the film. The second half also had a lot more mazes in it and was more accessible featuring action scenes and a lot of thrills. It wasn't overblown with special effects like the first half was though. This time the chases and the mission to beat the clock, so to say, was actually intriguing and I really wanted to see where the film was going to go with all of this. At the end of the film, I would have to say I was satisfied. I picked up on a lot better writing, direction and acting in the second half that was actually really good. However, I just wish the whole film could have been this good instead of the endlessly jargon filled discussions and out of this world logic that the first half presented. I would still say that Inception is worth watching and based on how many good reviews there are of the film, I think most people had no problem with the first half at all. For those like me though, I would still say see it in a theatre, but be prepared to wait awhile for anything really good to happen and sit back and enjoy the second half because you most likely will. Because of a very strong second half I will give this film an 8 out of 10 rating, but believe me, if it had all been this good, the rating would be much higher.