Inception

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2011)

I was first drawn to the movie Inception, because of the actors that were in this film, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page to name a few of main characters. I was also drawn in by the complex, yet interesting plot line of dreams and the ability to break in to another individual's subconscious to place a thought or an idea. Although the two and a half hour movie made me nervous whether it would be worth that much time and a red box fee of a buck, all in all I found Inception to be a good movie, not the best of 2010 but definitely on my top ten list for the year.
We are brought into the idea of how these characters are able to "corrupt" or get inside one another's dreams within the first five minutes, which is both good and bad. Though I enjoyed the plot of this film, I feel like they jumped into the main idea of the plot too soon. Without giving us, the viewers, more of a background on who these characters were, personally and professionally, had me asking a lot of questions through out this film (as if the plot as a whole wasn't complex enough). I found the actors that played these characters to be very fitting for their roles, however, I believe there were several main characters and though they all connected well with the plot, I don't believe we knew enough about them. When looking at the special features and effects that were in this film I can honestly say I was blown away. Not because they haven't been done before, but because they intertwined so well with the idea of dreams and our subconscious.
When relating this movie to another that may be similar, it was hard to pin point one that revolved around the same plot. But when it came to similar characters, I couldn't help but notice the similarity between Leonardo DiCaprio's characters in both Inception and Shutter Island. In Inception we see Dicaprio's character being fixated upon a women that we later find out to be his wife and dead. We also see how his character, Cobb can not seem to let go of his past and that causes him to question what our his memories and what is reality. In Dicaprio's film Shutter Island we also see how his character Teddy plays out his fantasies and what he deems reality when in actuality he has gone crazy trying to change his past and live in his altered memory and life he has created. Both films leave you questioning what is real and what is not, which ultimately made these films connect for me.