Wanted to read reviews of people who didn't like it.

Rating: 10/10 (18 July 2010)

When I saw the trailer for "Inception" months ago, I thought I want to see this because I like all of the Christopher Nolan movies I've seen. Needless to say I was happy to not have co-parenting duties this weekend as my 12 year old daughter would not have wanted to see this movie. I digress. I saw it this morning and thought I need to see this again even if I have to drag my kid to see it. It was that good. Story is always paramount with Nolan and that is why I call him the Pixar of directors. He recruits the best actors and gets the best performances from them. Leo was great and Joe G Leavitt is the perfect wing man; he's becoming "the actor's actor" because he's so good in supporting roles. Michael Kaine had very limited screen time, but used it well as he's done in all of his Nolan movies. And the women (Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard) were strong characters who were not reduced to eye candy. Hans Zimmer gave me some music for the gym. I've never said that about an instrumental movie soundtrack.
As I wrote in the summary, I wanted to read what people said who didn't like it. And for the life of me, it seems to be people wanting to be contrarian. It's almost like, "I can't like this movie because other people tell me how great it is!" The movie had something for everyone. Action, suspense, drama, love, thrills; you name it, it had it. The only remote complaint is that some of the story elements and plot lines were being explained as the movie was building to a climax. But IMO, that's why you see a movie again. I remember the first time I saw a movie that was so good that I had to see it again to answer more of my questions. "The Usual Suspects" made me jump in the air and scream "Holy sh*t! What just happened!?!" "Inception" doesn't give you a "What just happened?" moment, but it gives you a HS feeling as you leave knowing that there's a director that will treat us like adults.
There are so many themes that all of us can relate to: family dynamics, marriage and what the vows really mean, genesis of ideas, the definition of evil (stealing subconscious thoughts/ideas as a job, just as a hit-man kills people, for a living)i.e. what is one's definition of evil, corporate greed and competition. I could go on but people that see the movie will get their own meaning or meanings from it. I've read many reviews comparing this to "The Matrix." Sorry haters! They are two different films functioning on two different levels. Dying in "The Matrix" meant real death; dying in "Inception" just woke one up or depending on the level of the dreaming, trapped one in limbo. Life and death and where reality fits as opposed to reality and how the subconscious gets in the way.
As I have gotten older and consumed more media (movies, books, music), I've learned that the best thing I can say about one of these consumables is that there are no throwaway scenes. "Inception" is the 500 (1000?) piece puzzle that needs every piece to be complete. If you want everything explained to you, see something else. But if you want to be encouraged to think, go see this movie. Then see it again and again and again. You won't regret it...