A truly amazing film - but not a religion

Rating: 10/10 (17 July 2010)

I went to see this film on first night of general release in the UK and I can't remember a time when I walked out of a cinema at the end of a movie and there was such a palpable thrum of excitement.
Judging by this film's current score on IMDb, it's going to be a landslide of a success and deservedly so. Here's why:
1. The special effects are quite simply beautiful - the perfect mix of elegance and awe.
2. It's pretty much perfectly cast. Leonardo DiCaprio is the draw to get you through the door, and while he's never been the greatest actor (I always think he's two heart beats away from a full blown Jack Nicholson impersonation), his screen presence certainly holds your attention, and keeps you grounded. He's just getting better with age. Playing around DiCaprio is probably the dictionary definition of an ensemble cast. A host of familiar faces flesh out the story, some more famous than others, and with the exceptions of Michael Caine and Pete Postlethwaite (who both incidentally execute their brief roles with perfect competence), they share a common thread in that their stars all seem to be in the ascendant (and starring in this film will certainly helped their causes). It reminded me of the "Beat Brynner" mindset of the other six in The Magnificent Seven. Tom Hardy comes off very well, and nice to see Drag Me To Hell's Dileep Rao getting more roles - He's a class act.
3. The plot (and I hope this isn't a spoiler) is absolutely bonkers, but brilliantly paced and conveyed to the audience. The film contains some pretty lofty conceptual abstractions, but Christopher Nolan seems to have the perfect touch for keeping an audience up to speed, and firmly grounded in the story. Both of the new Batman reboots have been quite complicated and are certainly more cerebral than your average super hero flick - but Inception is on a whole different level. Nolan bravely trusts in the intelligence of his audience and resists the temptation to dumb it down avoiding so many of the familiar clichés that would simplify what is such a fiendishly complicated, but infinitely rewarding story.
4. You've seen this type of film attempted so many times before (What Dreams May Come, Matrix etc), you sort of go in prepared for the fact that there'll be a trade off, that the realisation of the story will be compromised - either plausibility will go out of the window, sacrificed to maintain the plot's integrity, thinly held together by sexy action scenes or the concepts will be so incompletely expressed, that as your understanding and interest wanes, you get dragged down into the mire and you probably fall asleep well before the credits roll - NOT so with Inception - It is a white knuckle ride of a story, pretty challenging - but do not be put off by what people say - Think of it as a fairly difficult lesson but taught by a supremely talented tutor.
5. The action scenes are well paced with real urgency, and are as satisfying as watching Indiana Jones breaking a Nazi's jaw. Unusually, for a film of it's kind. I always felt that The Matrix suffered from too much slo-mo but Inception keeps that to a tolerable minimum (and when it does to it's relevant to the plot)
In short, I agree that this film does live up to the hype and then some. But I have to confess, that I'm a little taken aback by some of the fervour for this movie - it's a brilliant film for sure, but are we really so used to being disappointed by the blockbusters that when a great one comes along, it's greeted with messianic rapture? This film might be regarded as a religion in ten years time, but only by the same sort of dreadful boring imbeciles who are campaigning to have "Jedi" instituted as a recognised faith, or who think the Matrix "might actually be happening now - ooooooooooh"
Great film - go see it!