"...it's never just a dream, is it"?

Rating: 10/10 (5 September 2011)

Unless you're willing to commit and remain fully engaged, it's best to put off watching this film until those conditions are met. That's because the picture moves across various levels and back again over the course of the story, and though it may seem confusing, you'll be OK if you keep in mind the premises offered by the inception team - DiCaprio, Levitt, Hardy, Page and Rao. I'm purposely leaving off Watanabe because he was by his own admission a 'tourist' and had a stake in the outcome.
In a movie universe that's virtually impossible to crack with something original, this is the most creative picture I've seen in a long time. Like an intriguing time-travel story, this one grabs hold of the imagination and allows one to consider the possibilities of an alternate reality. The closer technology brings us to these cutting edge barriers of time, space and mind, the more fantastic becomes the possibility of turning virtual reality into the real thing.
The movie's strongest feature is it's exposition. The characters both show and tell the viewer what to expect, quite unusual when it comes to the 'tell' part, because we usually rely on the development of the characters and the events they experience to bring us along for the ride. The concepts here are much more esoteric, especially when attempting to layer the events of the story in a 'dream within a dream' construct. For the most part, I think this was all done quite cleverly, but again, you have to pay attention.
It would be tough to come up with the most interesting concept touched on by director Nolan, but the one that intrigued me the most was the idea of the dreamer having the ability to block an extraction. In Fischer's (Cillian Murphy) case, his training foresaw the need to 'militarize' his subconscious against attack, thereby creating 'projections' that in turn attacked the inception team. Another clever idea involved the zero gravity effects of participants in the Level Two dream during the Fischer inception. This is all done with such frenetic skill that it's sometimes tough to keep up with, although repeat viewings clear up what may have been missed the first time around. Another hint - use the captions on your DVD to capture all the dialog. The players tell you a lot of what you need to know to follow the story.
I don't want to go too far out on a limb and tell you this is the greatest thing since sliced bread, because I know the film won't appeal to everyone. However enthusiasts of good science fiction will find a lot to like here, as it invites the viewer to expand one's consciousness and dream of the possibilities. Seriously folks, no one had to plant the idea, it just came out like that.