Inception (2010)

Rating: 8/10 (28 December 2011)

A fantastic cast join forces in a brilliant heist movie. The team are assembled, there's some emotional issues under the surface, and some great chemistry. Levitt, Watanabe and Hardy are absolute scene stealers. It's a shame that the hype almost killed it. The film is not intelligent, original or thought provoking. It's just more intelligent, original and thought provoking than most of the garbage that comes out. A non-franchise film like this should be celebrated, but not worshiped. Nolan uses heavy and basic dialogue to explain every minute detail, removing any room for discussion. As we enter a new world, we are lumped in with Page's less than interesting fish out of water. She's there for the characters to explain stuff to, no real problem, but there's too much to explain. Most films with a fish out of water also have them as the protagonist, so we are emotionally invested. Instead, DiCaprio is the hero, making Page even more useless. In heist movies we are familiar with all the different roles people play. Here we need them explained. Then the film kicks off into action mode and the scenes are mostly terrific, with a thousand backslaps for the incredible hallway fight scene. I have a problem with dream films, in that they don't feel dreamlike enough. This is no exception. I never once felt as though the true potential of this film was realised. In fact, they make a point of making the dreams as real as possible so the person whose mind is invaded doesn't realise it's a dream. I had a problem with this because even in my most bizarre dreams I don't realise they are dreams. They feel real. Instead it just allowed quick jumps to different settings for a wider range of action sequences. But if Nolan wants to make a heist movie so bad, then he should just get on with it. This may sound like I hated the film, but I really didn't. The performances are solid, some of the ideas are clever, the visuals are memorising, and the action is exhilarating.