INCEPTION review

INCEPTION: THE COBOL JOB.

Much as he did with The Dark Knight in 2008 (getting a little help from Pixar’s Wall-E), the pressure is on Christopher Nolan, that wizard of besuited gloom and thoughtful action movies, to salvage the filmgoing summer. Inception has been awaited by its core audience as some kind of second coming, even before anyone knew anything: the movie’s fiendish, house-of-cards architecture has been a Hollywood state secret from the start.

via Inception, review – Telegraph.

Inception is a complicated movie. Like anterograde-amnesia thriller Memento and rival magician mystery The Prestige, writer-director Christopher Nolan has made a name for himself with films that more accurately resemble intricate puzzles or baffling riddles; the sorts of movies that demand lengthy forum arguments and sleepless nights after first viewing.

His latest flick, Inception, takes the cake though with such lofty, barely describable concepts as existential heists, cerebral crimes and nested dreams. Protagonists Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page are tasked with entering Cillian Murphy’s dream and planting the genesis of a thought so deep in his sub-conscious that, when it bubbles to the top, it feels like an idea of his very own creation.

To pull off such a complex film, Inception is filled with rules, exposition and plenty of jargon. It almost needs to come with a decoder ring, Rosetta stone and instruction booklet to explain every term (extraction, inception, limbo?) and detail every rule and consequence for actions committed within the labyrinthine world of dreams.

Such detailed description of Inception’s world does bog down some early dialogue, but it’s key to making the heist and action scenes thoroughly understandable; how does death work, how do our heroes escape the dreamworld and how far can they mess with the architecture and layout of the dream? Without answering these questions, Inception’s later scenes could have easily slipped into unpredictable blurs.

The movie could be accused of playing it a little safe. While early dream scenes show tidal waves destroying buildings and Parisian streets folding in on themselves, the quest for realism (so not to tip off their mark that the world is a dream) makes for snoozy James Bond-style gunfights towards its conclusion. A zero-gravity fist fight certainly impresses, both technically and visually, though.

Nolan’s latest is everything you could possibly hope for from a summer blockbuster, as action packed and high budget as you’d expect from the successor to the billion dollar-earning Dark Knight, but just as smart, intelligent and perplexing as Nolan’s Bat-free films.

It’s not every year that Hollywood delivers a summer action flick that won’t make your brain melt with nonsense one liners and unintelligible plots. Inception fires on all cylinders, creating a film that doesn’t just impress with clever effects and impressive fight scenes, but also stimulates your brain to the point of frazzling it, and finishes off with a strong, emotional core.

via ‘Stimulating and frazzling’: An Inception review.

With the maker of Memento, it was never going to be easy. And even before Inception’s trailers started to hit the small screens, one knew, from what stories trickled out of the plot, that this film is going to be difficult.

It is a science fiction action. Dom Cobb is a coveted property in the corporate world. He can incept the minds of others when they are in their dreams and can steal the deepest and most profitable secrets. But this practice has cost Cobb a lot. Everything he cherished in life is gone. But there is one last chance at redemption. One last job that needs to be done and then it will be all over and he can get his life back. But this one seems to be the hardest and the hurdles multiply….

But then hurdles galore for the audience, too, in their effort to untangle the plot and make a whole of it. In fact, now that the film has hit the screens, many are complaining that the plot is too convoluted and especially the ending totally unintelligible.

Twitter is full of discussions on Inception ending and most are saying that they have found the ending “puzzling, “boggling” or “frustrating.” One tweets “ending of Inception almost gave me an anxiety attack.”

Few others, however, think that the ending is “genius” especially as it resists one single meaning. It is the zone of ambiguity and vagueness that the film revels, so lack of a static interpretation to the ending of the movie is only fitting.

Whatever, better hit the halls and make your own decision. If you dare, that is.

via Inception Review – Inception ending leave the viewers puzzled | Entertainment Biz!.

If you have any plans on seeing Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending new movie, you should do so quickly, because this is sure to be the type of movie that has people standing around the metaphorical water cooler and discussing it- especially the ending.

Let me start out by saying that Inception is one of the best movies I have seen this year, and ranks among the best movies I have seen over the last few years. Don’t be fooled by the fact that I am a tech guy with deep sci-fi leanings which might make you think that I would be predisposed to liking this movie anyway. Nolan’s sci-fi slanted, trippy, mind-blowing film is certain to be the type of movie that won’t be easily defined, and will appeal to fans of any genre. Years from now, video stores (assuming there are any video stores left years from now) will likely have to think long and hard about whether to label this movie as sci-fi, action, or even drama before assigning it a place on the shelves. It is a movie that defies easy analysis, but still manages to entertain.

Inception is Nolan’s reward for the success of the Batman films. Without the critical and commercial success of his previous blockbusters, it is hard to imagine a studio shelling out the kind of money that Warner Bros. handed over to Nolan for what is essentially a passion project- roughly $160 million. By comparison, 2008’s The Dark Knight cost $185 million and it was a tested franchise with massive buzz even before the script was finished. Inception is a different kind of animal.

It must have been an interesting pitch to Warner Bros. studio heads. Nolan likely went in and said something along the lines of “I have this idea. It’s a movie about a group that can go into dreams and steal ideas, but the subject can fight back and destroy the dream world. Oh, and I need around a $150 million.“ Once the puzzled looks and taunting laughs subsided, someone probably reminded them that Nolan had just grossed over $1 billion with The Dark Knight, and that was that.

With Inception, Nolan did exactly what he intended, received the exact performances from some of this generations best actors and actresses, and created a movie that will likely generate Oscar buzz. Not everyone will agree, and some people are likely to seriously hate parts of this movie, but those voices are likely to disappear beneath the avalanche of well deserved praise that Inception is likely to garner.

As to what Inception is all about, this review will be spoiler free, but if you want to be completely in the dark about the story, you might want to stop reading here and skip down two paragraphs. In some ways, it is very much like The Matrix- not so much in the story (although there are a few similarities), just in the sense that to explain the world of Inception robs a bit of the fun from the movie, and undermines the deliberately vague nature of the trailers that have managed to walk the thin line between giving away too much, and still being appealing. Most people going into the movie have only a vague idea about what they are about to see, so if you wish your eyes to remain completely virgin, scroll down past the next two paragraphs.

via Inception Review.

One of the things that internet has allowed is that there are an insane amount of great writers who now have a place to write about film. Good, bad or indifferent there’s plenty of space out there for anyone who has an opinion. And while it has led to people who are borderline-retarded having a place to shout to the world about whatever nonsense they feel obligated to say. And in the day of the internet age, we’re seeing two things: the level of discourse has coarsened significantly and that critics in all shapes and sizes are proving to be less relevant than ever.

One reason is that some critics become prominent not for what they say but for going against the “established” opinion. Armond White is usually the first guy people think of in that regard as he’s the one notorious for busting Rotten Tomatoes’ perfect scores and giving positive reviews to universally despised films. But even in his contrarian opinions there’s great stuff to be found and another writer by the name of Christian Toto got me thinking.

That and I’d reached the end of internet porn. Really, there is an end to it. Your monitor will go all bluey and an error message will pop up saying something like “You’re looking for Brazilian Fart Porn. Do something productive.”

Toto is a guy some people have heard because he’s all over conservative talk radio when it comes to discussing film. Political talk radio is amusing because all the crazies come out; it makes for a wonderful distraction, especially when my usual sports talk stations becomes monotonous. There’s only so much sports you can listen to before you need a break and since I’m not really a music guy I surf the AM dial. That’s where I first heard Toto on the air; I think it was as a guest with Hugh Hewitt. All the right wingers really sound alike to me; it’s 75% crap and 25% interesting mental exercise.

I don’t know Toto’s political beliefs, nor do I really care, but when it comes to film he’s one of the best out there. He has a great perspective and has really embraced the concept of being an online critic and blogger. And this past week he posted something about the buzz behind Inception that got me thinking, mainly that perhaps a bit of groupthink could be behind some critics and their high opinions of that film (and others). It is well worth the hype, as I LOVED the film and think it’s perhaps the best of the year so far, but I can see how some people would dislike it as well. It’s a massive blockbuster that requires you to keep your brain turned on at the door, as opposed to the usual “turn your brain off and accept that the film is so fonking retarded” that passes for entertainment.

As much as I’d like to think its White being a contrarian for many of his dissenting opinions on film, I think there’s much more behind the sentiment than anyone’s willing to admit. While I think a lot of critical opinion is because certain actors, directors and films are great and everyone recognizes it, I think that film critics are like any other group of people in that groupthink (a situation in which a group of people all think alike and contradictory opinions aren’t viewed) is something I think doesn’t get acknowledged because no one wants to be “that guy.”

As in that guy who hated the film that everyone else loved/hated, or that guy who spoiled (x)’s 100% perfect Tomato meter. Both of those happen to follow White around, as he praised Jonah Hex and HATED Toy Story 3. While I disagreed with his assessments I can see why he thought the way he did; he’s a bit of a nut but he knows film and the art of cinema better than most critics. But I think he does one thing a lot of film critics are unwilling and unable to do: disagree with the masses within as opposed to the masses at the Cineplex.

It’s something I touched on during my review of The Last Airbender and wanted to go in depth about, but unfortunately that was neither the time nor the place. Considering most critics in particular areas all see films together on a fairly regular basis it’s not shocking that similar opinions would flow; in the rare screening I attend (life has gotten a lot busier in the last year or so, more than I had imagined) its familiar faces and familiar conversations. And I’ve seen people who had mild opinions at the screening turn in much more spirited reviews in either direction because of buzz from other people. Part of it is readership and we all know it; it’s much more fun to be mean to a film and you generally get more eyeballs for a film on either end of the spectrum.

But the other thing I’ve seen is that there are plenty of critics who don’t want to stand out, either. No one wants to be the turd in the punch bowl, so to speak, in the same way little kids have to have a joke ready after anything major happening. Like when Michael Jackson died, if you were a third grader you better have a joke about him ass-raping some little kid the day after or you were getting beat up during lunch. I think a lot of film critics tend to be the same way; it’s one thing to dislike a film slightly, it’s another to be mean-spirited because you want to be the meanest about a film. Reading reviews for Airbender I was stunned to see so many critics turn up the vile if only because a handful had done so early on. If you don’t have your hilariously awful thing to say about a film then you stand out.

via Inside Pulse Movies | Monday Morning Critic – 7.19.2010 – Inception Reviews and the notion of Groupthink, Shutter Island.

The summer’s most anticipated film, Inception, over-performed at the box office to the tune of $60.4M to easily win the weekend box-office crown. While Nolan’s dreamy action flick gets very wobbly in its last act, it is still the best big-budget movie of the summer season (mainly because of the great Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Last week’s winner, Despicable Me, had a strong second weekend, piling on an additional $32.7M ($118.3M). The same can’t be said for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice which debuted to an expectedly weak $17.3M.

The rest of the top 10 was populated by the okay Twilight Self-Proclaimed “Saga”: Eclipse ($13.5M | $264.9M), the amazing Toy Story 3 ($11.7M | $362.7M), the awful Grown Ups ($10M | $129.2M), the pathetic Avatar: The Last Airbender ($7.4M | $114.8M), the fun Predators ($6.8M | $40M), the jaunty Knight & Day ($3.7M | $69.2M) and the moribund Kung Fu Kid ($2.2M | $169.2M). In the limited release crowd, Kisses had a decent opening ($7300 per theater) while Standing Ovation was just a complete disaster ($579).

via Box Office Review: Inception Performs Huge Extraction! – LAist.

Christopher Nolan has more than one trick up his utility belt.

Inception, the Caped Crusader director’s latest, ruled the weekend box office with a bigger-than-expected, bigger-than-Batman Begins $60.4 million.

Nicolas Cage’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, meanwhile, was outta luck.

The $150 million-ish Disney extravaganza managed only $17.4 million from Friday-Sunday, and only $24.5 million overall since opening Wednesday.

Drilling down into the numbers:

• Inception is the summer’s biggest debut for a non-franchise flick, à la Iron Man 2, and a non-reboot, à la The Karate Kid. Or, in other words, it’s the summer’s biggest debut for a new idea.

• At $160 million reportedly, Nolan’s Leonardo DiCaprio dream thriller was more expensive than Batman Begins. It was also more successful than that 2005 relaunch, which bowed with $48.7 million. (Nolan’s The Dark Knight is another story, obviously.)

• Inception is now the biggest opener, by far, of DiCaprio’s career. (Titanic, remember, was a marathon runner, not a sprinter.)

via Holy Inception! Christopher Nolan Scores With Leonardo DiCaprio—and Without Batman – E! Online.

This weekend was a runaway success for Christopher Nolan’s Inception, which has been receiving rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. The sci-fi mindbender took a clear lead after its midnight opening.

Despicable Me still won the family over this weekend. The animated Steve Carell flick did alright for itself in its second weekend of release, earning it the number two spot for this July weekend.

It seemed I underestimated the magic of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice which failed to wow audiences. It’s a shame because the flick actually wasn’t half bad, but it seems like half bad just doesn’t draw in an audience like it used to.

Eclipse landed right where I predicted in its third weekend. The vampires and werewolves of Twilight are going to have to try a whole hell of a lot harder next weekend to stay in this top five.

Finally, Toy Story 3 is almost out with the old to make room for the new. In its fifth weekend, it’s struggling with a whole lot of competition for the family vote. Still, it had a nice run, but I’d be surprised to see it make the list next weekend with the release of Salt.

via Box Office Review – July 18 – ‘Inception’ not ‘Despicable Me’ on top.

Inception is the most original, visually stunning and intellectually stimulating film to come across the screen in years. Filled with suspense, action and drama, filmmaker Christopher Nolan continues to top himself, proving over and over again that he is the ultimate auteur of his 30something peer group.

For those who were blown away by the world he created in the Batman franchise, brace yourselves to be taken to unimaginable heights with “Inception.” Nolan has managed to write a script where the entire story takes place in a character’s mind, several layers deep, with characters engaging in suspense-filled action packed fights, chases and shoot-outs that would rival Jason Bourne’s.

Meet Dom Cobb, played expertly by Leonardo DiCaprio. He’s a gun-for-hire in the corporate espionage world because of his ability to steal secrets from the mind when it is in a dream state. At the same time, he’s battling personal demons. He can’t get over the death of his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), and longs to get back to his two little children – except he happens to be an international fugitive.

Cobb is promised his old life back by Saito, a rich and powerful business magnate (Ken Watanabe), but only if he can pull-off one last job for Saito. Instead of stealing from someone’s mind, Cobb is asked to accomplish an inception: planting an idea in a subject’s mind so that after he wakes up, he thinks the idea is his own.

The mark here is Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), who stands to inherit a multi-billion-dollar empire from his dying father (Pete Postlethwaite). Saito needs Cobb to convince Fischer’s mind that when it wakes up, the best course of action is to dissolve his fathers’ business, effectively making rival Saito the most powerful man in business.

Cobb assembles an Ocean’s 11-type crew with each member bringing their own strength to the table. There’s Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) Cobb’s right-hand man; Eames (Tom Hardy), who forges identities in dream states to become a completely different person; and Yusuf (Dileep Rao), a chemist whose drug enables the crew to share the different dream states.

The newcomer to the group is Ariadne (a terrific Ellen Page), an architecture student who is brought on to design the dream world the group will travel in to. She becomes not only a key member for the group, but also a key member for the viewing audience. As Ariadne learns the rules of how the mind works, so do we. What could have potentially been a plot that’s too convoluted or complicated for moviegoers to follow is made much easier through the learning curve experienced by Ariadne and, simultaneously, us.

(What’s complicated to understand at times is Watannabe’s English language, which could have been easily fixed with some ADR during post-production.)

Meanwhile, Cobb has not gotten over Mal’s death. His former wife keeps showing up in every dream he travels to, almost ruining entire operations. Mal’s presence distracts Cobb from the task at hand, preys on his jumbled emotions and weakens him like Kryptonite.

In fact, with the inception plan, Mal could possibly be the ruin of them all if Cobb doesn’t find a way to come to terms with her passing – especially since on this assignment, Cobb and his crew must travel three dream states deep, each more delicate and hazardous than the last.

This is where Nolan has us sitting on the edge of our seats: as each new dream state is entered, the action continues to go on in the previous levels. We jump back and forth between all of them until we’re watching three dream states going on a the same time. The actions in one affect the outcome in the other.

It is Mal’s effect on Cobb and his longing to have his family together again that provides the emotional core of the story. It prevents the film from being just another blockbuster action flick – albeit a breathtakingly epic one where streets literally fold in on themselves, a freight train runs through the middle of a street and torrents of water smash through windows. The reality of Cobb’s life is so bleak, he actually prefers to live in dream worlds, no matter how dangerous they are, because he doesn’t have to deal with the pain and loneliness of his situation. There is a metaphor in there for how we choose to project images on to those around us rather than accept them for how they really are.

The dream worlds are so brilliantly imagined by Nolan, one has to wonder what his personal dreams are like at night. In one of the film’s dream states, an anti-gravity hotel corridor is the setting for a fight scene where Gordon-Levitt’s Arthur not only battles villains trying to kill him, but gathers his sleeping teammates to safety – all in a state of total weightlessness.

Gordon-Levitt, who is skilled in gymnastics, takes ownership of the zero gravity scenes, handling the acrobatics beautifully. In a conversation I had with Nolan at a recent press junket, he explained to me how shooting the scene involved creating a suspended 100 ft. long corridor that rotated a full 360 degrees, and was powered by electric motors. Gordon-Levitt was in a harness and wire, maneuvering every punch and kick in mid-air.

(That sequence and a few others were shot in the same converted airship hangars in London where Nolan previously filmed certain sequences in both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.)

via Zorianna Kit: Inception Review – brace yourselves to be taken to unimaginable heights.