It feels like I haven’t been to the cinema for ages so it was nice to have an “event” film to go see with friends over the weekend.  I’ve spent the last couple of weeks avoiding trailers (obviously the above trailer is there if you want it) and reviews of the movie because I didn’t want the backlash of over-hype and like the other DiCaprio film I recently watched I think going in knowing less is better.

So did I love Inception?

YES!!

The film was great, it was engaging, well written and well performed.  What I loved about it the most was that it is a smart film, it’s not dumbed down, it’s just fun science fiction.  I am a little confused though about people who don’t ‘get it’.  Whilst the film is intelligently written, complex and layered it’s done so in such a way that the movie is still relatively straight forward to follow.

There are a couple of other important reasons why I love Inception which are probably more indirectly related to the film:

• Original – it’s not a sequel, an adaptation or a remake.  This is an original concept and in Hollywood today that is completely refreshing.
• 3D – it wasn’t made in 3D or converted to 3D or looks sideways at 3D even though there is some perfect opportunities for the effect and I probably would not have blamed them for thinking about it.
• Intelligent – did I mention already that I love how this film is a dumbed down action film??  Whilst there is some great action sequences you still have to bring your brain and pay attention which I love because even though I love a good dumb film that is just fun I also like to think about a film.

The Inception poster

The other thing that this film really smashed home is how Christopher Nolan has a unique style that if you were to watch The Dark Knight and Inception without knowing the director you would work out very quickly.  Which is great, I love it when it an artist has a signature rather than one trick (yes there’s a difference).  The music supports this, Tracey asked if I was going to buy the soundtrack which I answered probably too quickly that I already own The Dark Knight soundtrack.  This isn’t a bad thing on reflection it’s just style.

The cast (Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, and Cillian Murphy) is really impressive and in a poorer film could easily have fallen through the cracks and been overwhelmed by the complex story and visuals.  But the movie is very much character driven as much as concept.  I was particularly interested in Tom Hardy who the last time I saw him he played Shinzon in Star Trek Nemesis and will be playing Mad Max.

DiCaprio has completely turned me around on him, I used to dislike him but I’m so much more impressed with his abilities – the lady sitting next to me in the cinema suggested he should have won an Academy Award for Titanic, I’m not going to go quite that far but he is quite good in this.

The film is just great.

Rating:

Related posts:

1. The Iron Man 2 soundtrack is complete and utter bullshit
2. Iron Man 2 not as good as Mark 1 (no spoilers)
3. Three awesome collectables I’d love to own but won’t
4. Shutter Island – includes spoilers
5. So who’s getting some Shatner love?