Don't let the trailer stop you. Yes it's confusing, yes the cast is hot and humourless, yes the music is overly epic. But what else does a summer blockbuster really need? Inception is trying to be the trendsetting sci-fi movie du jour, will it succeed?
Inception is the love-child of The Matrix and The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And it aspires to be just that. It's an ambitious movie that wants to be talked about in serious ways. Apparently director and writer Christopher Nolan (of Batman and Memento fame) had been mulling over the script for years before he made the film, which isn't necessarily a recipe for success.
It's basically a classic heist film, except that here the crew is stealing ideas. Not only are they stealing ideas, but they are planting them. This all takes place in a dizzying maze of dreams within dreams. Dreams where time slows down and gravity stops working and dead wives come to haunt Leonardo DiCaprio's pretty face.
Cute boys aside, the cast is by Hollywood standards very good. There's DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy and Michael Caine. All the big names a good summer movie needs. It's also quite an entertaining film. You just strap into your seat and get swooped off on quite a spectacular ride. The plot is pretty ridiculous, but who cares. The selling-point is the epic music, the over-the-top storyline and the awesome and clever use of CGI.
If you have a moment of reality-fatigue and just want to escape into thrilling fantasy-land, this is the movie for you. If you want to have long water-cooler discussions about the finer points of the human subconscious, it isn't. Even though Inception is trying, it's not going to be the new Matrix. But settling for fun is enough, we can't all be era-defining.
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