Inception Review with Spoilers…

“Give’em the kick!”

Since my father came home from the hospital after almost nine months (it turns out he wasn’t pregnant much to the doctors dismay), we have been trying to go out to the movies when the weather calls for it. So, when it reaches the 90s with a high humidity it’s off to Lincoln Mall Movie Theater with a stop by at Chili’s first.
We’ve seen The A-Team (C for the movie, B- for the nostalgia), then Toy Story 3 (A+, ‘natch) and now Christopher Nolan’s latest work that surprise, surprise is not Batman related.
Inception is about a group of people led by Cobb played by Leonardo DiCaprio who can put themselves into your dreams to either plant or steal an idea. If this sounds vaguely like an update to Dreamscape you’re not alone. If you have no idea what the hell Dreamscape is, there’s no need to watch it unless you really want to satisfy your Kate Capshaw fetish.
Several Nolan regulars show up, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe and conductor Hans Zimmer.
The movie begins with an example of Inception that goes horribly wrong. Thanks to several things: Inception needs several things to work: an Architect to design the world and someone’s subconscious to fill it. Once this is done the extractors go in and try not to be noticed. Being noticed tends to end poorly and whatever emotional baggage you may have comes with you. Cobb’s carry-ons do not fit in the overhead bits since they contain his ex-wife, Mal played by Marion Cotillard. It’s nice to see Marion get a meatier role to play after Public Enemies.
It also sets up a running theme: A dream within a dream. If this sounds confusing it can be but that’s what makes this movie fun. There are loose rules: You die in the dream you come back to the real world. You can actually hear sounds in the real world. The dreamscapes have varying timescales and if you use a potent enough sedative and if you die you could end up in Limbo and never return.
The bad guys and good guys change in the movie. Saito, played by Ken Watanabe begins as the enemy and ends up helping Cobb get back what he wants most: His kids. Except there’s one hitch: Saito wants Cobb + Co to plant an idea inside the head of a rival company soon to be run by: Robert Fischer, Jr played by Cillian Murphy.
The Avengers assemble and a new Architect is needed, enter Ariadne played by Ellen Paige. For those Paige haters there’s nothing to worry about she is not Leonardo love interest a fact my mom liked since many times the love interest never feels right. The subplot of Cobb and Mal is not forgotten or thrown away either.
Thankfully, Cyberspace is not used in this movie instead it is purely the mind and the design of the dreamscapes are extremely well done. So, when something on the outside world goes wrong, the dreamworld feels it. Or when the host figures out something is wrong the troops come out to defend against the infection as it were. This leads to several set pieces where the ceiling is the wall, the wall is the floor and Joseph Gordon-Levitt should be getting frequent flier miles for the amount of wire harness work he did in the third act.
Unlike the rest of the summer time blockbusters out there, this movie is not one to sit back and turn off your brain. The dialogue is so rapid fire sometimes you want to rewind the movie. The third act is not where the director said: Okay they followed me this far, I can cheat now. Instead it takes place across three different dreamscapes. Each of them varies in their own time scale. The ending was not a washout in my mind, the audience we saw it with did not sound let down when the credits came up.
Overall, it entertained every age group. My parents liked the story; the kids who saw the trailer behind me liked it when one of the characters pulled out what looked like Milkor MGL Mk.1 grenade launcher. So, if you’re looking to spend a good two hours and half watching a great movie, Inception is it.