My Review of Inception

I had the pleasure of seeing Inception last night. All I have to say is Christopher Nolan is a master film maker(and he has a crazy imagination). This is now the 4th Nolan film I have seen (Memento, The Prestige, The Dark Knight), and I have liked every one of them. I loved TDK, but that is because I am a Batman fanatic and loved his reinvention of the franchise. Of the other films mentioned, this is by far his best work and in some ways, dare I say, exceeds TDK.

The movie is original, engrossing and visually stunning. But what is great is that the visual effects are driven by the story, not the other way around (as in movies like Transformers). I am sure that this film will be put into the class of great science fiction films like Blade Runner, The Matrix, Gattaca, and 2001 (not my favorite). I was entertained, because I bought into the premise which actually is simple enough. Cobb (Leo Decaprio) is a person who leads a team into other peoples minds through a process called dream sharing. Once in, his team steals the secrets of their mark. Saito (Ken Wantanbe) hires Cobb and his team to sneak into the mind of Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy) to plant in him an idea that will ultimately cause him to dismantle his father's multinational corporation. The problem is that this type of dream manipulation is not only dangerous, but has never been done because to plant a foreign idea in someone else's dream is more difficult than having a person walk into a room filled with motion detectors and not be detected.

What intrigued me as much as plot were the insights into the mind and dreams. For me at least the premise was totally believable, even if it is in reality impossible. But of course that is what great science fiction does. The great science fiction films and books take premises that are probably impossible, but through great writing and directing, make them POSSIBLE and believable.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it a combined 84% on its tomato meter. Personally I think those that did not give the film positive reviews just did not get it. Whether it was to complicated or they did not like the ending, which does bake ones noodle a bit, I could not disagree more. This is one of those films like The Usual Suspects, and The Matrix where I would love to have my memory wiped and to be able to see it for the first time all over again. This movie was simply fantastic.

***** out of ***** stars.