Inception

2010 • 148 minutes
4.6
21.4K reviews
87%
Tomatometer
PG-13
Rating
Eligible
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About this movie

Your mind is the scene of the crime. Box-office superstar Leonardo DiCaprio stars in this contemporary science fiction action film set "within the architecture of the mind." Written, directed and produced by Oscar® and Golden Globe nominee Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Trilogy, Interstellar, The Prestige), this eagerly awaited follow-up to 2008's billion-dollar blockbuster is yet another visionary tale from a startingly original filmmaker who continually raises the bar with every film he makes. Shooting in London, Paris, Tangiers, Calgary and Los Angeles, Nolan's mind-bending film also stars Academy Award® winners Michael Caine and Marion Cotillard, in addition to Juno's Ellen Page, Batman Begins' Cillian Murphy and Oscar® nominees Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai) and Tom Berenger (Platoon).
Rating
PG-13

Ratings and reviews

4.6
21.4K reviews
Kyle Vansteelandt
October 8, 2020
What if Christopher Nolan decided to make a movie that no one has ever thought of before? A movie about dreams, reality, memories, and ideas. This complex film has characters that are very interesting, because of how deep they are; In other words: these characters have so much depth and information within them. Ariadne played by Ellen Paige has one thing in common with the audience: questions. the audience will wonder how dreams worked and what the plans or ideas they are going to be and how they will be plotted. And the Mr. Codd played by Leonardo DiCaprio has all of the answers to those questions that are thick and complex. Speaking of thick and complex, The story is much more than just about dreams, you just got to find out what Codd's goal is and watch this film to understand what "Inception" is all about. The story gets deeper when the plot point for this film is that Codd and his team planned a three leveled dream (a dream within a dream within a dream). Now that is an intelligent innovative concept. The tone is very well directed in places and each volume of sound is in the right place. The huge climax that involves Codd and his team in the van is like a thick race against time and it has been considers a high-brow sequence. The visual effects are absolutely on-point; we see our characters walking through walls and there are times when they were floating in mid air, and that gives you that amazing feeling that you were wondering "how on earth did they do that?!" and by that, I mean how did the effects team developed such incredible skills and knowledge. The CGI special effects are also top-notch; we see the other end of the city fold and then the top of the buildings go upside down, and then get on top of the normal buildings, that kind of element of CGI effects or visual effects is the equivalent of closing a school binder. I was invested from the beginning to the end. But this film does not have much punch or flavor within it's entertainment value, This film is more of a shock factor that absorbed my attention and sucked me in, but it did not necessarily excite me or entertain me that much, it's probably because that Christopher Nolan has gotten way to far with the complexity, and from scene to scene, it's just relatively plain without delivering any punch to my sensibilities (there's nothing there). Yes, it is a "genius" kind of movie, But this movie has showed me that Nolan tries way too hard to impress by making "the smartest, deepest, most complicated movie in history" (he probably wants to be a better filmmaker, I guess). Don't get me wrong. I do think that Nolan did a great job directing this film and the movie does not dumb down by an inch at all, and I was impressed. In conclusion: Christopher Nolan may has way to much ambition for this enterprise and it does not have a huge impact on my sensibilities, but I do think that Inception is a mind-bending piece of impressive filmmaking. Recommended.
Matt G
June 27, 2014
Most people who love this movie are people who are new to speculative fiction or just have never seen one produced really well. This movie is beautiful to look at with a very creative idea propelling the narrative. However, this idea is needlessly complicated (the series of "kicks" starts to get annoying and boring and inconsistent. None of the character arcs are especially compelling or interesting, which makes the whole endeavor mostly just of academic interest rather than an emotionally invested one. I love smart science fiction and this was trying very hard to be that. But while the technical and directing competence is admirable, the script and ultimately the underlying concept is not strong enough on its own to warrant such an "epic" movie with more than a little contrived tension. Definitely watch it, but lower your expectations. It also should have been 30-45 minutes shorter. Can't believe it made as much money as it did.
84 people found this review helpful
Glenn Young
August 2, 2013
This has got to be the strangest freaken' movie I've ever seen. I found it VERY hard to follow, sometimes impossible to figure out what's going on. It has no entertainment value whatsoever, save for the special effects. Perhaps it should been seen on a large theater screen, but I don't think that would help the viewing experience at all.
5 people found this review helpful