So much hype for an English movie has never been generated ever before, what with an initial 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating, and near 9.6 IMDB rating. Christopher Nolan's Inception seemed to be a deja vu of The Dark Knight(which too had reached No.1 within days of its release). So much hype that when the movie released in Lucknow, and in English, I couldn't resist booking tickets and go to the first show I could go to, despite having an exam the next day. Who cares! Christopher Nolan, and I had to watch this movie before other opinions would come out. The movie was an experience that reminded me instantaneously of The Matrix, which I saw 11 years ago. Friends with blank expressions looking at each other during the movie. It was evident after the first 10 minutes that Nolan is going to take you through a big conundrum of a movie, and make sure you watch it again. This is Nolan's biggest box-office strategy(to confuse viewers to such an extent that they don't mind paying once more to watch the movie again).
Complex concept, brilliant imagination, an "open to your interpretation" climax - all hallmarks of a Nolan film. Inception is mindblowing on two levels(I don't mean the levels in the movie) - conceptualization and post-movie impact. Such movies are hard to come by, those that make you want to keep discussing about the movie and finding out new possibilities every time you discuss it. By not making it all clear to the viewer, Nolan lets your mind flow freely, trying to find answers to those unexplained questions or supposedly loose ends. If you are someone who dreams a lot and remembers stuff you dreamed about, this movie is definitely bound to be one of your favorites ever. After the movie, I really have got started on
lucid dreaming and reading up on it. There's a lot of psychology and dream-lingo in the movie, but if you take some effort to understand all of it, you'll realise that he's done justice and portrayed the concepts quite well. Even the action sequences go in tandem with the screenplay, rather than being used just for the Wow factor. However, some sequences do get repetitive and feel unwarranted, which could have been improved upon. The screenplay is too pacy perhaps and more time could have been spent on a little character development, as you never ever feel attached to any character all along the movie. It might seem like nitpicking, but hey it's Nolan - we expect the best from him.
Hans Zimmer's score is also undoubtedly one of the high points of the movie, blending well with the screenplay and never seeming odd. A very high likelihood of winning the Oscar unless he comes up with
something better. Cinematography by
Wally Pfister(a Nolan regular), and set direction also deserve special mention, as apparently very few computer effects were used for the
hotel hallway fight scene, and the special effects were made using a complex set of revolving rings and electric motors and what not. Cast-wise, DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, needless to say is the star of the cast He's at the height of his career, having acted in some of the best movies of late.
Having said all this, Inception's themes are quite similar to those in
The Matrix,
Dreamscape,
A nightmare on Elm Street, etc and the visual imagery(especially the
Penrose stairway) used in the movie was
inspired by
M.C.Escher. Though heavily overlapping with
such previous creations, the originality of Inception lies in the screenplay that Nolan has constructed around lucid dreaming. Yet, I can't help but compare it specifically to The Matrix, which dealt with a similarly complex concept about reality and had multiple interpretations made by Internet users even during the pre-IMDB and pre-Facebook era. Nolan himself has admitted
being inspired by The Matrix school of thought, but it might be far-fetched to say that the inception of Inception may not have happened if not for The Matrix. However in my opinion, The Matrix as a movie experience was better than Inception. This is not to take away any of the brilliance of Inception, but I guess I'm more of a hardcore Matrix fan.
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