The first thing which comes to mind after you have watched the trailorof Inception, is that you will see Leonardo DiCaprio on the Big screen! It’s a known fact, about him being a good actor, and its hard to imagine him without getting the record-setting “Titanic” in mind. But I am glad to say that Inception may have broken this cliché, and instead many people would now remember him for Inception instead!
Although its very difficult to write a review of Inception, after just a single watch (ya, its that obscure), but this is just an account of my experience and knowledge while doing so.
Table of Contents
Plot:
Inception is all about dreams, and its invasion. Few people, has the technology to go inside someone’s dream, and steal what is called the most important thing in the modern world – Information or secrets. “Cobb”, the main protagonist of the story (of course Leo), has a job to use their dreams to extract the information, and hence he is called, “extractor”. As the story progresses we watch Cobb and his team playing with the minds of people that they target, while Cobb trying to deal with his own secrets of his memories. That’s all is needed to Incept the idea of Inception in your minds.
World of the Inception:
“Your mind is the scene of the crime.” – That’s the tag line which Inception has used for its promotion. And quite effortlessly, its justified. The world of Inception is the dream. Cobb (in the center) with his Team A dream may just be limited by your imagination, and physics sometimes go for a toss. Anything can happen in a dream. But as in the case of dreams we experience ourselves, any event happening in there, comes to effect because of its some kind of relation to the reality. And any event happening in the real world of the dreamer, may fall an effect in the dream, the dreamer is watching. (Quiet compelling, isn’t it?)
The connection may seem to be burrowed by the favorite film of all time, “The Matrix“, but is far more complicated then that, as you may had or would experience yourself. But more on that later.
VFX:
What surprised me was the fact that despite being heavy on Visual Effects, their are barely any sequence where you would actually notice it. Ok, you will notice it, but you wont be dazzled by it. Christopher Nolanhas purposely avoided using VFX as much as possible, and even than he has done an excellent job, bringing the story out very effectively.
A popular Physics bending VFX
He has so beautifully used the technique of slow motion, most profoundly in the scene when Cobb explains Ariadne(the beautiful Ellen Page), the Architect of the dream world, about her being in a dream. In Inception, slow-mo is used to depict the flow of time, and I must say, I loved this new way of imparting a sense of time in the different layers of dream. (Layers of dream would make sense after you watch the movie.)
Direction:
The direction of the movie, for the lack of better word can only be said, “awe-inspiring” and brilliant. It takes a lot of hard work, directing and editing to explain the concept so complicated as shown in the Inception. But in true manner, Chris Nolan has successfully achieved this seemingly impossible feat. Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolanis one talented director, the direction of which I was watching for the first time. He is in on my watch list from now, and would certainly like to see more from him.
Depiction of dreams in Inception, is done to keep the viewer hard to guess what they are watching, the fact or the dream. While the course of the movie, you would always have to wear your thinking cap, and you keep questioning yourself about the happenings and its reason. The physics of the world inside the dreams change so radically and dramatically that at the start it fascinates you, and is so beautifully done that a mathematician mind would truly admire the genius behind the direction. Every scene and plot is like it’s crafted by hands. Every frame well calculated, and each cuts done at the precise moments.
Connection with The Matrix:
One of the things that made Inception so familiar with The Matrix was the world of virtuality. In The Matrix it was evinced that the world which people lived was unreal and that it is just a simulation of a computer program. Which only meant, that only their mind was inside the delusive world, but their physical existence was in the ‘veridical’ one.
Inception burrowed the idea of Matrix and puts that in a more acceptable perception – that of the dream. But despite the familiarity, Inception is unique in its own way, due to the fact, that it is closer to reality. The use of the dreams makes it more haunting!
The Music:
Finally, the one thing which accelerated the excitement of Inception to incredible height was the power of music.(Listen Here) Without the adequate knowledge of the subject, I can only describe its music, as being transcendent, and which makes you reach the higher state of cognition. In one word, it’s ‘EPIC’. Epic in the sense that you may never be bored listening it, and the effect that it actually enhances the plot, by imparting a sense of thrill to the story. I found this video on youtube, and I think it could have been used perfectly when the end credit rolls.
Conclusion:
The Maze Logo
Lovers say that the movie has set new standards of perfection. Haters munch that its overrated. But I personally, loved it, because it made me think. Not much of the movie is able to do so.
Surely I will watch Inception again, (and again), to witness the sheer brilliance of the direction, and the immersive world that it presents. But thats what I admire about such movies. You can never have it enough.
Image via Wikipedia
Good!