Inception
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page
Original Rating: 5/5 (7th August)
You really don’t know how hard it was for me to choose between Inception and The Social Network for number 2. They are both near-perfect films. They are both better than the detractors suggest. They are both textbook examples of how to make a stellar modern day movie. And they are both quite possibly the finest things that their directors have ever done.
So why Inception over The Social Network? Simple. I went into The Social Network expecting greatness. David Fincher is one of my favourite directors and anything less than greatness from him is just unacceptable for me. When I went into Inception, I only expected what I expect from all other films that I go see, a good movie. I’d seen and loved The Dark Knight and Batman Begins but I wasn’t that familiar beforehand with Christopher Nolan’s other work (rest assured, I’ve remedied that). Therefore I just expected a good sci-fi film from the director of The Dark Knight. What I got was so much more.
Inception is one of those rare films that remember that being clever does not give you a free pass out of plot holes and mistakes. Everything in the film sticks to the ground rules laid out during the first act. There is never a cop out or Deus Ex Machina involved in this movie. If they get out of a sticky situation, it’s from the rules of the universe they inhabit that was explained earlier on. In a world of film where our heroes get out of problems just by a last second save or some other cheesy cliché, this is exceptionally refreshing.
Inception is not, according to popular belief, complicated. It’s just complex. So long as you pay really close attention during the first hour and trust that everything will make sense by the 3rd act, you’ll get the basic gist of the film. And if you don’t there are loads of ace action sequences to keep you glued and interested.
Now I have a problem. Anything more I write about Inception is likely to be said by a million other people and said better than I can. I mean, it’s got to be on almost all of your end of year lists at some point hasn’t it? Everything that can be said about Inception has already been said and, statistically, if you are a movie fan you’ve seen it at least once. So you already know if you love it and I’m not going to change your mind.
So to kill time, here’s that trailer again. You might say I’m slacking. You might say that I can’t be arsed. You might call it a cop out. I call it efficiency!
That trailer is my reasoning behind Inception being in my list in a nutshell. If you haven’t seen it, that trailer should have convinced you. If you don’t like it, well I was hardly going to change your mind, was I?
So Inception is number 2! What do you think of Inception? Like it? Love it? Really love it? Or, somehow, not like it? What on earth could the number one film be!!!? Hit the comments and let me know! Follow me and join me on my blog in a couple of hours for the NUMBER 1 NON-PIXAR FILM OF 2010!
