Inception (4K Ultra HD/BD) (4K Ultra HD) [4K UHD]

This is an excellent film. It's a daring film too. Like another film, The Usual Suspects, it starts in the present with a scene between an old man and a young one. The old man asks him what he wants and the young man struggles to recall what he wants from the old man. It leads to the start of the story in the past and an extraction job on the train to Kyoto, Saito's offer to Cobb, the assembly of the team, putting together their game plan for putting an idea into a financial rival's mind, the dream shared aboard the jet, onto the opening scene again when the young man why he's here then onto the final scene. The plot is superb. One man, Cobb, wants to find his way home to his family while another one, Saito, is willing to pay a fortune to change the outcome of events with a rival business firm through the inception of an idea into his rival's mind. The cast is also superb. It took more than Leonard DiCaprio to pull this story off. In this case there was some strong writing. Something closer to six or seven characters were needed for the development of the plot. Is it too complicated or just too intriguing? I really enjoy watching a good film again and again and have truly enjoyed Inception. Dreaming by itself was no basis for a story but to the credit of Inception it introduced dream-sharing by way of a new technology. In view of the developments over the past 60 years viewers will find it quite easy enough to suspend their disbelief. Cobb and his wife, Mal, put the learning to use by way of extracting ideas by people. Once they began building dreams within dreams extraction was easier but time moves at a different and slower pace at various levels of a dream. It can also become difficult to distinguish a dream from reality and they finally lose their way into the sub-conscious. After fifty years down there Cobb tries inception on Mal and plants an idea in her mind which leads to their return but Mal suspects that she's still dreaming and wants Cobb to return to reality. One night she tries to blackmail Cobb by informing the police that she suspects her husband will kill her. Dreams can be usually brought to an end when the dreamer runs out of time on the machine or is killed. After she kills herself Cobb leaves the country to avoid arrest but he's still deeply filled with regret and guilt about Mal who is constantly trying to keep him with her. It's interesting how one storyline is affecting the other one and the characterization which results from it.Ken Watanabe plays Mr. Saito. He's heard about extraction and rumours about conception. He's convinced that he will be financially ruined by his rival, Mr. Fischer. Now he's heard rumors about Cobb's skill but before he asks Cobb he wants to make sure that he's talking to the right mind. So he arranges an audition for Cobb's crew under tough conditions with himself as the target. Cobb extracts the information but he realizes that Saito has known all along about the job from start and asks why? Saito was never interested in the extraction but the level of Cobb's skill. While Cobb extracted the information, Saito wasn't impressed with the level of skill that Cobb showed. His opinion of Cobb quickly rises when he realizes that he's still dreaming. Cobb placed him in a dream inside a dream. In the following scene Saito makes an offer to Cobb of financial reward and a safe return to America if he can succeed in planting an idea in his rival's mind. Money is no problem with Saito. So Cobb finds a top-notch crew who will work for him and his partner, Arthur. DiCaprio clearly dominates the first crew but when Saito tells him to put together a better team he becomes part of the team. Michael Caine puts in a strong appareanance as Cobb's father-in-law who finds him another architect in dream-sharing, Ariadne played by Ellen Page. Then it's onto Africa for an interview with an old friend, Eames played by Tom Hardy, who's a skillful thief and forger and introduces Cobb to Yusuf, the Chemist played by Dileep Rao. Fischer, played by Cillian Murphy, puts in another good performance as Saito's rival. What's really interesting are all the contributions everybody makes towards the development of the story. It is a well written story and well performed one. You'll also appreciate the quick pace.While the dream starts on the jet. The levels of the dream can always be identified. The first level of the dream can always be identified by the rain in a city downtown. The primary development is the appearance of projections from Fischer's mind into dream who will defend him against any attempt at extraction. On this level Saito is shot and dying but on the lower levels it will take longer for him to die. Eames attempts to kill him and end the dream but the sedative taken demands their return to consciousness in a particular fashion. If they die they are lost in a sub-consciousness of the dreamer. So they must go onto the next level of the dream inside a van that Yusuf is driving. The second level of the dream is found in an expensive hotel where Cobb plays a figure on this level known as Mr. Charles and poses as one of the projections sent to guard Fischer. Mr. Charles gains Fischer's trust and convinces him that a corporate figure in his father's company is betraying him and the only way to learn the truth is entering a third level of the dream. The third level takes place in winter and the mountains where Fischer fights to learn the truth and the team plants an idea in him.In the meantime Saito dies during the assault. The scenes in the sub-conscicous take place in beautiful weather on the seaside. The final beach scene leads you to an earlier scene from the start of the film: an old man asks Cobb what he wants. The old man is Saito who was killed and has been lost for years. Cobb now remembers the audition for Saito, the inception and his confrontation with Mal. He urges Saito, now an old man filled with his regrets and guilt to come back with him and be young again. Well, the next scene tells you what happen he finds himself waking aboard the jet with Fischer, Saito and his crew. Saito places a call to set things in motion which will clear the way for Cobb's return home.I've seen this film on numerous occasions over the past few years. It just keeps getting better. It only proves the importance of good writing and acting to one another as well as editing and directing. Suspense simply is not a factor. Yet the story constantly grips you. You simply don't realize the length of the film by its quick pace of the story.

I have been reluctant to comment on Inception; there seemed little Icould add to the already extensive commentary. My initial sense wasthat Inception, while it was a welcome relief to standard summer fare,possessed enough flaws and precedents to render its claims to greatnesssuspect. I gave it 8 stars over my first viewing and let it go at that.Now, having watched Inception twice since then and having read thescreenplay (see the excellent, Inception: The Screenplay), I havechanged my mind. Inception is worthy of the praise given it. Withoutreservation I now give it a 10. This is the first occasion in which Ihave changed my verdict on a film following my initial viewing. Why?Because Inception is easily the best film of the decade in terms ofsheer intelligence, the best film I would argue since The Truman Show.Moreover, its plot of obsessive love, fear of falling, and frighteningdreams, makes it worthy of comparison to Vertigo. As good as Vertigo?The fact that Inception can be mentioned without blanching in the samesentence with Hitchcock's masterpiece tells you something.I came to love the movie but I was desperate to say something new. Iwanted to comment on the richness of the world of Inception, and givethe viewer a bit more of an understanding of what underlies it.In the near future, a drug has been discovered that enables people toshare a common dream. Viewed by many as a fascinating opportunity forcreativity, one danger is that a dreamer's mind can be invaded by anintruder and unless the victim has been trained to resist these"extractor(s)," he can be tricked into revealing his innermost secrets(visualized as being within a symbolic dream "safe"). The battlebetween a trained mark and one or more skilled extractors can beharrowing.This technology can be described as a form of controlled luciddreaming. Until this discovery, all experience had been that luciddreams cannot be controlled; anything could happen. Since most peoplehave had them, you know what I mean. But using this drug and itsdelivery system (termed PASIV in the screenplay book), lucid dreams canbe controlled. These shared lucid dreams, however, are still subject toexternal conditions and the dreamer's own internal state.Note: the idea of entering into people minds while they are dreaming isnot new. See the movie "Dreamscape (1984)," which has dream specialistsinvading the mark, as protectors or attackers. But there are someremarkable new angles in Inception's approach.First, the dreams can be recursive. There can be dreams within dreamswithin dreams, though at each additional level the dream state becomesincreasingly unstable, requiring the addition of powerful sedatives tomaintain control.Second, the recursive levels cannot be extended indefinitely. Theyterminate in a state called "Limbo," i.e. "unconstructed dreamspace."Limbo may be infinite in expanse. Little is known of it, thoughaccording to the movie's math, time moves roughly 8000 times faster inLimbo relative to reality.Third, the minds of the participants, particularly if there is anemotional involvement between them, can find their dream "waves" havebecome blended or entangled.There are profound metaphysical dangers in this, ontological andpsychological. Foremost is the loss of one's sense of what is real,over time being increasingly unable to distinguish between the dreamstate and reality. Then there is the loss of one's sense of self. Wherethe dreamers are emotionally involved, e.g. in love, their minds canbegin to merge to such an extent that it is a difficult for them todetermine where "I" begins and the other takes over, who is dreamingwhat in other words. There are mechanisms, "totems" for keeping trackof where one is in these dream spaces, but the problem is unsolved.Into this world strides Dom Cobb, one of the best "extractors," adisturbed, troubled man, with overwhelming feelings of guilt towards isdead wife, Mal. Cobb is desperately seeking an escape, and return hometo the only happiness he has ever known.Inception is strikingly original not only in that it introduces a newtechnology but a new terminology as well. A shoe-in for multiplenominations, it is brilliantly edited with a superb score,special-effects, and a wonderfully, attractive and likable cast.Nolan's meticulous screenplay pursues its sober and somber plot (youmay smile/chuckle a few times but that is it) with grace andhigh-intelligence.I wish I could sum up the meaning of the movie, but I can't. Onepossibility is that Inception is an allegory of the movie experience, adream of movies if you will. There is a strong overlap in what Cobb andhis team are pursuing with the movie experience itself as a shareddream in which we share our emotional secrets. Nolan plays on this, butthe idea of a movie as reflexive of and subversive to one's life hasbeen often done and it is unclear if Inception adds much.Another is that Inception should be taken as a movie of dreams, i.e. onits own terms; that it works best if one simply accepts what is beingshown on the screen and goes with it. Admittedly, for most, multipleviewings will be required to enable them to get to the heart of themovie's emotions but they will be amply rewarded if they do. Thecentral vision in Inception of life's tragedy is compelling. Whether inthe dream state or in reality, we cannot escape ourselves and it isimpossible to tell if the happiness we have is real or an illusion.