Inception Review

Many an Beginning review will tell you that this is the best film of the summer, and plenty of more Beginning reviews will stress the film-making genius of Christopher Nolan and the acting of Leonardo DiCaprio. You will also stumble across an Beginning review or five that claim this is one of the best films ever made. This Beginning review will focus on none of those things. Still interested?

The Setting - Dreams within Dreams
The Beginning film is a an excellent idea, but it is not revolutionary or new. The dream realities in Beginning provide for plenty of fascinating effects and fights sequences (both with weapons and hand to hand). There is much more action than I thought there would be in the film, evening feeling Matrix-like sometimes. There's a lot less of the reality-bending scenes depicted in much of the films promotion campaign. In case you are expecting the bending, twisting and angular distortion of buildings and such ala Dark City, you will get some, but only a tiny amount. Definitely, not to pin a promotion campaign on, but that is the beauty of promotion, no?

The core of the Beginning film are dreams. Dreams in the film are more like alternate realities which influence the true reality or waking state of the one dreaming. The basis of Beginning is the implanting of a thought in to someones head that must be so subtle that they come to the thought naturally thus making it their own. As the films states if an idea is suggested to a person consciously that can never be "their" thought, because they are aware of where the thought originated.

The Director & The Actor Beginning was created by excellent film-maker and features a nice performance by a first rate actor, and some nice performances by the supporting cast. I am a Christopher Nolan fan. Memento was excellent.. His remake of Insomnia was well completed though I prefer the original. Batman Begins and the Dark Knight are five of the greatest comic book films ever, and the Dark Knight as a character study is a great film period. I also enjoyed The Status. I think those are all better films than Beginning. DiCaprio is solid in Beginning, which is not simple for me to say because I am of the secret-society
 which believes that DiCaprio is severely over-rated as a performer.

The film has also has a amazing musical score that thankfully deviates from the usual Hans Zimmer "Zimmerfied" actions scores and the sound design is as subtle and nuanced as any I have heard in some time. All of that is not for me to say that this is a great film. Beginning was a first rate film, with some brilliant performances, visuals, sound and music felt like it was missing something.

Beginning appears to be trying to do much; to be layered. I understood what was happening, but feel that the complex nature of the story, towards the finish, may loose a quantity of the audience. There is a definite intellectual provocation going on here, which is excellent for the film. I find myself discussing it with friends days afterward and believing that a second viewing of Beginning would be a nice thing. I think it will certainly due well at the box office based on that alone. I definitely think that people ought to see it, if for nothing over to speak about dreams and reality. How much do they shape our dreams and memories after the fact, and how much do memories and dreams affect who they are or become? I think Beginning is posing that query along with the standard "how far will they go for our loved ones". Beginning will give you some quality visuals, acting and music, and an fascinating story that might have been great but doesn't get there.