Inception

For me, this is one of those movies that changes everything. This isn’t the first time I’ve watched Inception, but every time I do, I bring a top out and spin it just to be sure I’m not dreaming. Upon, I think my fourth watch, it’s safe to say that I understand so much more of this movie than I did my first watch. Having a movie that requires multiple watches is always good, honestly, I’m not sure how I missed certain moments of this. But, making a mystery this good is already a huge bonus here. I’m going to sound like a broken record player when I say this, but Christopher Nolan is changing Blockbusters almost as much as Steven Spielberg back in the days of Jaws. Rather than focusing on a previously established franchise (excluding the Dark Knight Trilogy), he finds an original idea and makes an amazing film out of it. These films don’t only have the fast paced moments to keep casual viewers entertained, but also some quieter moments making the story and characters feel rich, making the world feel that it is lived in. With Inception, Nolan takes the concept of going inside dreams and makes it into a heist movie. That wouldn’t work if it weren’t for some of the amazing settings of this movie, some of which were filmed on location. While I would never have a dream as down to earth as any of the dreams in Inception, I’m glad Christopher Nolan made the choice to use settings that are quite normal, this way there is always that small voice in the back of your head questioning whether the characters are dreaming or not. There is plenty of symbolism in this movie to richen the mystery as well. The character of Cobb’s father is seemingly a large clue pointing to what’s real. Even some of the action feels well paced. Note that I say some. As, unfortunately, most of the action in this movie ends up in the final act, which is common, but the way that any threat to the characters is immediately diffused doesn’t really work for me. While the reveals at the end put everything into place in one’s head, all the emotional moments at the end are crammed in next to action scenes, many of which I couldn’t tell what was happening. Inception is a brilliant film. In typical Nolan style, he makes a big budget blockbuster that has A-list stars, but doesn’t get too caught up in what the studio wants so it can make money, he made the Dark Knight trilogy, he’s going to make money. Christopher Nolan knows how to make his movies meaningful to everyone, and seeing this just makes me more excited for Tenet. 9.7/10