Inception Review: Is it a Dream?

By Thomas Colantuono, M&M TIPster

Inception was a captivating, but confusing movie. It had my attention the whole time, but unfortunately had me confused the whole time, too. It’s rating (PG-13) fits it perfectly, because there was minimal violence compared to other movies, and the language was rather tame.

The characters were like vivid portraits, and the movie just painted them out perfectly. Everyone had characters that made sense. Unfortunately, there were two problems with the characters. Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Cobb, was very similar to Leonardo’s character in Shutter Island, Teddy Daniels. They were both torn apart from their families and feel extreme guilt. The other problem was Ken Watanabe’s character, Saito. He was very well-played but was hard to understand at points during the movie. In a film where every word counts, that can be a problem. I had to ask my friend in the next seat for translation many times, and sometimes he didn’t catch it, either.

To explain the plot fully and completely, I would have to spoil the movie, which I don’t want to do to the good people of the public. But I will give an overview. Saito blackmails Cobb into helping him take down a major corporation through dreams. Cobb is an expert at this and is the obvious choice.

The original owner is dying, but his son, Robert Fischer, Jr. (Cillian Murphy) will be taking over. They devise a plan to get him into the dream, which the architect, Ariadne (Ellen Page), must first create. Cobb had just recently informed her on how to be an architect, and was teaching her the ways, which also explained much of the movie to viewers.

Once in the dream they must fight to get deeper and deeper into Fischer’s mind. They basically use Fischer, to break into his own mind, and convince him that he must get to the “safe,” which will help them control him to give up the company.

To get the entire story, you must see this captivating, extraordinary, and mind-blowing movie.

Thomas Colantuono, 14, is a Freshman at John T. Hoggard High School in Wilmington, North Carolina