Review for 'INCEPTION'

Directed by – Christopher Nolan

Cast – Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy

Release date: Out Now

After the roaring (and I mean roaring) success of The Dark Knight which made billions for Warner Brothers, the studio said to Nolan he could do anything he wanted and what he did was something beyond brilliant.

To review this movie, it’s hard because the best bit about Inception is to know nothing about it. Don’t bother even watching the trailers. If you want to know the bare basics they go like this - the film centres around Cobb played by DiCaprio as he delves into your dreams and steals you secrets. After a job goes sour Cobb has to assemble a crack team to help him achieve Inception whilst battling his own daemons in an attempt for redemption. The tag line for the film is – Your mind is the scene of the crime, and that’s the best way to explain it. That’s all I’m going to say.

Christopher Nolan has become such as brilliant director that he has acceded his previous work it in every way. Inception is a brain child Nolan has been forming for more then ten years and he did the right move by waiting till he had the right sources and tools. His first film Momento is just the icing on his very creative cake and if he continues to be allowed this sort of freedom will do wonders for Hollywood. Hollywood has some thought that audiences only care about brain numbing explosions whilst Nolan has clearly shown that audiences want to have a challenging narrative.

The acting is brilliant as DiCaprio once again shows this year that he is a Tour de Force of an actor (he opened this year with Shutter Island which I personally really liked). With a great co-starring cast of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy who we last saw as Bronson. Both the script and the cast have to be nominated at the Academy Awards because Nolan has found a great mixture of actors, script and visual style. Whilst the beginning of the movie seems rushed and confusing it all works out. Ellen Page mentions at one point “so who’s subconscious are we in” and whilst that is directed at the audience it shows that both the audience and the characters are lost in this crazy labyrinth and that it is good that you feel lost and confused. There are enough great acting, gunfights, set pieces in the movie to keep anyone hooked.

I plan on seeing the movie a second time because after learning all the rules you want to submerge yourself back into the world and decipher anything you didn’t manage to get.

This film will be hard to beat and it going in top of my list of films of the year. It could even go into my personal favourite film list. Everyone needs to see this, in IMAX or in a multiplex and the best thing about it is it’s not in 3D. Bat-three will be incredible.

Anticipation - 4

Enjoyment - 5

Retrospect - 5

#1 Batman vs. The Dark Knight: Which Joker Is For Adults?

After the success of Christopher Nolan’s (Memento, Insomnia) The Dark Knight, the Joker’s character has been launched once again into character stardom. Now at about every themed birthday party, you can now expect to see at least one costumed psychopath in full make-up trying to pull of being the Joker. After watching the Dark Knight for about the fifth time, I started to compare Nicholson’s Joker to Ledger’s Joker in an attempt to figure out who portrayed Joker in the comic book sense for children and who portrayed Joker in an graphic novel way (e.g. Batman: The Killing Joke, Joker)?

Let’s face facts, not many people (people under the age of 19) remember or have seen the classic Tim Burton’s Batman (released 1989), where the brilliant Jack Nicholson played an excellent Joker. With Tim Burton’s Joker, he came across to be an over the top portrayal of the Joker, equipped with a long barred pistol for shooting down bat-planes and a hand buzzer for shocking co-workers. What also grabbed audiences the first time round was the Joker’s sick sense of humour which kids would not have found funny (then again the film was released as a certificate 15 over here in England). The Joker wasn’t just equipped with strange weapons but with ridiculous puns.

I believe that when Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren wrote the screenplay they wanted the Joker’s character to resemble a funnier and less violent side of Joker because maybe cinema hadn’t been pushed to it’s limits, like it has been now. For example if they did the pencil magic trick back in the late eighties I might have had to been cut (having said that though the Joker was still a mad man in Batman). What Nolan did with Dark Knight was try to make it a realistic side of the Joker, cut out the cheesy tools of destruction and add believable weapons such as knifes and guns.

To be honest after Nolan’s first Batman outing with Batman Begins (released 2005) it didn’t seem to stand out from the rest of the superhero franchises out there but was still better then most. And after hearing that the caped crusader will be back I was some what sceptical and some what uninterested (who could blame me with films in the franchise like Batman and Robin). However over time the film started to catch my eye, and the final product ended up being my favourite super hero movie. I also feel that Ledger’s performance over shadowed other actors like Aaron Eckhart, who up until his partial of Two-Face wasn’t on my good side. Still Dark Knight has been hailed as Ledger’s swan song and it’s easy to see why. That film definitely has set a new bar for super hero and graphic novels movie alike.

To sum up I believe that Burton’s Joker portrayed a comic book side to the Joker, with silly gags and hilarious puns whilst Nolan’s Joker showed us the dark graphic novel side to what the Joker can become. Really even through the irony is that Batman was a certificate 15 and Dark Knight only a certificate 12; it seemed to me that the two should have been switched around.

And on a few last note I think Nolan should to a directors cut and add in more violence, not because I’m crazy but I think it’ll do him justice because Joker’s character is one that should be put in the mature film spectra instead of cutting little bits to get the child certificate. And lastly I didn’t talk about Cesar Romero because it would be like comparing Adam West to Christian Bale, I ain’t gunna do it.

Oliver Hunt
23rd Dec 08