Image Credit: Stephen VaughanOh, summer 2010, you sly pup. You’ve teased us for two long months now with a nonstop cinematic parade of threequels and reboots and remakes and Adam Sandler. Not that we’re complaining: some of those movies were pretty good. But now you’re revealing your prized possession: Inception, Christopher Nolan’s long-awaited, utterly mysterious follow-up to The Dark Knight. We’ve watched the trailers. We’ve pondered over the posters. We’ve noticed that Tom Berenger is in the movie. We are intrigued. Now the reviews are hitting the internet, and guess what? We are even more intrigued.
Todd Gilchrist over at Cinematical speaks for most reviewers when he notes that Inception is “a film that benefits from knowing as little as possible about it before seeing it,” and without spoiling anything, calls Inception “a stunning achievement and the most completely entertaining film I’ve seen in years.” Over at IGN, Jim Vejvoda gets heavy with allusions sure to send film studies majors into the upper reaches of the geekosphere, saying Inception reminds him of Jean Cocteau, Stanley Kubrick, Michael Mann, The Matrix, and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Drew McWeeny over at HitFlix praises the entire cast, who do “great work.” Getting just a teensy bit SPOILER-ific here, he also notes that “the last forty-five minutes or so of the film is just one long reality-bending set-piece,” which is not something you’re going to see written about The Expendables. Like many of the reviewers, Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter detects a few Matrix comparisons, and also notes that the movie’s core audience is basically humanity: “It’s very hard to see how a film that plays so winningly to so many demographics would not be a worldwide hit.”
Inception is the first Christopher Nolan film since his debut, Following, that’s not an adaptation. Besides finding the thing extremely entertaining, Justin Chang at Variety notes a similarity between the Leonardo DiCaprio character’s ability to weave dreams and Nolan’s filmmaking: both are activities “devoted to constructing a simulacrum of reality, intended to seduce us, mess with our heads and leave a lasting impression.” Devin Faraci at Chud.com echoes that assessment in his rave review: “[Inception is] huge-budget filmmaking harnessed to tell a personal story that’s smart and uncompromising.” And Steven James Snyder of Techland concurs: the movie “is so unbelievably inventive and intelligent that I’m convinced a studio just gave Christopher Nolan carte blanche to do anything he wanted.”
Lest that sound too heavy, Mr. Beaks at Ain’t It Cool brings it home: noting that Inception uses the thrilling plotline of a heist movie to ensnare all audiences, he concludes, “Pure cinema at its best feels like dreaming with your eyes wide open. Cinema doesn’t get much purer than Inception.”
PopWatchers, I didn’t think it was possible to be more excited about Inception. I was wrong…dead wrong! Why, oh why, isn’t it July 16th yet? Have these early reviews had a similar effect on you? Please do speak out below!
I just messed myself, I am so excited for this movie. Nolan is king.
the best movie this year??!!!
yeah, there you go. start saying it before you’ve even seen it. this is how ‘avatar’ got nominated for an oscar.
Don’t go revising history. Avatar had major bad buzz before it opened.
“Major bad buzz?” Are you kidding? Raves from a packed preview audience at Comic Con?
I just hope this movie doesn’t get over-hyped.
I am not kidding. Avatar was crucified before it opened… the Comic Con preview did not translate to mainstream audiences, who hated the trailers. A simple look at old PopWatch posts confirms that.
Don’t say that. I think it’s going to be amazing, but I don’t want it to get hyped up too much. I expect it to be great, but I’m not going to get my hopes up too high. *fingers crossed*
ppl like dina to to stfu. I’m psyched for the movie, but keep it real. You haven’t seen it.
Yes I’ve been messing myself for the movie for about 6 months. And I was the first person to buy tickets at the local Imax. I feel like for a no life, but for this movie, I will be.
Man, I really wish Nolan were capable (or willing to) of writing complex, fleshed out female characters. He is a tremendously talented writer, but his female characters are always an afterthought. With his talent to create taut, gripping plots, would love for him to write a film that revolves around a woman…
Very interesting point. I’d never though of that before…but, you’re right. The women are always set pieces in his films. Love everything else about them, though.
*thought, not ‘though’
i’ve heard marion’s character is VERY complex. nolan sad this himself. and, the actress has been given praise for her performance from various early reviews. so, i have a feeling that this movie will be pleasantly surprising in that aspect. not sure about ellen’s character (whether ariadne is just a “set piece” so to speak, or a really fleshed out, complex character too.) either way, these RAVE reviews so early on have made me SOO excited now. Come on July 16th!
Same problem Oliver Stone has…
They’re women, what more do you expect? They are set pieces.
Interesting, I’ve never noticed, but you’re right. Hopefully cassie heard right and Marion is more fleshed out. Oh and Bessie, I don’t even think that one would make my list of top ten problems Oliver Stone has, starting with 1) thinks he is a profound genius…
Haha, sorry, I meant Bella. Got Bella and Cassie confused.
I am sooooo looking forward to how Marion will be. She’s a tremendous young actress.
i totally agree madd! gotta love marion. she’s got tremendous talent and beauty to match. lol.
There are no words to describe how bad I want to see this movie!! I’ve been watching every Christopher Nolan movie I own (Batman Begins, TDK, Memento, etc) in anticipation. I want to see it SO bad!!!!
I want to see this film SO. BADLY.
I love Leo, Ellen, and most of all, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. <3
I KNOW! I’m so excited for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, he looks totally hot in the trailers. Leo has got nothing on him!
He is a good actor (cute, too) and I loved seeing him in the trailers.
When did Joseph Gordon-Levitt get so hot?! I was surprised it was him in the trailers.
I’m so happy for the guy. He’s a fantastic dramatic actor, especially in overlooked films like ‘The Lookout’ and ‘Brick’, and I’m excited for him to have such a high-profile dramatic role in a film that can probably do no wrong. Congratulations, guy!
I can’t wait to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt in this film. He always gives excellent performances but his movies are usually not known. Maybe this film will make everyone see who wonderful he is.
Yeah, I’m so beyond ready right now I can hardly wait.
And I will have to wait until the 21st when it opens in Switzerland…
Me too, I’m in Paris right now !! Two weeks to wait !!
I have been waiting for this movie for a long time, and looks like the wait will pay off!
(Leo + Josh hotness)/Nolan majic= awesome!
I think your equation is off. If not an exponent, then there should at least be a multiplication in place of the division. just saying…
I won’t see any movie until I find out if Robert Pattinson likes it.
Will Lohan see it in the slammer?
So sweet! I am utterly estatic to see this film now that I know it has a good chance of blowing any of my expectations away.
i hate leo
And i’m sure leo hates the smell of poo
bazinga
I don’t like him either. Or rather his acting. Thank goodness there is an excellent supporting cast.
that’s interesting. i used to dislike leo, and i still don’t find him to be particularly attractive…but he did an amazing job in blood diamond, the departed, revolutionary road, etc (i choose not to include the utterly predictable garbage that was shutter island). enough to make me realize that the guy is a fantastic actor.
149 minutes.This movie feels like you will be utterly exhausted after seeing it.
Then it’s like a lot of Nolan movies: great but totally not rewatchable.
Geez, is it really that long? Ugh!
if you cant sit through two and a half hours your an idiot and disrespectful to an artist’s vision… the lord of the rings and titanic and the godfather were at least an hour longer!
@Clay. Well, those 2hrs and a half better be fantastic. Because to me, the longer the movie the greater the chance of needless exposition, chatter, filler, etc. Movies like the LOTR: Return of the King felt like it went on and on at the end! Sometimes, stuff is better left on the cutting room floor.
@clay – if you are going to insult people and call them idiots, how about you spell “you’re” properly… safe to say you have rendered YOUR opinion of people’s intelligence meaningless.
well, if we’re going to dis on clay for grammar, let’s not forget that he decided to go the “x and x and x” route instead of “x,x, and x”. at the same time, vivi’s comment is pretty lame. if a movie is good, i don’t think length should matter. and 149 minutes really isn’t all that long.
It’s no Last Airbender, but it might be worth seeing.
Really? Well, OK. I saw the trailer and I have to admit – it seemed a little ham-fisted and derivative to me. I’ve seen another movie with a very similar visual slant and production values (cannot recall the name now), and honestly it seemed like the best parts of the movie were in the trailer. Also, the dialogue showcased in the trailer seemed stilted and terribly blah to me. Hope I’m wrong.
You are an idiot.
And wow, you need to chill the f out.
You’re the one alluding to swear words, not him.
i second that idiot marking!
I’m betting you are wrong. I just don’t see this many people completely sh*tting themselves over a so-so film. And I’m not referring to those of us who’ve only seen the trailer, but the mounds of reviewers who are singing its praises from the rooftops.
It looks like another “Dark City” rip off… People are crapping themselves over it. Let’s see it first before we go crazy. The reviews of internet geeks mean nothing to me since they showered “Kick-Ass” with praise and it was just OK.
dark city was a rip off in itself dreary boring and overrated….this is a sure to be original masterpiece of story and filmmaking! I trust joblo and sometimes devin from chud.com and mr beaks from aint it cool who had the most fun with a movie theyd had in a long time…..people need to start listening to the critics again because its their jobs to send you to the right movie that will be worth your money stubborn ass hole americans!
For someone who hasn’t seen the movie, clay sure has a high opinion of how flawless and amazing the film is. I almost hope it sucks just so clay is baffled by his inaccurate expectations. Go look up ‘fanboy’ in an online urban dictionatry…
I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m sure I’ll hate it.
That was funny.
I honestly think Armond White watches each movies TomatoMeter and writes a postive review for any movie under 50% and vice versa. So if Inception falls that low (fat chance of that happening) he’ll call it a masterpiece. But since people will love it, he’ll hate it and come up with some argument that the film’s racist.
The guy saw a deeper meaning in Transformers!
LOL. I hope we have another Toy Story 3 incident where, luckily, you are the ONLY one who didn’t like it. So far, the signs are good that this’ll be well-received!
For my money, Nolan is the best and most interesting architect since Frank Ghery.
Oh, set the mark a LITTLE higher. Gehry’s a hack.
I’m excited to finally be excited about a movie this summer.
Agreed. Only summer movie I’m excited about.
Ditto this.
Yeah, but does it have a killer plot twist at the end? DIDN’T THINK SO! M Night FTW!
YOU BETCHA IT DOES. BETTER THAN ANYTHING M NIGHT COULD DO. SUCH AN AMAZING, YET AGONIZING ENDING.
Nolan knows how to craft smart, engrossing films that tell personal stories whether on an indie budget or Hollywood blockbuster scale. He’s just hitting his stride. Look for him at Oscar time.