A Mel Melons Moment : Inception

Need not hold your breath any longer movie fanatics coz “The” summer blockbuster of the year and arrived and is set to knock the socks off your feet. Christopher Nolan’s latest brainchild, ‘Inception’ promises everything you’d expect; a fast-paced action thriller boosted by a strong yet simple storyline that tackles basic human emotions.

TOTEM-ham Hotspurs

The movie is about protagonist Dom Cobb (Leo), a man who makes a living by extracting information from a subject’s subconscious on the premise that the reality as you know it can be easily replicated in your dreams. Cobb is tasked by power mogul Saito (Ken Watanabe) to plant an idea in his rival, Robert Fisher Jr.’s (Cillian Murphy) mind that would see the Fisher empire collapse and in return Cobb would be reunited with his children. Cobb seeks assistance from several ‘industry’ talents including dream architect, Ariadne (Ellen Page) and Jack-of-all-trades Eames (Tom Hardy) and alongside good friend and partner, Arthur (JGL), they devise an extremely complicated but subtle con ala ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ but stumble across many obstacles along the way.

Like... OMG..

Now, if you’re the kind of person who would rather not know much about a movie before catching it, you might feel slightly lost in the beginning as we are immediately thrown a scene where the movie introduces us to the concept of ‘entering dream world’ but you are eased into it when Cobb (Nolan) introduces Ariadne (audience) to the idea.

Special Scenes requires Special People

No obstacle was larger than Mal (Marion Cotillard), Cobb’s dead wife and main antagonist in the movie. Cobb’s overbearing guilt for her death has manifested into the group’s worst nightmare and only Cobb can stop her – signifying parallelism of man’s struggle to overcome his greatest fear. While it is very easy to find that the movie is centered around Cobb, Mal and to a certain extent, Ariadne, the other supporting cast plays a significant role that helped shape the movie. Pay close attention to Saito, whose role is somewhat marginalised midway through the movie as just the benefactor of the con becomes questionable at the end of the movie. Makes you think whether Cobb was really the mastermind behind the whole plot.

Everybody knew you started with the salad fork first

With a budget of 180m buckaroos, don’t expect Avatar-like special effects but that’s not to say it was insufficient, rather anymore added effect would distract the audience from the Nolan’s intentions.

‘Inception’, unlike most sci-fi movies, eases us to accept the possibility of an alternate world(s) without impairing men’s tendency to be rationale. The 2hour Freudian adventure ends in a classic open-ended interpretation that never gets old. You might find it easy to draw similarities from movies like ‘The Butterfly Effect’ or Christopher Nolan’s own 2000 psychological thriller, ‘Memento’, I think a cross between Cameron Crowe’s 2001 ‘Vanilla Sky’ with a little edge is a snugger fit.

One thing that is still bugging me though is, why was Ariadne portrayed as Cobb’s voice of reason rather than good bud, Arthur. I don’t buy the idea that Ariadne’s naïveté made her a suitable candidate. To be honest, she kinda annoyed me after awhile; wouldn’t JGL be a better choice? I think he should’ve played a much bigger role instead of the much cooler version of himself in ‘3^rd Rock from the Sun’ – unjustified. The anti-gravity fight scene was off the hook! Just something about that guy that makes you wanna have a closet full of suits. Anyways, any views or comments are most welcomed; I would love to hear them.

Rating 4.8/5 - a freakin’ MUST WATCH!

Mel Melons is a progressive writer and is known for his stinging attacks on popcorn films, the diminishing state of the country and the yellow fruit - the banana.

A special MobieDick thanks for his contribution.