movie review: inception

finally watched inception in cinemas!

SPOILER ALERT!

do not go on if u don't want to know wad happens!

the movie started with a flashback. abit "huh" at that scene at first but I was quickly brought into the movie. Leonardi DiCaprio (Cobb) is someone who "extracts" vital information/secret from people, IN THEIR DREAMS, and further into the dreams in their dreams. so with all the hoohaa about this movie, u would know that the movie revolves around the concept of a dream within a dream within a dream.

ok somehow people with vital info would be trained in the event their dream is "invaded" by ppl like Cobb. and so at first Cobb tried to get info from this jap businessman by pretending to be Mr Charles (whom is supposed to be the trainer for protecting your dreams). but the jap realises that he is dreaming, as Cobb's wife who always appears as his projection (due to him not able to let go of her death) sabotages his mission. the jap wakes up at this point in time, but he realises he is in a dream as he remembers the material of his rug.

btw, the dreams need an architect to create the places so the architect created a booboo because he overlooked the part of the rug. so yea their mission to extract the info from the jap guy failed. and if the level of dream is not that deep, just kill yourself and u would wake up from the dream.

(gosh this is so hard to summarize and put into words)

ok so after that the jap guy hires Cobb to help him carry out INCEPTION, which is to plant an idea into the target's mind using the dream within a dream within a dream concept. Cobb accepts the job offer because the jap guy is powerful enough to let him go back to US with ease. (Cobb was accused of murdering his wife and thus had to flee from the country and not be able to see his children)

by the way. everyone has to have their own unique totem to remind them whether they are in dream or reality. for Cobb's case, his totem would spin continuously in dreams, but due to law of physics in reality the totem would topple lah.

and the part about him and his wife. basically he experimented inception on her before: he planted the seed into her, that the world she is currently living in is unreal, and that dying would bring one back to reality (because in dreams u die to wake up yea). but after waking up, the idea is already grown in her head, and so she can't snap out of the idea and attempts to die. and since she is in reality, she dies for real lor.

so Cobb recruits a team of 4 which includes a new architect, a forger, a chemist, and Cobb's partner arthur, who researches on the targets. the engager, jap guy, wants them to perform inception on his dying rival business competitor's son Fischer, to break up his dad's business empire.

so the operation starts with them getting on the same flight with Fischer, and drugged him to sleep. they all then enter the chemist's dream, but soon realise they are attacked by Fischer's trained projections (as said before some ppl are trained to fend off extractors) and so the jap guy was badly injured during a shootout. if u die during the process of getting within a dream within a dream within a dream u would remain in limbo where the mind would be trapped for an indeterminable amount of time. so even though the jap guy was injured they had to continue penetrating deeper layers of dream to fulfil their mission (and at a deeper level of dream the guy's injury would lesson.

(gosh this is so long I'm only halfway through!)

ok so in the first level of dream, they are in the chemist's dream, and Fischer is kidnapped in this dream. and so next the chemist has to drive a van with the rest of the ppl in it, put to sleep so that they can enter the next deeper level of dream, this time into arthur's dream: a hotel. this time, Cobb disguises as Mr Charles (rmb the dream trainer to fend off extractors I said at the beginning?) to make Fischer believe that the kidnapping done on the 1st level dream was orchestrated by his trusted uncle peter. pretending to be Mr Charles, Cobb convinces Fischer to enter his uncle peter's subconcious to find out his motives for kidnapping, and they enter into the next level of dream, this time the forger's dream: a hospital in the snowy mountains. (although Fischer thought it was his uncle's dream that he was entering into)

however, Cobb's wife appears again and kills Fischer. which means that Fischer falls into limbo. at about the same time, the jap guy dies too. so now Cobb and the architect go to slp again to enter the deeper level, which is the limbo, in order to get Fischer and the jap guy back.

They see Cobb's wife again. and he finally revealed how he performed inception on her back then. he seemed to be guilty of it and wanted to stay there in limbo with her. however, the architect killed the wife and got Fischer back, while Cobb promised to find the jap guy and bring him back.

yay and so in the snowy mountains Fischer came back to life, and walked into the room where his father lies. he told him that he doesn't want him to follow in his footsteps. which means by now they had completed the mission of planting the idea into Fischer's head!

with everything in place, in the 3rd level of dream the bombs which the forger had placed in the area blows up, while in the 2nd level the bombs which arthur placed blows up, while in the 1st level the van while the chemist was driving falls into the waters. ALL this is done to make everyone be jolted awake, and then wake up to the reality where they are all in the plane.

so now we go back to the flashback shown at the start of the movie. Cobb managed to find the jap guy, who is super super old, and asks him to return to reality. and in the next scene we see that everyone in the plane is awake. and the jap guy fulfils his promise to let Cobb return safely to the US. Cobb returned to his home, and sees his children.

and for the last time, he spins his totem...

he got distracted by his children and went out to play with them, leaving the totem spinning. it seemed to wobble abit but towards the end it still did not topple.

and the movie ends.



HAH!
actually at first I thought that the director seems to want to have 2 reactions to the ending.
1 is that the totem doesn't topple and sadly Cobb is still in the dream
2 is that the totem eventually topples and happy ending!

but after listening to friends, there are 2 more versions:
1 is that the whole movie is a facade. everything is just a dream. you have wasted 2 and a half hours of your life watching something that is not real (this is real sadist man)
2 is the amazing one which I hope is true. and that is at the very end u could hear the toppling sound of the totem, which means that Cobb is really in reality.

I hope the latter is true!

but anw, the concept of a dream within a dream within a dream is soo cooool. darn cool.
but I feel that there are a few loopholes in the movie.

one of them is that at the 3rd level in the snowy mountains. Fischer got killed rite. but later he was saved from the limbo and brought back to life. whatever happened to his gunshot wound?

hahaha. ok but its ok lah overall the movie was a great thinking enjoyment. and the gravity part in the hotel was hilarious. there are some humour parts as well.

some ppl might be thinking, why they have to go thru so much trouble to perform inception. just bloody kill the guy secretly and make the whole business empire topple lah! but that would mean no great movie.

and yea, just live with the idea that inception is the only way to get the business rival out of the picture.
so in essence, the movie has action, depth, humour, and eye candy as well.

its just great!
I'm glad I watched it. it can jolly well be the movie of the year. even decade.