WORTH SEEING - Yes indeedy. Watch it a few times in fact. The few poor parts outweigh the good (and can often be passed off as part of the 'story'). A solid 8/10.
TELL ME MORE - Inception came relatively out of nowhere, took the cinemas by storm, then disappeared from public view as fast as it had arrived. I personally watched the film very late at night in a very packed cinema, very close to the screen and knew nothing about it, all of which added to the surreal, dream-like feeling.
THE CAST - Leonardo DiCaprio (Gangs Of New York) was in typically good form. Between this and Shutter Island many are worried he may be painting himself into a typecast, but if that typecast is approaching Johnny Depp levels of cool mixed with Will Smith's box office pull, then paint away Mr DiCaprio. Excellent all around support is typefied by the wonderful Joseph Gordon-Levitt (10 Things I Hate About You) who would be perfect as The Riddler, but whatever he does next he should excel in. Most of the other actors fit their roles well, but there were two major miscasts here that brought the tone of the film down - Ellen Page and to a lesser extent Michael Caine, both of whom caused mutterings of 'What the hell is Juno/Alfred doing in this film?!!' Not so much a case of brand recognition, where the audience can't distinguish between actor and character due to a lack of recent noticible roles following one very well received Big Hit, although that is certainly part of the problem. The other side is simply the fact that Caine was entirely unneeded in the film, his role consisting of two lines - 'Here's Juno!' and 'I'll drive you home'. Juno, sorry, Ellen was also unneeded, serving as little more than an avatar for exposition, spelling out the story to the audience. To be perfectly honest, any of the other characters could have served this role fine. There was no need to turn the film into 'Leonardo's 11'.
FINAL VERDICT - I've intentionally ignored the plot as I feel, like The Matrix, Memento, 12 Monkeys, Fight Club et al that the audience must go into the film as a blank canvas for the story to paint itself onto. With the exception of a few poor casting decisions, a bit of plot science confusion and a little bit of cliche in the ending, this is a solid 8/10 film, almost a must-see.
TELL ME MORE - Inception came relatively out of nowhere, took the cinemas by storm, then disappeared from public view as fast as it had arrived. I personally watched the film very late at night in a very packed cinema, very close to the screen and knew nothing about it, all of which added to the surreal, dream-like feeling.
THE CAST - Leonardo DiCaprio (Gangs Of New York) was in typically good form. Between this and Shutter Island many are worried he may be painting himself into a typecast, but if that typecast is approaching Johnny Depp levels of cool mixed with Will Smith's box office pull, then paint away Mr DiCaprio. Excellent all around support is typefied by the wonderful Joseph Gordon-Levitt (10 Things I Hate About You) who would be perfect as The Riddler, but whatever he does next he should excel in. Most of the other actors fit their roles well, but there were two major miscasts here that brought the tone of the film down - Ellen Page and to a lesser extent Michael Caine, both of whom caused mutterings of 'What the hell is Juno/Alfred doing in this film?!!' Not so much a case of brand recognition, where the audience can't distinguish between actor and character due to a lack of recent noticible roles following one very well received Big Hit, although that is certainly part of the problem. The other side is simply the fact that Caine was entirely unneeded in the film, his role consisting of two lines - 'Here's Juno!' and 'I'll drive you home'. Juno, sorry, Ellen was also unneeded, serving as little more than an avatar for exposition, spelling out the story to the audience. To be perfectly honest, any of the other characters could have served this role fine. There was no need to turn the film into 'Leonardo's 11'.
FINAL VERDICT - I've intentionally ignored the plot as I feel, like The Matrix, Memento, 12 Monkeys, Fight Club et al that the audience must go into the film as a blank canvas for the story to paint itself onto. With the exception of a few poor casting decisions, a bit of plot science confusion and a little bit of cliche in the ending, this is a solid 8/10 film, almost a must-see.
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