Movie Review: Inception

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/

So last night I hooked up with some friends and went to watch Inception.

Okay, right off the bat, I loved it. Inception was great. Hell, I bought the soundtrack off of Itunes and I’m listening to it now. 

I’ll try to be spoiler free, but I can’t promise anything. In fact, there will be spoilers, so don’t read any further. Just know that it was really good, and go watch it.

The plot is about a group of thieves who break into people’s dreams to steal ideas. This time they are hired to go even deeper, to plant an idea. I heard somebody out there just say  “Oh, that’s just Dreamscape…” Duh. No. Move along.  

The script is smart. The characters are plausible. The acting is uniformly excellent. The effects are remarkable. The action is clever. The writing is tight.  It is beautiful to look at. Every last bit of Inception is well done.

Nolan takes a sci-fi idea, sets the rules, and runs with it. He explores the various aspects of this idea, and then has a whole lot of fun with it.  The physics bending action scenes were especially remarkable.

And for the record, when you get to the gravity shifting fight scenes, and then you read Hard Magic, (which comes out May 2011, but you can preorder it on Amazon now) just remember that I wrote that, sold it, and even posted snippets BEFORE this movie came out.  When you get to certain scenes in Hard Magic involving a gravity altering “Heavy”, you’ll be like, hey, Larry Correia totally ripped off Inception. Check the dates…  But I’ll be ready for the inevitable backlash of angry housewives leaving snarky comments on Amazon.

There is a bit involving the levels of dreams, and the time dilation effect compared to the real world. I won’t go into too much detail, but it was a really well executed concept.

Beyond the eye candy and the groovy effects, Inception has a heart. I’m not usually a big DiCaprio fan, not that I don’t think he’s a fine actor, but I often feel like he’s very technically proficient, but his characters lack feeling. I don’t connect with DiCaprio’s characters very often.   In this case, that emotional distance works really well for the character, and as a father, the bits about him and his children hit you right in the gut, but not in the usual trite Hollywood tear jerker way.

One thing you might not think about, but the soundtrack is wonderful, but it was by Hans Zimmer, so it is to be expected. I collect movie soundtracks, mostly because I write to music, and Hans Zimmer can do no wrong. I’m listening to the Inception soundtrack as I write this. I’ve also got his work from Blackhawk Down, the Last Samurai, and the Dark Knight. The dude is just good.

This is easily the best movie I’ve seen this year. I can’t say it is the “most fun movie Evar!” but it is deep enough that you’ll be thinking about it afterward, and I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Sadly, there was one downside. I will now have to give up one of my current science fiction novel projects, because it is just a little too close for comfort.  Except mine was a more realistic take on the dream state.  I’ve put a few scenes below for example:

Excerpts from Larry Correia’s Enterception

From page 23:  The mastermind made his offer. “I don’t need to steal an idea, Mr. Correia, I need you to plant one.”

“It won’t be easy, but it can be done. Their brains may explode. Last time I tried this… well, let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. Exploding heads seldom are. Have you ever seen Scanners?”

“Exploding heads are a risk I’m willing to take,” he said.

“Who’s the target.”

“An executive at FOX.”

I nodded. “I see… And what is the idea you want my team to plant?”

Joss Whedon frowned. “That they never should have cancelled Firefly.”

“I’m in.”

#

From page 347:  I approached the FOX executive. “I’m here to help you. I’m the subconscious manifestation of your need to be secure. I am your enterceptionator.  We’re in a dream, and interceptors are coming to get your brain,” I stated. “This is all a dream.”

“Dream?” The FOX executive looked at me.  “Is that why you’re not wearing any pants?”

Damn it, not again. 

#

From page 426:  The dream world was collapsing around us. “Why is it raining cattle?” the beautiful woman asked.

“My subconscious is really messed up. ” I answered as we ran to get out of the terrible cow storm. I narrowly avoided a Holstein as we made it to shelter.

“No kidding. Why is your suit made of bacon?” she asked, scowling.  “Wait a second… Am I naked? Why am I naked all of a sudden?”

“Quit judging me!”

#

So as you can see, even though mine is more realistic, I will have to give up on this project. Damn you, Chris Nolan.  This happened once before, with my epic backwards novel Larry Correia presents Monumento. Oh, but I’m ahead of the game now, Nolan.  Unless your next project involves robotic battle-manatees travelling through time to fight ghosts, this time I’ll get to market first. Ha!

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19 thoughts on “Movie Review: Inception”

  1. I dunno if your material winds up in the hands of many snarky housewives.
    Its in MY wifes hands right now, but she isnt what I would call snarky… they dont usually giggle while reading about termination with extreme prejudice… look around innocently, then giggle some more.
    I will be seeing it this weekend.

    Jim

  2. …then you read Hard Magic, (which comes out May 2011, but you can preorder it on Amazon now)…

    I might have missed it, but will Baen be doing an Advanced Reader Copy for Hard Magic?

  3. I saw Inception with sone friends last weekend and loved it. It was fun and brilliant and intelligent, unlike anything else coming out of Hollywood these day.

  4. You do realize any time you give us “snippets” not meant to be anything at all, they turn into something, right?
    Like Tom Stranger.
    Now get out there and write us Enterception! 😀

  5. I’m looking forward to seeing it now.

    I’ve got to say that I always thought Leo DiCaprio was always a bit of a poofter, even though I enjoyed his Romeo in the Romeo+Juliet movie, but that all changed when I saw him in Blood Diamonds.

    He was the ‘MAN’ in that movie!

    I know a few South Africans of the Boer variety, and they produce some hard boys over there and his depiction of them was spot on. Don’t get me wrong I still hate the Springboks, SA national rugby team, but I respect their ability to produce some tough guys.

    So in conclusion I’m looking forward to seeing this movie.

    Whens the Monster Hunter movie coming out?

  6. Perhaps you can solve a discussion me and a couple readers have been having… right before the guy pulls out the grenade launcher, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character is using a black SCAR of some sort, and none of us can remember if it was a SCAR-L or SCAR-H.

  7. i saw inception this past weekend and also loved it. but when i saw the fight in the hotel hallway in altered gravity the first thing i thought about was hard magic and how, minus the katana, it was freakishly similar.

    inception had a lot of potential to suck in a matrix like way but it avoided that at every step. great movie.

    1. Sullivan even climbed an elevator cable at zero G…

      Oh, I’ll just wait for all the snide blog comments. “LARRY CORREIA IS A RIP-OFF ARTIST!”

  8. Yeah, great movie, great effects, fine story, good acting. When the DVD comes out, we’ll be buying a copy to watch repeatedly, with slo-mo and freeze frame, but it’s certainly worth paying to see on the big screen.

  9. Thanks for this write-up, Larry. I was thing about skipping this movie because of DeCaprio (he really annoys me) but, after your remarks about the movie, I think I’ll set aside my personal misgivings with the actors involved and go suspend my disbelief for a couple of hours.

    Thanks! =^D

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