Lately I seem to find myself reviewing lots of things that I don't actually want to talk about. It's not that I don't like them, or that I have nothing to say about them. It's just that they're so much more enjoyable if you go out and read or watch or otherwise experience them yourselves, without me telling you too much about them. And that brings me to Inception. By the time this review hits the internet, the movie will have been out for over two weeks. You'll probably have seen numerous reviews, either full of spoilers or carefully dodging them by focusing on technical aspects of the movie. In fact, if you're at all interested in the movie, you've probably already seen it. But just in case you've been too busy, or you're on the fence about it, let me try to sway you with my opinion. Inception is quite possibly the best movie I've seen all year. There's an interesting concept, an intricate plot, and even a few exciting action sequences to give your brain a break. This is not a movie to go see with that one friend who always wants to talk through the film - you'll want to pay attention the whole time, to keep track of the layers of dreams and what the characters are doing in them. The majority of the story takes place within one dream or another. Early on, the film establishes the rules for dreams, and sticks with them. The dreamscapes here are largely rooted in reality, so we don't get a lot of surreal weirdness - don't get me wrong, I can enjoy that sort of thing in the right context, but dwelling too much on bizarre imagery tends to bog a plot down. I found the central concept of the ability to build dreams, break into dreams, and steal ideas from the dreamer to be fascinating. This isn't an entirely secret ability, either. Throughout the film we meet people who are aware of dream thieves and have trained their subconscious to defend itself against intrusion. It's a really fascinating world and I wouldn't mind returning to it, in another movie or maybe even a book. Over all, Inception is a very well put-together movie. The set pieces are impressive, the graphics are believable, the actors all give great performances, and the soundtrack fits in perfectly. I've seen some complaints on-line about the characters, and it is true that they come across as rather undeveloped. The movie is quite focused on the plot and scenery, and Leonardo DiCaprio's character is the only one who really gets any back story. Everyone else pretty much exists to interact with him and do their job. In a book, this would be a major drawback for me, but I really don't expect a lot from movies. There's only so much you can do in a couple of hours, and if you distract me with pretty scenery I'll probably forget the rest. My hope is that Inception will open the way for more big-budget mind-bending movies, and that they'll all strive to be like this - a movie that gets you thinking, but doesn't lose you along the way by getting too deep or too weird or too disjointed.

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