Inception Ultimate Collectors Edition with Steelbook [4K Ultra HD] [2010]

I managed to see this for a second time a couple of weeks ago, after I was unsure of my initial feelings of it upon first viewing. Thankfully, a lot of the issues I had with it are cleared up after this second watch. Nolan's mind-bending marriage of science-fiction, Bond film and heist movie livens up a nigh on awful summer blockbuster season with a dizzying, breathtaking combination of visual bravura and rich thematic depth. Upon first viewing, elements of the plot felt more than a little dense and convoluted (the opening confrontation between Cobb and Saito left me utterly lost as to who's dream was who's), but now, after seeing it again, all the pieces fit together. DiCaprio gives for my money what is his best performance, one which marks the culmination of his maturity as an actor. He really gets to grips with his character, expertly conveying great emotional depth as well as carrying the entire weight of the narrative of his character's journey on his shoulders. He's aided by a fantastic supporting cast, all of whom are utterly memorable in their own way (Tom Hardy is fast becoming one of my favourites nowadays), and in between the dream jumping, it's ultimately a very personal, human tale of family and redemption. Nolan here has almost outdone himself, exploring questions of guilt and regret within a wonderfully surreal, reality-altering world that swells with imagination. The only real stumbling block in his direction, and this is something that he's always had trouble with, is his handling of action sequences: the zero-gravity set-piece is absolutely terrific, with truly jaw-dropping choreography and stunt work, but when it comes to more conservative sequence, he's nowhere near as sure-footed, with the final product lacking clarity and feeling awkwardly artificial and episodic. That's really only a minor complaint however in the long run of things. It remains a truly excellent film, bordering on real greatness. At the moment I still think it's not quite the masterpiece some have claimed, but that may change upon further viewings. It's vying for the top spot just now in my top 5 films of this year. Great stuff.

I was lucky enough to one of the first few to see this film. I can't tell you how hard it was keeping all of its contents and twists to myself, and was grateful when finally it came out in the cinema, at which point I forced everyone to see it. I could spend the rest of my word limit telling you about how great this movie was, however instead I will offer a more insightful overview of the experience as a whole. Notice how I used the word "experience" as this is the true nature of this film. Chris Nolan showed us all what he can do with a film in such movies as the Dark Knight, but this pushed his legacy to a whole new level. Not only is it enjoyable gripping and ultimately cool, but it also demonstrates how a mixture of some well-known established actors and less-known actors can be a recipe for fantastic character relationships and dynamics. Leo DiCaprio is obviously one of the stars of this film, and he does a good job. However, I feel the performance of Ken Watanabe and Jo Gordon-Levitt upstaged and outperformed Leo. Watanabe was fantastic in his role, and showed the world how chinese and japanese actors need to be cast in more projects where they don't play stereotyped characters. Jo, on the other hand, really took a U-turn with this role, and will from now on never be seen as a geeky kid. I would recommend this film to anyone and everyone, and personally I can't wait to watch it again. Buy it, especially if you're in the mood for a brain twisting, scintillating, roller-coaster of a ride. Hope this is not the last we see of this franchise. The idea can be developed and Inception 2 could be even better!

After collaborating with other writers and also adapting existing work Christopher Nolan chose to follow up the billion dollars plus grossing The Dark Knight with an original concept of his own that had been a germ of an idea near the infancy of his film career. Proving that he was more than capable helming a big budget blockbuster by resurrecting the Batman franchise in such a spectacular and creative fashion not only making one of the most impressive origin pictures in comic book history but also following it up with a deeper more complex and overall even more impressive sequel, anything that followed would need to be special and choosing to visualise a wholly original idea with huge ambition was a big gamble for Warner Brothers despite his track record, Inception isn't what you'd call just eye candy. Already establishing the fact he was capable of casting quite brilliantly with previous efforts, Nolan nonetheless littered Inception with a rich cast and headed that with not just the leading man of the moment but also one of the most talented and dazzling actors of his generation. Leonardo DiCaprio had recently just come off the back of another impressive turn in his fourth and most impressive Martin Scorcesse collaboration Shutter Island. Nolan faith in DiCaprio is rewarded as he delivers another immersive performance and gives a powerful emotional reading of Nolan's protagonist Dom Cobb. Alongside Dicaprio an impressive roster of supporting characters essayed by Joseph Gordon Levitt, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy as members of Cobb's team, Hardy establishing his talent once again playing the charismatic Eames the forger. Marion Cotillard offers sultry support as Cobb's deceased wife Mal, that haunts his dreams and threaten to jeopardise their operations. Some Nolan regulars such as Ken Wantanabe as the mysterious business man Saito who hires Cobb's team after manipulating him to performing Inception a risky procedure but tempting Cobb with a prize he can't resist. Cillian Murphy as the mark Robert Fischer, Micheal Caine briefly pops up in another mentor type role and it is nice to see Tom Berenger once again on the big screen, Nolan showing an example of bringing more talent back from the dead like casting Eric Roberts in The Dark Knight. Although the true star of proceedings is Nolan himself, first for providing his original idea, a fresh dazzling display of imagination testing the boundaries of what an audience can follow, bucking the trend of the usual dumbing down that Hollywood is guilty of more than often, great work still gets made but blockbuster cinema is not the usual arena for the intelligence on display here. Inception is a science fiction action thriller of epic qualities, a James Bond film filtered through Bladerunner. Having already changed the way the comic book genre can be interpreted, Nolan not only shows blockbusters can have a brain but also not at the expense of thrilling the audience, showing the second example of his brilliance the visual feast for the eyes. Once again utilising his regular collaborator his ever reliable cinematographer Wally Phfister, integral to Nolanâ(TM)s vision and delivers once again in spades, the epic real and dream like landscapes littered throughout the film. Bond and Batman special effects extraordinaire Chris Corbould adding to the mix his usual standard of extraordinary fireworks. Nolan also ups his game, a small percentage of people criticised the staging of the action sequences in The Dark Knight but you'd be hard pressed to knock what is on display here, an undoubted highlight must be third level of the dream sequence where Nolan takes inspiration from his favourite Bond entry On Her Majesty Secret Service, not a rip off but an interesting riff on that spectacular 007 epic with the team thrown into an exciting action fuelled scene with loud gunfire and snow covered landscapes where the tension is upped to the max. There also thrilling car chases as well as hypnotic dream world sequences visualised in such epic proportions by Nolan and his team, it is a visual marvel and easily his most ambitious to date, simply breathtaking If you were to aim any criticism, Nolan is well known for not been considered as a director who is strong on emotion, too much of a technician, similar to that other perfectionist David Fincher. This is concerned with dazzling the eyes and confounding the mind, tugging the heart strings is not really on the agenda although Dom and Mal's element that is at the heart of the film is performed by DiCaprio & Cotillard with enough conviction for the emotion to register. He's never been particularly good at writing for women but like Cotillard Ellen Page's architect Ariadne performs well with the small amount they are given. After collaborating with Hans Zimmer since Batman Begins with his scoring partner James Newton Howard with the soundtrack for those films, Nolan enlists Zimmer to go it alone to provide yet another powerful score for Inception, until his work with Nolan my appreciation of Zimmer was small yes he composed some great early scores but then seem to slip into cutty cutter sound-alike phase, Nolan seems to have re-invigorated him no end that much is true witnessing the scores he's provided for Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes films. Zimmer's score drives the films action as well as emotive points, using Edith Piaf's Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien as a basis for his score using one note, Nolan was using the song as a trigger to bring people out the dream state and encouraged the use of it in the score. A regular Nolan motif is the element of ambiguousness, leaving the story open to interpretation, Inception certainly isn't short changing us on that, those who grow tired with this element of Nolan's are likely to be just as frustrated, throughout the film hints and leaves clues that may lead the imagination to interpret different meanings, the conclusion of the film never really establishes a clear definitive answer, as any other film in recent memory spun up so much debate and conjecture? Although those who are more than happy for the mystery will have no problem diving into this celluloid dream scape. Once again Nolan is unable like the Batman films to top Memento and The Prestige, those smaller more intricate films showing the man well and truly a master of his craft, there is a desire to see him venture back into more intimate film making once again although we have the conclusion of one Winged Vigilante to be concerned with first but seeing such a creative auteur in the large commercial arena making these big budget epics with lucrative returns shows Hollywood one thing, if you build it they will come.

There are plenty of reviews here that cover this film - so my five stars are for: hats off to Nolan, an amazing feat of screenwriting and direction, conveying an ultimately absurd and complex pretext in such a convincing cinematic manner. Truly impressive, combining commercialism and artistic intent in one. This will not appeal to purists but I love hollywood and its long tradition of delivering unashamedly packaged entertainments covering supernatural or otherworldly subject matter in apparently effortless exposition - (see 'Portrait of Jenny' "The Devil and Daniel Webster' and many many more). Nolan delivers the package with dazzling skill - carefully crafted characters, including the unlikely Ellen Page's character as the genius teenage 'architect' of dreams who is sourced by Cobb's father at a University in Paris - she is the central character in supporting role which the main demographic attending cinemas 18-25 year olds, will identify with. Notice how she quickly becomes not only one of the team, but the trusted confidante who learns Cobb's darkest secrets - she is a proxy for the audience members, drawing them into the film. The ridiculous subject matter is dealt with so skillfully that suspension of disbelief is absolute from frame one to the rolling credits - yes I did say ridiculous, but I am not being disrespectful, far from it - this is an amazing feat of screenwriting and direction - Nolan is a master in the great Hollywood tradition of weaving a dreamworld which we all buy into - on this evidence, perhaps he is their greatest exponent. The Dark Knight was a greater achievement for its intellectual depth and Heath Ledger's astonishing central performance - but Inception is an extraordinary and daring piece of wizardry - I am not surprised it took 10 years to develop - nothing to do with special effects - it is the screenplay and direction which is so impressive -Mr. Nolan, I salute you

Brilliant film premise! I really enjoyed it.

Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan moves away from Gotham for the moment to bring us a different kind of city. One of the mind. Cobb is a professional industrial thief. Of a slightly unusual kind. He can get into people's minds via dreams specially constructed for them, and via these dreams he can recover their hidden secrets. Supported in this role by some very capable associates, Cobb nonetheless has secrets of his own. And cannot go back to his home country. He's hired by a businessman to do the opposite of what he usually does. In this case, plant an idea into somebody's mind. Something called Inception. Which many say can't be done. But Cobb knows differently. Although he won't say why. Recruiting some new players for his team, Inception is on. Have you ever woken up whilst dreaming - or so you thought? - and then found it's still a dream? Dreams work like that here. On different levels. Inside each other. And those run at different speeds. And like every classic caper movie, complications ensue leaving you wondering if the plan will succeed or not. This is one of those films you have to judge for yourself. It strives to very clever and thought provoking. And some will think that it more delivers in that respect. As you can see from the variety of ratings the reviewers here give it [those who review the product rather than the delivery time that is] it is one that divides opinion, and thus it's best judged for yourself. But to go by my rating, I think it's well worth the look. The dvd has the following language and subtitle options: Languages: English Hungarian Polish Subtitles: English Arabic Greek Hebrew Hungarian Polish Portugese Romanian The second disc has a seemingly sparse but actually quite decent batch of extras: A forty four minute long documentary about dreams. Featuring contributions from experts on the subject plus cast and crew from the film it's absorbing viewing. Thirty seven minutes worth of the film's scores. The cobol job, a motion comic that runs for fifteen minutes and forms a prequel to the film, telling of events that led to what happens in the opening scene. A selection of concept art. A selection of the posters for the film. Roughly five minutes worth of the trailers for it. And roughly eleven minutes worth of tv adverts for it.

Anyone who has given this film less than five stars falls in to one of two camps. (1) They don't like Leo (2) They simply didn't understand the film. It takes about 30 minutes to start to understand how the film sets itself out and what this group of people do. But once you do get to understand it then it simply blows you away! The film layers itself between the "dreams" and goes backwards and forwards to them to work with the plot. The last part of the film is so tense and well worked that I would struggle to see how anyone could ever do better. Its not just the best films of the year but possibly one of the greatest films ever! A fine performance from all the cast and Leo is superb and intense (especially the deeper plot involving his personal tragedies). the direction is flawless and the CGI is simply stunning. A film that surpasses all expectations and goes beyond. The soundtrack of the film is exceptional too and worth buying. There simply is no better film at the moment than this original cinematic masterpiece.

There was a lot of hype when inception arrived and it went on to become one of the biggest grossing movies of all time. it also gathered 4 Oscars, mainly in the special effects and editing categories which were well- deserved. The story sees our Leo play Cobb, a man who, with his team, enter the dreams of a sleeping target to extract information. Only on this occasion, a powerful Japanese businessman hires them to do the seemingly impossible - plant an idea in the head of a business rival to break up his business. That's essentially the span of the main plot - what fills the 2+ hours of the film is the planning of this escapade and the job itself which involves several layers of dreaming and some unforeseen problems which could lead to the death of the team members during dreamtime. Except its all so complex that you can't take it in on one viewing and, like dreams, there's a certain feeling of deja vu. The obvious one is that all this sounds rather like the original Matrix, spliced with Minority Report. The first Matrix was startlingly original - in plot and filming - and Inception feels like a bit of a retread, in fact a bit more like the sequels. Plenty of flash, bang and wallop. there's one scene where a dream takes the form of an assault on a snowy mountain hideaway. it's well- defended by villains on ski-mobiles, goes on for ages and seems to have wandered in from a Bond film. An earlier scene brings to mind the Cairo street chase scenes from the first Indiana Jones film, and the best sequences, set in a hotel when the dreamer is experiencing a prolonged period of falling, sees characters flying and fighting around rooms and corridors. it's the best bit for sure, but makes me think of Christopher Walken flying round a hotel lobby in the video to Fatboy Slim 's Weapon of Choice. there's a good emotional sub-plot to it though featuring Cobb and his family, and some seriously startling moments just like in dreams ( a freight train bursting throu a busy street for example) but for this viewer, it's all a little over-cooked.