I never did write a real review for Inception. I'm always going on about how great it is, but I've never really said why. After I initially watched it I commented on how it was my favorite movie of all time and always would be, but now... it still is. :)

I'm no longer as sure as I was back then that it'll always be, but then again, it's been a while since I last watched this movie, so maybe I'm forgetting it's true grandeur, because it really is an amazing flick. At the time of watching, both the first and second and third time and so on, I could find no flaws with it. Not in the filmography, not in the soundtrack, not in the actor performances, not in the special effects, not in the logic... nowhere.

All the people I speak to who don't like this movie (yes, they do exist!) argue that it makes no sense, and I feel they just don't have a mind open enough for the concept of Inception. Inception is a concept itself, apart from the movie, and it is a deep concept. Maybe the movie doesn't fully formulate all of the aspects of Inception, but it does a great job at tying up all the loose ends of the plot that is introduced, and it does so in a very artistic and exiting way. There's not a moment in the movie when I was bored, and the soundtrack was magnificent, brining the tension levels to new peaks all the time. At the time I watched it, it was one of the few movies that I had been able to see all the way through without wanting to skip a single segment. I guess I was bored of movies in general, but suddenly I didn't want to miss out on a single conversation because everything that was said actually held something of value.

Content-wise, this was a very feature-filled flick. It had depth, it had drama, it had action, it had (real) love, it had suspense, it had horror, it had tragedy, it had happiness, it had surprise, it had expectation, it had hope, it had doubt. It combined so much more than you normally count into the core elements of a movie, and it combined them perfectly. The more I write about this movie, the more I feel that it still is and always will be a masterpiece. The fact that it's currently ranked #14 on IMDBs top 250, along with old classics such as and Scarface, probably proves my theory... or something. In time, maybe it will climb, as all old classics seem to do. First impressions are dangerous things.

If you still haven't seen this movie, and it seems like one you'd like, do it! Watch it! Right now (well maybe not if you're at work or something, in which case it might not be entirely suitable). But if you don't think you'll like it, don't watch it, cause I don't want to hear more bitching about how bad at is. Turns out tastes aren't always for everyone, even if they are awesome. :) You already know what I'm going to rate this but I'll rate it anyway. Here goes...

 rated 6: there can only be one!

January, 2023

I watched the DVD version of the movie this time. On a big TV. It was quite pixelated.

Next time I see this it better be Blu-ray! The quality wasn't ideal now, but we saw past that, enjoyed the film and... it still holds up. Holy shit does it still hold up. The build's masterful. The music's masterful. The way they keep adding in pieces of the puzzle in regard to Cobb's past, and gathering the crew, and explaining the intricate - but still relatively simple - nature of the dream state and world they build... it's so good. It's so flawless. It all ties together naturally, and movies symphonically and fluidly - fast and slow as all things progress - towards a showdown unlike any other. It's like three in one. The dream layers seem to amplify both the intensity and the sense of immersion just as they do the plot.

It's a shame Tenet didn't get as good a treatment as this one did. They had a great concept there too, but it seems they focused too much on visuals, and too little on the intricacies that tie it all together. Like they did here.

Though this is visual too. It's both. It deserves to be seen on a big big screen in as high a resolution as possible and analyzed in eighty page essays - at the least.

I watched this with my nephew this time - I'm trying to introduce him to some of my favorite movies, and I do think he was impressed too. He's a producer and director himself, and usually has a few points of criticism to anything I show him, but not this time. And I STILL get goosebumps at the end. Still. Every time. I don't think that'd change if I watched through this yet again tomorrow.

You just have to watch it all the way. To immerse yourself fully, and let it build until... total inception. It really is.

The phones may be a little dated, but everything else has held up surprisingly well too. It doesn't feel old at all.

 rated 6: there can only be one!