Christopher Nolan is starting to become one of my favorite directors. He made a totally surreal ingenious film in Memento, rebuilt a beloved media franchise from a punchline to a tour de force with Batman Begins, and gave us one of the most well-told, visually epic films of the last decade with The Dark Knight. Now comes his latest effort Inception. Is it better than The Dark Knight? Can it raise the bar that film set so high regarding filmmaking? Not really. It's not as excellent as The Dark Knight was but it was still an amazing experience. Trying to describe this film would be impossible because Nolan has crafted a wonderfully intellengent story that really requires you to think and, most of all, pay attention. Yeah, you gotta pay attention to what's going on in this movie becuase if you don't you will be lost and confused for the rest of the movie.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays a guy named Dom Cobb. Cobb is an "extractor." He can go into people's dreams and steal secrets from them. He and his crew attempt to steal some information from a powerful businessman named Saito but they end up failing. Saito soon reveals that that was just a test to see if he can use them for a job he is planning. We find out that Cobb is a fugitive who cannot get back to his kids in the States because he has been charged with murdering his wife. Saito tells him that he can get those charges dropped if he does this job. The job is to perform an "inception." (Go into a person's mind through his or her dreams and plant an idea there.) The target is the son of a rival businessman who is played by Cillian Murphy. This makes the film seem like a simple heist film with a sci-fi twist but it's not just a heist film, it's a film that has many layers to it just like how, in order to complete this job, Cobb and his crew have to enter multiple "dream layers" just to plant this idea in Murphy's head.

The film has much more depth and explination to it like the concept of creating the dream worlds, the role of the subconscious within a dream, and how time is affected while in a dream. There is a huge subplot involving Cobb and his wife and how he can't bring himself to let her go. Leo is sorta channeling his Shutter Island character a bit except for the fact that in this movie, **SPOLER WARNING TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN SHUTTER ISLAND YET* he knows he is sane while in Shutter Island we find out he's one of the insane people. **END SPOILERS* Another concept that plays a big part in this film is what the characters call a totem. It's basically an object that lets the people know whether the world they are in is a dream world or the real world. Cobb's totem plays a big role here as we find out something surprising about it that will probably have you questioning whether we are awake in the real world or in a dream world. There is no one way to interpret this film because Nolan deliberatly made this to be open to interpretation. This is mainly due to the nature of the ending of the film. (which I will not reveal here.)

Inception will probably be hailed by some to be a visionary work of art that defies the boundaries of filmmaking just like The Matrix did 11 years ago. While I feel like it is a work of art, I don't find it to be all that visionary. It felt smaller in scope compared to The Dark Knight. But this film is an experience that everyone should feel. The story has probably one of the best original concepts since The Matrix, the acting is pitch-perfect, the effects are astounding, and the score is probably one of the best I have heard since The Dark Knight. Inception is no popcorn flick. It requires you to turn your brain on, think about what is happening on screen, and pay attention. This film is a gem amidst the summer movie market that will be plauged by "dumb" films like Salt, Scott Pilgrim, (actually, this one looks kinda good) and The Expendables. (That's not to say theser films will be dumb, I'mn sure they will be great films. But I mean that these films will probably require little to no thinking involved and will be pure escapism.) Inception is a smart, engaging, and thoughtful film that people need to see to believe.

I give Inception a 9/10.