Inception

So do you want to take a leap of faith, or become an old man, filled with regret, wanting to die alone? - Saito

Inception, one of the more hyped films of 2010 and one of the more mind-screwy ones. Christopher Nolan's *puts on sunglasses* dream project, and a very nice demonstration that people will enjoy movies that make you think.

Thoughts

Dream hacking is a very neat idea, and damned if I wasn't hyped to see this movie; further damned if I didn't love it to death. Indeed, coming out of the theater, my only real complaint was that the movie wasn't longer; I think there's quite a bit of potential to be had with the concept of dream hacking, and seeing Inception as a live-action TV series might be really interesting. I really don't have any major complaints with this movie, and I really hope Hollywood makes more movies of this caliber (though please, no sequels).

I do think the movie could've used a little better female presence, though. Sure, I guess we expect high-stakes crime to be done by men; in fact, I prefer a predominantly male cast here for this very reason, but even with the female characters we do have...

• Mal kind of gets annoying. I do sympathize a bit with her and understand how constant dream hacking would've messed her up as much as it did, but for the entire movie, she essentially serves as a useless antagonist that complicates Dom's life for a bit of cheap drama.
• Ariadne is extremely wasted potential. She's the architect, and a complete natural at that - awesome. But her role in the movie is really kind of passive, since the architect doesn't do much besides construct the actual dream worlds (hence the action is still kinda left to male characters only). Which really sucks, since I find Ellen Page really quite attractive and I would've liked to see her doing more interesting stuff. But hey, at least she doesn't get romantically involved with Dom. I would've punched someone if that happened.

Oh well. And too bad about Saito, too, even though he's a guy. Would've loved to see him doing badass stuff, just as with Ariadne. Ken Watanabe fits the role so well.