13. Inception

Welcome to another film Leonardo DiCaprio did not win an Oscar for. I really enjoyed watching this film because the roles were well thought through and had specific characters in mind in production, which allowed it to become a success. An example of this is the lead role. Co-written by Nolan and Emma Thomas (who also produced the film), the main character Dom Cobb had been written to be performed by DiCaprio (Republic World, 2020). In this film we see his acting has aged well as he stars as the troubled Cobb, who has the uncommon gift of being able to enter people’s dreams and from their subconscious find out their secrets. While this skill has made him popular in corporate espionage circles, the cost to his personal life has been great. To redeem himself the main character must place an idea in someone’s mind, a task which seems impossible as a dangerous foe anticipates his every move.

Ranked at 13 Christopher Nolan shows off his talents for writing and directing in his second-high scoring film on the IMDb list. One of the reasons Inception (2010) has been so popular is it’s cast of talented stars: Michael Cain, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy. This film is particularly famous for its cliff hanger ending, leaving fans calling for a sequel.

While the film is amazing, it seems that meticulous planning and liaising with dream experts took place to make the idea a reality. However, Nolan and Thomas did not study the science of dreams when writing the script, Nolan told Collider (2010) “a lot of what I find you want to do with research is just confirming things you want to do.". Personally, I find this reckless, but everyone’s a critic. And Nolan is the one laughing, with his film grossing £837m.

I ranked this science fiction film 74 because of how well it was executed. Inception only used 500 visual effects (VFX) shots in the making of the 2h28m long film. Compared to 2,000 VFX in other blockbusters which use VFX (Wired, 2010). Nolan appears to prefer being practical when it comes to using VFX, as Batman used 620 shots. Instead to pull off scenes in Inception production used illusions, or real conditions to portray adverse events in the film. Due to the complex storyline, watch Inception twice, or thrice to really get to grips with what Nolan is trying to convey.

Judging Criteria

SCRIPTURAL INTEGRATION - 20 points: 11

STORY/SCREENPLAY - 10 points: 9

DIRECTOR - 10 points: 8

CINEMATOGRAPHY - 10 points: 8

EDITOR - 10 points: 6

PRODUCTION DESIGN - 10 points: 9

ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE or SCORE EFFECTIVENESS (if not original) - 10 points: 8

SOUND DESIGN - 10 points:7

ACTING - 10 points: 8

TOTAL SCORE 100 POINTS. : 74