Now Here’s An Idea
By now, you’ve certainly heard of Inception if not seen it. I won’t attempt to explain the story as that would like trying to explain the Matrix Trilogy — it’s not an easy nor brief task to undertake, and frankly, why risk spoiling it for anyone? The basic idea presented in Inception is that technology now allows humans to share dreams (as long as they are hooked into this technology). Cobb, played by DiCaprio, is a master thief. He is hired for corporate espionage, he’s able to infiltrate the minds of targets and steal information. This is highly illegal and his actions in this arena have put him on the wrong side of the law. He’s only chance at getting a pardon and going home is to complete a very difficult task — implant an idea in someone’s head rather than stealing one. To do this, he will require a cunning plan and lots of help.
The two and a half hour movie sees Cobb meeting up with old and new acquaintances and getting them on board for this difficult project. The team has a limited time — roughly ten real hours (which can be an eternity in dreams) to complete the job. It’s a perilous endeavor, one that will treat the viewer to an incredible amount of drama, action, and suspense, even a little bit of well placed humor, too. That’s honestly about as specific as I want to get about the story because if you haven’t seen the movie for yourself, it’s absolutely one you don’t want to get spoiled for you.
When I left the theater earlier this year having watched Inception I was thoroughly impressed. Inception is one of those movies that you will think about for several days after seeing it, thinking not only about the ending, but also the characters, the ideas, even the music which was composed by Hans Zimmer. Better still, for as captivating as Inception is, and even though its full of great plot twists and surprises, it’s able to maintain a high replay value. The premise of Inception is so interesting and so well executed that it demands multiple viewings to fully grasp and appreciate.
Dreaming In HD
The Inception Blu-ray release is outstanding. You just gotta love it when a AAA movie gets the proper treatment on the home release and that’s exactly what Warner has done here. Expect a pristine image with zero technical issues that makes for one of the smoothest HD experiences that I have ever seen. The images are wonderfully crisp and vibrant and leave nothing to be desired. I was as impressed with the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track; from Zimmer’s powerful instrumental score to the dialogue, every note comes through clearly and impressively.
Warner didn’t hold back on extra features either. The Blu-ray movie disc contains an Extraction Mode. When you enable Extraction Mode, at about thirteen points during the movie, a mini-feature will kick in that gives you more detail on the particular scene you are watching. These mini-features add another forty-four minutes to the total runtime and give a lot of great information about the process of making Inception. This is done via interviews with Christopher Nolan and lead star Leonardo DiCaprio as well as still images and production footage. Also to note, you can either watch the movie and just be surprised when these mini-features kick in, or you can skip right to them if you choose to.
This disc also contains, via BDLive, Project Somnacin: Confidential Files, which does require a login to access. Within this feature you will see ‘highly secure files’ related to the dream sharing technology featured in the movie.
The second Blu-ray in this release contains more extra features, all of which are in HD. These include:
-Behind The Story: Dreams: Cinema Of The Subconscious (44.5m, HD) – Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Arthur) and real scientists talk about the latest research in dreams and how they are essentially their own world of sorts.
-Behind The Story: Inception: The COBOL Job (14.5m, HD) – A motion comic, basically, that gives viewers some back story to the events leading up to the start of the movie. This is nicely animated and looks just like a comic book. There are some snippets from the soundtrack that play and some effects, but no voiceovers.
-Promotional Videos – Three movie trailers in HD totaling 4.5 minutes and thirteen TV spots in HD totaling 11.5 minutes.
-Soundtrack In 5.1 – The entire soundtrack is available for your listening pleasure. When you select a track, the screen turns black while it plays.
-Concept Art Gallery – Thirty-one still images of beautifully sketched and colored concept art from different moments in the story.
-Promo Art Archive – Twelve different movie posters, basically.
Finally, the third disc contains the full movie on DVD and a digital copy, too. To the summary…