(Actually it was 2 o'clock Thursday morning but, hey!)

I gotta be honest.  When I first saw the trailer for Inception I thought, "Meh."  I figured it was like The Matrix vs Dreamscape.  (Yes, I said Dreamscape!  Is that on Blu yet?)^[2]  I was never really in a hurry to see it.  Don't go to the movies much these days, anyway.  Sometimes I think it's just cheaper to wait for the disc.  Even when the reviews started coming in I wasn't all that interested.  Then as the Blu-ray release date neared (as well as some hype from the WarnerBlu Crew) I decided it might be in my best interests to check it out.  I even went so far as to post on my FB page for friends not to give away the ending for me.

A wise choice on my part.  Even if I do say so myself.

From the beginning of the movie I had to keep my thoughts from wandering to other movies.  (Opening scene: Leonard DiCaprio on The Beach.)  Once the movie got going my suspension of disbelief^[1] was right at home.

I was in a complete media blackout as far as this movie was concerned.  I knew almost nothing about it.  That was kinda cool.  Other than the commercials that I had seen I was unaware.  The movie was mostly a surprise.  For those of you that are in the same spot I was here's my take on the movie:  

    There exists, in what I think is the near future, the technology to allow folks to enter the dreams of others.  Some use this technology to do bad things (fooling folks into giving up information and such) and some that do good things with this technology (train folks to "fight off" the bad people.)  Cobb (DiCaprio) is the former.  Having failed on his last job he now finds himself working for the guy he was trying to rip off.  The problem is the guy he's working for now wants him, instead of taking something, to leave something.  He is to plant an idea.  This is called "Inception."

The idea of inception is considered impossible.  The example given in the movie: If I tell you not to think about elephants, what are you thinking of?  Elephants.  That's what makes it so difficult.  If the person knows it's not their idea it won't work.  So with the promise of seeing his children again Cobb sets about gathering a crew and getting to it.

The special effects were incredibly well done.  Super slo-mo looks even better in HD.  The hallway fight scene kicked ass.  If only the ability to film zero-G like this existed in 1979...ALIEN would've had really cool airlock scene.  Another scene I realy like is when Cobb is explaining things to his new recruit Ariadne (Ellen Page) how things work.  Visually stunning.

Bonus Features...Extras

I watched Dreams: Cinema of the Subconscious and Inception: The Cobol Job.  Dreams was cool to watch and had the feel of something you'd see on The Discovery Channel.  It had a ton of information about dreams and how they affect us, and how we affect them.  The Cobol Job is part of the backstory leading up to the movie.  Send in the Snap Tag on the front of the movie and you get the next part of the backstory.

For some reason I can't get my Blu-ray player to go online so I haven't watched the BD Live stuff yet.Since I didn't feel like sitting through the movie again just yet I have decided to watch the Extraction Mode at a later date.  It sounds to me a lot like Maximum Movie Mode.

Yeah, there are things I've left out: the wife, the multiple layers of dreams;  I don't want to give away too much.  I absolutely recommend this movie.  It won't necessarily keep you guessing, but it will keep you interested.

¹  The willingness to overlook the unbelievability of something.  Kinda like when you're friend tells you the movie you're watching is stupid because trucks can't turn into robots.  He's just unwilling to suspend his disbelief and enjoy the movie.  He's actually kind of a jerk, isn't he?
²  I just found ot it is...the link is below.