The Resilient Parasite: How Inception has changed the way movies are told and the way you watch movies

Inception is a rare gem in the cinema world, delivering high-stakes, heart-pounding action, while providing the intellectually brave with numerous themes and ideas to provoke all kinds of discussions, ie. philosophical, psychological, and metaphorical.

SPOILER ALERT!

Now not every member of the audience leaves the theatre after seeing Inception and begins to question her own reality, or her percieved reality for that matter, but the very nature of the themes and "ideas" Inception explores creates a greater potential for this level of thought process to occur. Upon leaving the theatre, most attendees have one question on their mind, "Was he dreaming or not at the end?" and many will give a simple yes/no answer based on a handful of hints from the film. A few viewers will go back and watch the film a couple more times, see new clues, and ask themselves, "Was he dreaming at other points of the film though he appears as if he's awake?" Even fewer viewers will begin to ask themselves, "Where did the idea that calls into question Cobb's reality come from," and it's this kind of thinking that has crossed into the threshold of meta-thinking, whether the viewer realizes it or not.

Upon entering into this realm of thinking, one begins to have a relationship with films previously unexplored. A relationship in which the viewer is both absorbed into the imaginary world on the screen but is also aware of the process of percieving the film. If one tries to delve even deeper, she becomes aware of her own awareness, and is realizes that she is both a participant and a audience to the act ideas being created and shared, in this case, the process is achieved through the art of film.

This opens the moviegoer up to an abundance of ways to watch and analyze a film, since she is now aware that more is occuring when she watches a film than her just losing herself in the imaginary world. She now understands that ideas are being placed in her mind, both intentionally on circumstantially, and that breaking the film and its ideas down in different ways, be they metaphorical, philosophical, mythical, psychological, etc., can discern different information and reactions from the same film.

What makes Inception truly brilliant is its awareness of itself. The ideas discussed and explored in the film, that of placing an idea into someone's mind, are exactly what's going on in the audience member's mind. Inception, in explaining the ability for a person to create an idea in someone else's mind, has done just that in explaining that; and that Christopher Nolan is able to pull this off in such a fun and thrilling way is a rarity in the film world. Not every film is going to provoke such thought from an individual, and it is rare for any blockbuster thriller to do as Christopher Nolan's Inception has done.

Many more reviews of Inception are on their way, so come back soon!