Inception Blu-Ray Review

After seven viewings of the film, my thoughts are still the same. Original, ambitious, imaginative and mind blowing, Inception is not only the film that we as moviegoers have been waiting for, but it’s the film that we as moviegoers deserve. Inception manages to provide us with a movie that is by far the best movie of 2010 thus far and will probably still be the best movie of the year come the end of the year.

Inception is an astonishing achievement in filmmaking. It’s inventive and creative to a degree that I’ve never before seen in film. Director Christopher Nolan has outdone himself, forget The Dark Knight, this is his masterpiece, with Inception he has truly crafted a work of art.

From the extravagant set pieces and enthralling action sequences to the captivating visuals and top notch acting, everything about Inception screams impeccable. Inception isn’t just a film that meets our expectations, it transcends them and in every way possible. It’s a brilliant tour de force and it is director Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus.

While it’s best to go into the film not knowing anything, providing a small summary won’t hurt. Don Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an expert thief. He’s not a thief in the normal sense of the word, instead he’s a subconscious thief. He specializes in extracting and stealing secrets from the subconscious while the person is dreaming. When tragedy strikes and Cobb’s life is torn apart he is forced to go on the run as an international fugitive.

Click here to continue reading our theatrical review of Inception.

Here is where I break the bad news to you. The special features on the Blu-Ray of Inception are a a major let down, in fact, in most ways, they’re an embarrassment to the film. Don’t get me wrong, the audio/video are great but let’s be real, why are most of us buying Inception on Blu-Ray? For the special features. I was very excited to be treated to hours of behind the scenes footage, showing us how this incredible film came together. Unfortunately, the offerings in terms of special features are pretty crummy and they absolutely do not do the film justice. A film like this needs and deserves a Blu-Ray with hours of special features. Here’s hoping to a special edition somewhere down the road.

That being said, the special features here include the following.

So let’s see what we really have here. Right off the bat you can disregard the trailers and TV spots, promotional art archive, conceptual art gallery and Project Somnacin, it’s all filler. What does this leave us with?

We have Inception: The Cobol Job, which is a motion comic that serves as a prequel to the film. It’s about 15 minutes and I suppose it’s worth viewing once, although it’s nothing special.

Dreams: Cinema of the Subconscious is a 45 minute documentary that really has nothing to do with the film, aside from being hosted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It talks about dreams and the subconscious and while it may be interesting, I’d much rather have seen a documentary on the making of the film in its place.

We do also get the soundtrack but it’s odd, you can choose to play a track but when you do, the track plays over a black screen, no visuals appear and it makes it kind of awkward. What are we supposed to do? Just sit and stare at a black screen for 6 minutes? Why they wouldn’t provide visuals to accompany the music is beyond me but oh well.

Lastly we get Extraction Mode, the only behind the scenes feature, and at 45 minutes, it is criminally short. You can watch it with the film (the film will stop at opportune moments and play a scene from the feature) or just use the play all feature and watch it as its own documentary, without watching the film. Either way, its only 45 minutes and while what we have here is good, it’s not nearly enough. We do get to see how they constructed a number of scenes but honestly, this film easily could have had 3-4 hours of making of documentaries and I would have happily watched them all.

Luckily, things pick up when we get to the audio/video side of the Blu-Ray. The audio here is powerful and even overwhelming at time. Hans Zimmer’s flawless score sounds phenomenal. Bass is thunderous and sound effects like gunfire and explosions are placed perfectly. Dialogue never takes a hit and surrounds are used effectively. Immersive and engaging, this is one of the year’s best audio tracks. I think it’s safe to say this is demo-worthy material here.

The video is just as good, providing a nicely detailed and crisp transfer. Textures pop while fleshtones look very accurate. All the colours look bold and great and Wally Pfister’s jaw dropping cinematography translates over beautifully. The clarity is great and all the special effects look flawless. Contrast is more or less perfect and like with the audio, this is demo worthy material.

It’s really too bad that they dropped the ball on the special features, if they hadn’t this could have been one of the year’s best Blu-Rays. That being said, it’s still absolutely worth the purchase. Inception is one of the best films of the year and it looks simply stunning on Blu-Ray. This is a must buy.