Release date: 16 July
The cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard.
The pitch: All we know officially is Warner Brothers’ official description – “A contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind.” Net rumours say the plot revolves around DiCaprio’s attempts to defraud a secretive corporate giant.
The strapline: Your Mind Is The Scene Of The Crime.
The buzz: British director Christopher Nolan hasn’t really put a foot wrong since the acclaimed Memento hit cinema screens back in 2000. It was 2008’s The Dark Knight that really put him on the map though, a complex juggernaut of a blockbuster that critics adored and audiences flocked to. Warner has given him complete creative freedom for this follow-up (plus a rumoured $250m), and precious little about it has yet been revealed. Early rumours had it that tit would be a secret sequel to The Dark Knight, but subsequent evidence points to a cross between The Matrix and Michael Clayton. After a scrap of a teaser trailer, this second promo has now been revealed.
Reasons this could be good: Nolan has shown himself not only to be an expert director of both action setpieces and actors, but a fiendishly prodigious plotter and screenwriter. The prospect of a convoluted sci-fi thriller from the pen that wrote Memento and The Prestige is mouthwatering. If The Matrix was Philosophy GCSE, then this could be a degree in PPE from Oxford. A smartly-dressed cast made up of Hollywood’s bright young things only adds to the attraction.
Reasons this could be bad: Neither DiCaprio nor Gordon-Levitt have yet earned the gravity of actors like the Dark Knight’s Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, and even with a beard Leo still looks like a grumpy teenager. The history of the futuristic sci-fi thriller is littered with the corpses of terrible, terrible films, and some of them are briefly resurrected in this trailer. Is no-one else reminded of Virtuosity, eXistenZ, or even Strange Days? Finally, directors who are left to pursue their artistic vision without any impediment often run aground. I’m looking at you, George Lucas.
We think: We could not be more excited about Inception. In an age where most big budget movies are shoddy remakes of 80s films and TV programmes, it’s a relief that filmmakers like Nolan and fellow Brit Paul Greengrass are still given colossal budgets to challenge audiences’ minds. It’s difficult to shake some of the imagery in this trailer from your head once you’ve seen it – the level of the water in the glass at 00:54, the train crashing through the cars at 00:42, the “folding over” city at 00:20, – and that is the mark of a visionary director at work. Best of all, we still have no idea what it’s about. Do our anticipation ratings go to 6?
Music: Sounds like the film’s actual OST.That distorted bass sound is a great leitmotif, isn’t it?
Did you spot?: The bit players! The back of Cillian Murphy’s head at 00:49, Ken Watanabe at 00:55, Gordon-Levitt’s Brick co-star Lukas Haas at 00:57… but no sign of Michael Caine, though.
Odds of you seeing it: When summer comes around, it’s either this or Shrek Forever After. You’re seeing this.
