Inception [DVD] [2010]

Whoever is reading this knows what Inception is and is probably wanting to buy the film, if they want to read a review then best go to Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB, but I'm here to tell you about "Inception: Limited Edition - Triple Play (Blu-ray & DVD & Digital Copy)".

It comes in a plastic case covering the metal briefcase that is bigger than the briefcase it's self obviously. The briefcase however is lighter than one would expect. Carved into the front is the title of the film and then under that is the clip which you undo to open the briefcase. In front of you after opening it is the Blu-ray box with a holographic slipcase. On the other side is the "Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous (PASIV) Device Instruction Manual MV-235A" which tells you how the fictional PASIV Device used in the film works, it's a nice tie-in book. If you take that out then under the book are five art cards that are about the size of a postcard. Two are posters from the film and the other three are stills from the film. Above that is a replica of Cobb's Totem as seen in the film. Underneath it says "INCEPTION" carved into the Totem. Next to the space where the Totem rests in the box are the numbers "528 491", a reference to the film of course. All of the contents are in a hard foam.

If you open up the Blu-Ray box you will see three discs. Two Blu-Rays and one DVD. There is a leaflet inside instructing how to get your version of the Inception Digital Copy. As with most Digital Copies they have an expiry date (05/12/2011, in a years time yesterday). The first disc (Blu-Ray) is disc 1 of 2. It is in black and white and has a birds eye view of a city but with "Inception" written in as if a building itself. The second disc is in colour and shows the Totem spinning on it's side. The third disc (DVD) is black and white too with nice relevent patterns on it.

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Special Features (as copied from the back of the box):

Extraction Mode - Infiltrate the Movie's Imaginative Landscape to Learn How Christopher Nolan, Leonardo DeCaprio and the Cast and Crew Designed and Achieved the Film's Signature Moments

Dreams: Cinema of the Subconscious -Can the Dream World Be a Fully Functional Parallel Reality? Joeseph Gordon-Levitt and the Leading Scientists Take You to the Cutting Edge of Dream Research

Inception: The Cobol Job - Comic Prologue in Full Animation and Motion: See the Events That Led to the Beginning of the Movie.

5.1 Soundtrack Selections From Hans Zimmer's Versatile Score.

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Main Feature
1080p High Definition (DVD standard definition for the third disc) 16x9 2.4:1 DTS-HD Master Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital: Castilian Spanish 5.1, English 5.1 Audio Descriptive Service.

Subtitles
English, Castilian Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish

Special Features
May not be in High Definition. Audio & subtitles may vary.

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Final note for people who don't own Blu-Ray players but are buying this boxset for the collector's items: the special features are on the second Blu-ray disc. The DVD disc contains just the film, no special features. So if you are a collector who wants the items as well as special features then I recommend buying this and the 2-Disc DVD edition.

Once in a while, a film comes along that not only takes the cinematic world by storm, but also rewrites the rules of movie making altogether. Christopher Nolan's latest project, Inception, is one such achievement. Nolan had previously directed the masterpiece, The Dark Knight. That film gave us a whole new look into what a Batman film could be like. But with Inception, he creates something so new; so fresh and original that you wonder if even he fully understood it.

Inception is a film about dreams. Dreams are complex, surreal, and full of mystery; all traits that this film also exhibits. In Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio plays an agent who penetrates people's dreams. He is after their secrets, and the dream state is when people have their mental guard down the most. The problem is that anything can happen in a dream. We've all had dreams so we know this. This movie introduces the notion of what it would be like if other people were actually allowed in our dreams. Using the best special effects available, the production team has done their absolute best to portray dreams in a way that makes sense to the viewer, but still comes off as fantastic and incredible.

I should warn you: the plot is not easy to follow. One critic who reviewed the movie wondered if it was too smart for general audiences to grasp. Personally, I found that regardless of how complex the storyline got, it pulled off the miracle of not seeming overwrought or unmanageable. This is clearly the trait of a director who has mastered his craft. However, a captain is only as good as his crew. The cast of this film seemed quite committed to the job at hand, and much of the supporting cast (which includes such talented actors and actresses as Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, and Marion Cotillard) did just as great a job as DiCaprio. All this just goes to show how every little detail was treated with equal care and how flawless the whole production is.

Some film buffs will argue that classics ceased to to be made years ago. I certainly don't agree with them, and this film is proof. It also proves that even the biggest summer blockbusters can be intelligent and artistic.

The image quality in parts of the film is so bad that at first I believed I had a faulty monitor. The problem seems to be actually with the DVD which has been mastered so poorly that you can see pixelation and stair stepping in the movie - not occasionally, but right through out the film. The problem is not very noticeable on a small monitor, but on a good quality widescreen monitor you can easily tell something is wrong.

The story and the drama is actually very good - the acting is excellent and the music by Hans Zimmer is first rate. The special effects are stunning: this was definitely a big screen movie, and its a shame that in transferring it to DVD the film makers have produced a third rate product.

This is the two disc edition and the extra features are fairly pointless. It has no director commentary or anything else to make the second disc worthwhile. The cartoon backstory and the promotional art gallery ARE interesting but the cartoon is only a storyboard (no moving action) and the art gallery is over in a few minutes.

I hope at some stage that Warner Home Video bring out a DVD of a quality that this movie deserves.