Blockbuster with brains

Steve Pratt looks at a blockbuster with brains.

THE new film from British film maker Christopher Nolan is that rarity – a blockbuster with brains.

While discussing Inception, star Leonardo DiCaprio uses words like existential and cerebral, which aren’t what we’ve come to expect from movies in the summer blockbuster season.

I say summer, but they start rolling out long before, this year with Iron Man 2 back in April.

Inception is different, marrying a brain-taxing narrative like Nolan’s Memento – whose story unfolded backwards – with the big bang action sequences of the same director’s Batman adventure The Dark Knight.

The result is unlike anything the major studios usually release during the biggest moneyspinning months of the year. It’s a gamble on the part of Warner Bros to release it alongside the outbreak of sequels, reboots and remakes.

There are times that looking down the cinema listings resembles reading the football results – Iron Man 2, Sex And The City 2; Shrek 4, Cats And Dogs 2. Most are pale imitations of the originals – good ideas wearing thin.

We’ve already had the second Nanny McPhee film, the third in the Twilight Saga franchise and dance movie Step Up 3 (in 3D, of course) opens shortly, although beaten into cinemas by surprise British hit Streetdance 3D.

First among sequels, and the exception to the law of diminishing returns, is Toy Story 3 which, in common with every animated movie these days, is in 3D. This third adventure for Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the other toys will emerge as one of the best films of the year.

There’s no lack of the imagination, inventiveness or heart missing from other sequels seemingly made just to squeeze a few more bucks out of a franchise.

If film makers aren’t playing the numbers game, they’re going all retro with new versions of old favourites such as The Karate Kid (which, I’m almost ashamed to admit, I liked).

Or they’re reviving old TV series including The A-Team, although its lacklustre performance at the US box office indicates it should perhaps have remained on the small screen.

Film makers would argue that they’re only giving the audience what they want. And if these films didn’t take money, they’d stop making them, so audiences only have themselves to blame.

Every year, critics bemoan a summer of sequels and remakes, and every year the same cinematic fare is dished up. If Inception hits the jackpot, we can expect more of the same next summer.

It doesn’t always work. Disney’s Prince Of Persia, widely billed as “the next Pirates Of The Caribbean”, has had disappointing box office returns and hopes of creating a new franchise are doubtful.

Inception will certainly get people talking, if only to compare notes on what it’s all about.

DiCaprio plays a dream-raiser who steals secrets from people’s subconscious while they’re sleeping. Then he takes a job with a difference – to plant an idea in someone’s mind.

The action moves between four layers of unconsciousness, with filming in six countries on four continents, as DiCaprio’s heist team get inside people’s heads.

Around this story, Nolan weaves a series of breathtaking action sequences – a Paris street exploding in slow motion, hundreds of skyscrapers collapsing, fights in zero gravity, streets that fold in on themselves and a shootout in a snowbound HQ that wouldn’t be out of place in a James Bond thriller.

Writer-director Nolan has been developing the idea for the best part of a decade. “I’d always wanted to address dreams in film making and do something set in this world,” he explains.

“About ten years ago, I focused it on the idea of exploring a technology that might allow people to share dreams, and the uses and abuses of that. I came up with the idea of a heist film set in the world of dreams with the technology that would allow somebody to penetrate somebody else’s subconscious.”

DiCaprio admits it took several readings of the script to understand it, and talking to Nolan to get to grips with the project. “For me, a lot of preparation and understanding of what he was trying to accomplish was being able to sit down with him and understand his extremely ambitious concept of doing a highlyentertaining Hollywood film that’s existential and cerebral and surreal, that delves into various states of the unconscious,” says the actor.

Undoubtedly, the success of The Dark Knight, his second Batman movie, made it easier “to put to the studio something different”, says Nolan of getting the finance for Inception.

“At the same time, I have to acknowledge that I went to them nine years ago with the concept and they were definitely up for it. It was me who decided I wanted to wait.

“I thought I’m not ready to make this yet, I can’t finish the script. A lot of things came into play now, including me growing into the film in a way.”

■ Inception (12A) opens in cinemas on Friday.

SUMMER CINEMA COMING SOON

Toy Story 3: Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the toys return for more playtime. (July 19)

The Rebound: Mother-of-two Catherine Zeta Jones leaves her philandering hubby and falls for a younger man in a US comedy. (July 23)

The Karate Kid: Will Smith’s 12-year-old son, Jadem Smith, stars in the remake with Jackie Chan as his kung fu tutor. (July 28)

The A-Team: Liam Neeson heads the cast of the big-screen version of the Eighties TV series about an elite ex-army team. (July 28)

Cats and Dogs 2 The Revenge Of Kitty Galore: Blend of live action, puppetry and computer animation.

(Aug 4)

Knight And Day: Cameron Diaz gets caught up in secret agent Tom Cruise’s work. (Aug 6)

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Comedy adventure with sorcerer Nicolas Cage defending Manhattan from arch nemesis Alfred Molina. (Aug 11)

The Last Airbender: Fantasy adventure based on an animated TV series. Directed by Sixth Sense’s M Night Shyamalan. (Aug 13)

Marmaduke: Live-action film taken from the comic strip about a Great Dane. (Aug 18)

The Expendables: Sylvester Stallone directs and stars in an action thriller alongside Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke and Jet Li. (Aug 20)