Some of you seem to have enjoyed my randomness a while back, so here’s something random, though possibly somewhat predictable:

I adore the movie Inception.

Absolutely adore it.

I haven’t felt this excited about a movie since The Matrix came along. Whoever coined the phrase “everything has already been done” was ignoring the fact that wonderment and fresh ideas could still originate from what we know.

The Matrix took a boatload of old ideas and still managed to come across as if nobody had ever so much as imagined the concept they laid out in the film. I mean, machines rising up against their creators? That’s The Terminator isn’t it? As for the alternate reality aspect of it, seems to me we’ve seen every permutation of an alternate reality from The Wizard of Oz to Lord of the Rings.

So yes, “it’s all been done before.” They just mashed together two well-known concepts and decided to make a movie out of it.

But if the quality of a movie or even an idea, doesn’t depend on whether or not it’s been done in the past, it’s the story that matters.

And as with any good movie, with Inception, story is the undisputed king.

And really, everything takes a backseat to the story in this film.

EVERYTHING.

You can talk to me about how cool the effects were, you can cheer at the filmmakers’ choice to cast DiCaprio in it and how great he turned out for the role, you can rave about the score or the lighting, but make no mistake, in the end, it was the story that took it all.

The brilliant execution of everything surrounding the story was what made it shine. If you compare all the elements of Inception like the score, the acting, the lighting, and so on, to a knight’s armor, then the goal is to keep the armor from showing any cracks or vulnerabilities…

So long as you don’t forget that the armor is only there to protect the true essence of what’s actually being marveled at.

You don’t marvel at the armor.

You marvel at the knight.

The armor becomes almost irrelevant. It’s just a shell to help make him appear more fierce than he would without it.

And just the same, despite being well shielded by a terrific score, amazing visual effects, great acting and beautiful cinematography, it’s the story that we marvel at.

Now, I’ve heard a lot of people just blurt out how much of a trip the film was. “Wow, dude, trippy movie!”

To me, that’s almost an insulting oversimplification.

Yes, without giving anything away, there are a lot of elements to the story that are mind-bending and out of this world. But to reduce such brilliance to a “trippy movie” likens it to any other forgettable experience.

And that’s just not right.

Because despite having seen this film all the way back on July 16th, on the very day it came out, it still haunts me. I haven’t seen it since but I think I’ll be going again soon. In the meantime though, I believe it’s hands down, HANDS DOWN, the best film of 2010.

But I’m gonna go much further and say that I think Inception will, or at least should go down as one of the greatest films of all time. It nailed the story every step of the way. No surprise twists and turns or weirdness just for the sake of itself. Just brilliant cinema throughout.

Please, don’t turn it into a franchise. Never make a sequel to it. Or a prequel. Or a TV show. One of the all-time movie greats deserves better than that.

I can only hope that someday I can produce something with as much storytelling brilliance as Inception managed to do.