Review of Inception (2010) by Wisaaka — 19 Aug 2010

Inception... where do I begin? Well, perhaps my expectations were a bit high after one of my film snob friends called it "the first truly important film of the century." It's moderately entertaining, but calling it anything more than a decent movie is a bit of a stretch. People call it original, but it's like a dreamworld version of the Matrix (which used ideas that had already been around a while, but at least made it exciting). However, a dreamworld should be so much more than just a sterile, realistic environment. My thoughts about how bland the dreams are here was magnified after watching the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. That's a movie that showed true imagination and creativity.

I do enjoy other Nolan films (i.e. Memento, TDK), but I felt no thrills here. Part of the problem is that there is no real consequence of failure. Sure, you may be stuck in "limbo", but it's just another level of dream and you may not be able to escape, but at least you aren't dead.

The snow level was particularly irritating as it just seemed like it was pulled straight out of a modern shooter game. It was very reminiscent of a level of Call of Duty: MW2.

It's also amusing to me that the antagonist is named Mal, which means "bad". Really, we couldn't have come up with a better name to call our villain than "bad"? It was by no means horrible, but really, I don't see why it's called original, or amazing when it's merely entertaining. It's an average movie with an above average effects budget.