Review of Inception (2010) by Diego T — 11 Jan 2014

When I was twelve, I thought Inception was the coolest movie around. Unfortunately, three years of chewing on it have really degraded its former standing as one of my all-time favorite movies. One of the biggest drawbacks to Inception is the incessant herd mentality that people have about it. "If you don't like it, you clearly didn't understand it." Fuck that shit, it's just not a very spectacular movie. It has good special effects, and an interesting feel to it, but that's really all it has going for it.

Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, a man who makes a living delving into other people's dreams. His team consists of dream architects, chemists, and some completely unnecessary people who seem to just be along for the ride. This is where the movie falls apart for me, as there is little to no character development for anyone else on Cobb's team. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is actually a great actor, is reduced to being a prop used only to spout off wordy exposition and explain the dream world. Tom Hardy, another truly amazing actor who proved himself with his performance as Bane, is given very little screen time and only a handful of lines.

There are a few other characters, like the chemist (played by Indian Seth Rogen) and a maze designer (played by Ellen Page), but they rarely go beyond being the token minority and the token woman. However, I do award this movie points for Cobb's subplot-- his wife, Mal, went into a dream that drove her insane. She came out believing that she was still in a dream, and that the only way to escape was to kill herself. This adds some depth to Cobb's character, and any scene with Marion Cotillard is quite good. Unfortunately, the movie just doesn't spend enough time on the other characters to be truly fulfilling.

What people usually note about Inception is the myriad of mind-bending special effects, set to a blaring soundtrack. One day, Inception might be remembered as the Evil Dead of its day, in the sense that it started a trend-- in this case, deafening bass notes during movie trailers. The effects, meanwhile, are pretty damn awesome, but although most people point to the world-bending scene in which buildings are folded over on top of each other, I found the best scene to be Gordon-Levitt's badassery in the hotel hallway. But there are some gaping plot holes here, for instance: If the zero-gravity was caused by the van flipping over, wouldn't that reverberate into the next level of the dream? That would send all the rest of Cobb's team floating up into outer space, as they were outdoors. Also, if the kick is just falling, wouldn't the van's numerous flips and rolls constitute a 'kick?'.

But really, the rabid Nolanites couldn't care less about plot inconsistencies. They came to watch dark, brooding characters do insane stunts, and they definitely got what they came for. Inception has a very dark tone to it, which I constantly enjoyed. It's not 'intelligent' like some would have you believe, it's barely even complex-- but it sets up a world in which epic stunts are possible and then delivers them in rapid succession.

Final Score for Inception: 6/10 stars. Mostly, I'm mad that this movie gets called 'groundbreaking' or 'unforgettable', when it's clearly neither of those things. It's a special effects extravaganza with very little character development, long-winded and expository dialogue, and a bit of a bloated running time. Be happy that I was willing to give it such a high score. Normally, special effects-reliant movies tend to get a far lower score from Tut's Tutillating Reviews (cough cough, Avatar).