I was a bit late seeing this film, well over a year late to be honest. So, after seeing the success of this film at the Oscars and hearing great reviews from friends and professional critics alike, I was expecting a masterpiece. But this was not the case. Inception let me down on multiple levels for many reasons which ill outline shortly. Before I go any further I would like to say that Inception is a very good film, with some great action shots and impressive special effects. Also the acting was impeccable with a great role played Leonardo DiCaprio. So then why did this film let me down.
Firstly, I was expecting more than just an action film. I was hoping that Inception would be able to cleverly use the action sequences to compliment the imaginative plot. However this was not the case. The plot actually acted as a medium for the action and thus the impressive narrative was hidden behind a wall of special effects. This in turn, transformed Inception into ‘The day after tomorrow’ with much better acting, no offence to Dennis Quaid. The concept of a dream within a dream was very interesting and was expertly carried out from start to end. The only problem I had with this was the diversity of shot locations used to denote the different levels of a dream. I felt that the director, Christopher Nolan, was not able to mark the different dream levels more subtlety and this is why such contrasting locations were used. Also at one point, on the snow-covered mountain, the film became almost James Bond like with the central characters being pursued by a gang of identical henchmen on snowmobile’s.
I personally rate Nolan highly as a director. His success with the rebranding of the batman franchise along with the highly impressive ‘The Prestige’ are powerful accolades which support his status as a top director. However after watching Inception I began to question the ‘greatness’ of Christopher Nolan. It was quiet clear to me that Inception is Nolan’s Matrix. By this I mean that Inception has a large amount of borrowed ideology and bares a strong resemblance to ‘The Matrix’. I am not insinuating that Nolan copied the matrix. The point that I am making is that this is Nolan’s attempt at creating a film as mind-blowing as The Matrix. And prehaps this is why I am disappointed with Inception. Although the ideas of inception are interesting and encourage some thought, they are not as captivating or perspective altering as The Matrix.
To conclude, Inception is an interesting film which is quiet enjoyable to watch, with very impressive visuals and great acting. The plot and the concept is fascinating but the overall film does not deliver or live up to its full potential.
KILO 
9 responses to “Inception”
I totally agree with you. I saw it in theatres and I thought I was the only one on the planet who didn’t like it!
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Agreed with all you had to say here. I think a lot of people liked it the second time around and was one of those movies where some people needed to see it twice!
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Props for making up your own mind. One doesn’t have to like everything. I appreciated this film more on the second viewing although I admit I was thrilled upon the first. After the second time around I had a meta-film experience where I thought that instead of only a narrative, it was a film about a narrative. Perhaps I was over-thinking the writing process, or perhaps I was just way too into Mike Carrey’s The Unwritten.
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I have to agree with your post and the first lady’s comment as well. It would have been better if the dream at each level had different attackers than actual people. That would have created a more suspenseful film for sure. And so many people that I watched it with were lost when it came to the ending where the different levels are representing extended lengths of time. That was definitely not screen-played properly. They tried, but the limitations on technology and the time to allow the story to develop within each level would have had to start at the very beginning of the film. That is probably how I would have preferred it – no understanding of what happened until the very end of the film.
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I personally think that the film was too straight forward and can’t really understand how people were confused. But I think it was too long and repetitive so maybe people’s brains switched off during the film.
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Yeah. I love Christopher Nolan (my friends will testify my month long obsession with ‘The Prestige’) but this film lacked heart. It felt like it had been constructed mathmatically (rather than artistically) in a kind of condescending attempt to be clever. I don’t know, it’s put me off Nolan and now I’m really worried about the Dark Knight Rises (although, everytime I watch the trailer I feel better because I’m freaking out about how awesome it looks!)
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Yes, It definitely resembles a painting by numbers job alright. But I wouldn’t write off Nolan yet. Inception was created to win awards and thats exactly what it did, kinda like The Artist really. But Yes The Dark Knight Rises looks very impressive, can’t wait for it either!!
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I felt like a heretic for thinking the same thing about the movie. I loved the effects, the concept was fascinating, but it just never seemed to work. I’m glad I’m not the only one who didn’t think it was genius.
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Yeah I think people felt like they had to love Inception regardless of how good it was. But yeah I’m also glad to see that someone shares my viewpoint in regard to this film.
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