Dream On

Inception

There are big budget Hollywood movies that don’t work for me and I half expect them not to and then there are those that let me down completely. Inception falls somewhere in between.

This film didn’t resonate with me at all and I felt like there was a fundamental misstep in creating a film with only one character I cared about who has a mission I couldn’t care less about. Something about stopping a corporation from global monopoly (Hollywood’s current bogeymen) or something is quickly glossed over in the films first twenty minutes and then we’re off on a crazy, twisty, slightly boring at times, journey through everyone’s (and possibly just one’s) dreamscape!

Now look, before any of you super fans get your panties in a bunch let me say this: I get it. I do. I get the larger theme of questioning reality (which isn’t new as I’m sure you know – Existenz, The Matrix, Vanilla Sky, Waking Life have all tread on this territory). Do we make up our own reality? Is everybody we meet just a projection of our own psyche? Sure, in some sense everybody we meet and everything we know is limited to our own perception of some kind of phenomena the reality of which we can never be sure of. I get that. I don’t care. What I do care about is a good film. Inception wasn’t one. It wasn’t a bad one, just one I didn’t particularly find as compelling as the special effects seem to be asking me to.

All of that being said, I am happy to sit through a film that takes some chances and fails, even if only slightly, than sit through another by-the-numbers, Hollywood blockbuster that succeeds on all levels of triteness and cliché and makes a hundred million clams opening weekend. So far this movie seems to be a little bit polarizing. I’ve talked to number of folks who think Inception is the second coming of Christ and I’ve spoken with a marginally smaller number of people who feel exactly as I do. Would I recommend it? Yes - especially if you’re a sci-fi cat. Do I like to ask myself questions? No. In fact I hate it so I’ll try to never do that again. Sorry.