This Film Is Great, But Only In Some People's Dreams

Rating: 7/10 (19 January 2013)

Well, I didn't think it lived up to all the hype, but nonetheless it was still a pretty good film. I don't think the story came out quite the way Nolan had hoped, after working on it for over a decade. In my view the story is basically a combination of Vanilla Sky meets The Matrix, but really it ends up being less meaningful than both (A combination of the mystical waking dream and the matrix of consciousness). This is Nolan's version of Edgar Allan Poe's A Dream Within A Dream, or the like. However I don't think the film really comes across this way as well as it should, or especially, the way it was meant to.
Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now, Thus much let me avow- You are not wrong, who deem that my days have been a dream; Yet if hope has flown away in a night, or in a day, In a vision, or in none, Is it therefore the less gone? All that we see or seem Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar Of a surf-tormented shore, And I hold within my hand Grains of the golden sand- How few! yet how they creep Through my fingers to the deep, While I weep- while I weep! O God! Can I not grasp Them with a tighter clasp? O God! Can I not save One from the pitiless wave? Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream?
The film overall feels forced and clunky, it lacks any kind of good rhythm. For me to see this film ranked in the top 15 films ever made according to the IMDb voters only goes to prove one thing; The IMDb top 250 list is good for nothing at all but a laugh.
I thought Inception was pretty good. However pretty good is stretching it as far as I would ever go. This film is a long long way from great.
7/10