disappointing, overrated...and yet excellent

Rating: 9/10 (27 July 2010)

Inception (2010)
After watching Inception I was disappointed and felt the film was overrated, but I still think its very good. Let me explain. Being a fan of Christopher Nolan I was expecting a lot to begin with, after hearing a lot of very good things I expected even more, maybe I expected too much in retrospect. The film wasn't as good as I had hoped, but it still was very entertaining and well written, directed, and so on.
In my opinion Nolan is better at writing and directing dramas than action films. The Prestige and Memento I feel are his two best films and both were drama/ thrillers. Batman Begins and the Dark Knight (which I do like) were both action films, but I think they had to be. Inception on the other hand I think would have been better as a drama/thriller rather than an action. The story is really cool and even though the action scenes are interesting and fun and well choreographed I think it could have gone without it. The action scenes gave the film too much of Matrix like feel. I think the story was enough to carry the film, and it would have been overall a better film, not just a popular one. It was a good story but wasn't the greatest story telling, seems like he tried to hard to make it popular with the action, instead of getting deeper into the story itself and the characters.
With that aside, I do want to say that the writing and directing were really good, and I think Nolan deserves a lot of credit and respect for the film. It was a film that many writers and directors I think would have made really confusing and had twists at the end that were hard to follow. Inception was very straight forward and though it was intricate it was easy to follow and well done. The story was obviously very thought out and worked on and really was fantastic.
Another aspect that made me excited for the film was Leonardo Dicaprio, I'm a big fan of his acting and was hoping for a great performance. Honestly, it's not a great performance for him, it is good, but for him it's nothing special. I think most of the other actors had better performances, I don't think they necessarily out acted Dicaprio but they definitely came close to him. Ellen Page was great, Joseph Gordon-Levitt surprised me and did very good, Michael Caine was fantastic as usual though he had a small part, and Ken Watanabe also gave a amazing performance. Cillian Murphy, However, gave the best acting in the film, and the best acting of his carrier so far.
The special effects were cool. They were very strange and creative and depending on the rest of the year could get the film a visual effects Oscar nomination. The film also could take nominations for supporting actor, writing, cinematography, editing, and picture (given that there are ten nominations.) Though I don't think it will win any, probably has the best chance with editing.
The film is very popular and highly rated and I'm sure most people will love the film. Just don't expect too much, or it'll let you down.
9/10