Inception is a poor representation of the dream world - Look elsewhere, this one is too literal and unimaginative.

Rating: 1/10 (31 October 2010)

UNDERWHELMING, LITERAL AND PRETENTIOUS.. These 3 words pretty much summed up the whole of Inception. Why populate the dream world with the same landscape and tone as the real world? Why the dreamers and their subconscious armed with real-world accessories and firearms? Why must the travel initiated with the actor's pretend sleep? Why does the levels are differentiated with only different decor? (Except the LIMBO realm)
WHERE IS THE IMAGINATION? Nolan has the perfect opportunity to execute his wildest imaginations and he messed it up and served us mediocrity. Apparently, he only has the most literal interpretation of dreams. No quirky visual manifestation (mirror-world? top-down switched?), no mystical representation of the subconscious (shadows, shades, animals etc), No difference between dream levels (tones-darker?grayer?more grotesque?), No symbolic representative of weapons ( energy? aura's? light? dark? ). AND OF COURSE, the travel method!
NOLAN could've presented a more sophisticated facade. Maybe a dream room with vivid machines powered with mysterious matter. Or for mobility, more visible contraptions for head, neck or body. Then, the transition can be cued with portals, or one's self entering the target's body or....to be more fantastical; the reality bleeds or tears itself into an underworld which is the dream.
INSTEAD, what we've got is inferior chase and action set pieces. Save for the gimmicks of collapsing the landscape onto itself, making pathways, the movie's rather bland. It also features too many characters - the forgers, architects, point man, sedative-man, corporate-sponsor man.......you get it. IT SHOULD be anchored by one solid protagonist that's let say have a latent talent for some form of ability (dream-walker but is named with Latin words), his target and the source of his internal conflicts (family, lover, friend).
This movie fools layman into thinking that they're smart.IT is basically an inferior imitation of Michael Bay's summer blockbuster disguised as a thinking man's movie. IT'S ABOUT CORPORATE ESPIONAGE - Tell people that and it would be 100% true. CERTAINLY NOT travel between dream worlds....