Not as excellent as it might appear

Rating: 6/10 (18 July 2010)

Based on most reviews so far, it would appear that we indeed have an instant classic here, but it is not so. Here are a few reasons, which others probably are forgetting in the after-glow of seeing a more rare film...or simply this is a good indication that good films are dying out and anything a bit out of the ordinary is a "gem". Comparisons to Matrix are ludicrous, btw. Anyhow, a few of those points (and most of them can be related to some sloppy writing, I believe): - The plot is simpler than what it seems, and is helped along the way with introduction of simplistic rules such as, a 5 minute in reality is 1 hour in dream state 'on the first level' etc. (come on!) - The only driving motive of the main protagonist is none other but 'to return to my kids' (oh, how original...) - In these writers' world, the guys who perform the dirty deeds of the utmost sophistication (breaking in people's subconscious!) for the likewise dirty corporations, have the cutest kids on the block, and we are somehow to root for this guy in his struggle to get back to those kids. - In the same fashion, the whole plot rests on about a two sentence dialogue, whereby one corporate magnate persuades the main protagonist to get on with the inception mission, because their competitor would otherwise become very powerful. - There's a serious over-indulgence in action scenes (which, true, are executed very well). But the whole film clocking at 147 minutes is mostly due to these stretched action scenes, which don't bring much new. - The whole story becomes convoluted to the point of messy, where the story first evolves around the inception, then becomes survival, then becomes resolution of the main protagonist subconscious conflicts. With a lot of bang-bang on top of everything else. - There are some good 'mind-bending' scenes, the shame is they are all shown in the movie trailer. (when will they stop this practice???) - Ariadne, aka the Architect, proves her role on the team through her skills, which are later on not utilized very much. Overall, this character is badly structured, with added fact that her big mythological name is all there is to the mythology side of things. Her only purpose that seems to remain was to move the story at a key moment, when the whole team is ready to 'terminate the mission', which was not all that convincing. - The sub-plot around the main protagonists and his wife is fairly interesting, but the resolution in him leaving her felt like some kind of escape writing (now how do we end this so we can move the story on?) - I am usually very keen to forgive such minute detail as the number of shots fired and missed, but in here, it was bordering on ridiculous.
All in all, this is an action movie, with sci-fi elements, as opposed to being a sci-fi movie with action movie elements. I believe it is mostly catering to a crowd of late teenagers, and thus doesn't become very elaborate in terms of background philosophy, psychology etc. but rather becomes very action movie oriented. I perceived it as a good fun for the moment, but nothing terribly memorable. It felt like a good idea, going in, but the film doesn't deliver on a more subtle, but deeper layer, where for example a much more memorable movies like Matrix delivered so well. I would advise a more serious movie fan, after inevitable seeing this movie, to look elsewhere for similar concepts and compare: - Being John Malkovich; for excellent depiction of 'collapsing into one's subconsciuos' and the whole story of messing with someone's mind

Waking Life; for excellent depiction of what it truly means to no longer distinguish which is reality and which is dream

Memento; for excellent depiction of messing up one's memory and where it might lead