So, the "tricky" is now "deep"?!?

Rating: 4/10 (27 July 2010)

I doubt anybody will read this review, since it's neither a "fan rave" nor a "hated it." The movie gets four stars from me primarily because the CGI is not as bad as most other recent movies and Leo actually does some decent work. (Gordon-Levitt is also quite good, but he's canceled out by Ellen Page, who is, as usual, barely tolerable and not at all believable in her role.) Frankly, I just don't get the hype over "Inception" as metaphor, and it sure doesn't impress me as being a truly deep or complex movie. It's more like the level of the well-known character explaining how our solar system could actually itself be an atom, with the sun as the nucleus, etc.
Actually, I take that back...it IS a complex movie. Needlessly complex, I might add. The whole set of rules for entering into (and out of) someone's dreams are so ridiculously complex that they obviously exist only to set up the action sequences. Unfortunately, this makes it necessary for all the characters to explain them to each other throughout most of the movie. (Why is this? If they're professionals at doing this sort of thing, why do they all need to have it explained to them each time? That's like reminding a soldier how to take the safety off his weapon just before exiting the personnel carrier.) Furthermore, the dream world is not dream-like. It's more like the virtual world of "Tron." If I were shown the action sequences with no exposition, I'd guess that the characters were in a virtual world, or in another dimension, but not in a dream.
Finally, in spite of some good performances, I didn't give a lickspittle about the characters. What they are doing (or attempting to do) is immoral and unethical. And what risks they face are basically virtual as well. Who gives a flip? There's no redemption, no character development, no introspection (at any substantive level), and what you're left with is a mixture of pop psychology and "the solar system itself may just be an atom."
This may be a good film on some levels, but I didn't care for it.