Inception: A Good Movie with Serious Flaws

Rating: 7/10 (23 July 2010)

A note before reading this: unfortunately IMDb has a 1000 word limit on all reviews, so when I wrote my original review that was 1800 words, I had to cut out a lot of paragraphs. If you would like to read the review in its entirety you can find it here: http://www.tracktalk.net/inception/review
The film is centered around a skilled thief...(See full review)
(see full review for this paragraph)
However after the movie was finished I was left with a feeling that surprised me. You see usually after I see a great movie (with good fulfilling characters) I get this satisfied feeling. After I watched the Shawshank Redemption for the first time I felt satisfied. The story doesn't have to be happy or positive to elicit this rewarding feeling, it just has to have full characters that I feel/care for.
After I realized I was left with this unfulfilled feeling I tried to narrow it down as to what exactly caused this. Then it hit me. I couldn't remember a single characters name besides the main character, Cobbs, and Saito (and this was only because Saitio's name was uttered within the last 5-10 minutes of the film). I also realized that I didn't really care about any of the characters. If Andy had been killed after his prison escape in Shawshank, I probably would have cried (and I am by no means a person that is considered "emotional" especially when it comes to movies), but if the entire ensemble had been ruthlessly gunned down in a slow-mo fashion zooming up 10x on open mouths and slowly dripping tears - well I wouldn't have blinked twice, never mind getting teary eyed. This in fact might have actually happened albeit it was in a dream and therefore doesn't count. Another thing I want to add in is that while some people say it's an original work, the concept of Inception is not really original. Nolan even said in an interview that he was inspired by The Matrix, Dark City, Thirteenth Floor, and many other films in the 90's era (which is when he roughly started working on the script - 1998).
Inception is a thriller/heist movie (officially labeled as Thriller/Sci-Fi), so almost by default the movie embraces the stereotypical cloud that usually surrounds thrillers. And by that I mean the superficial cloud that surrounds most thrillers. Which, lets be honest, is what the whole movie is. One big thriller till the very end. And it's not like all thrillers are intrinsically superficial with its characters, we have a big list of movies that have done well with its genre: Including but not limited to my favorite movie: Fight Club, which while it didn't have characters that I necessary cared for, it had an overall theme to it that caught on like wild fire in my mind. Something tangible that I could play around with and think about. More important, it had a theme that drastically changed my life. That I still abide by to this day. "When society tells you to conform to its petty thinking and ways, you stiff it the big one and do things how you believe you should"
If I had to compare this movie to any other it would probably be a mix of The Martix (which Nolan actually said was part of his inspiration), Surrogates, and especially Inglourious Basterds. Surrogates & Matrix in that the concept is similar and Inglourious Basterds in that it's a fun ride but after you leave the movie theater you aren't really affected or look at the world in a different way. A good movie in my opinion should do a few things: create relatable characters that tell an interesting story packed with a theme or message (which Inception didn't really have. Maybe that the sub-conscious is better left alone?) and while also leaving the film open to more than one interpretation (not a requirement, but usually allows us to create our own meaning with the film)
There were two particular comments that stuck in my mind before I saw Inception. One was on rottentomato.com labeled "A giant waste of Time", the other on IMDb.com labeled
something like "A Movie that makes Dumb People Feel Smart". At the time I resented both statements. But later, days after I saw the movie, I got to thinking - maybe there is a morsel of truth to these low-blow reviews. Now, as I write this review I interpret those two comments as (and I have to interpret the title as I never got around to reading the full reviews) as
"so while all the awesome mind blowing scenes helps push the plot further along, it doesn't do one thing: progress or develop the characters." and the second comment about "dumb people feeling smart" which is very uncalled for, I interpret this one as: the film does all the thinking for you. Going back to the wasted actions scenes though, this could have been better spent to help the audience understand the supporting cast. Heck even the main character. I mean Cobbs gets fleshed out a bit as we learn that he is doing all this for his kids and wife, but that is about it (and even then I didn't care for his character). And so by the end of the movie: Cobb, Arthur, Ariadne, Eames, Saito, Yusuf,
Fischer & browning become no more to us than characters that we can't relate to that are apart of a story that we can't really relate to that doesn't really relay any theme or message that might better us or enlighten us about anything (perhaps we learn a little bit more about dreaming?).
(See full review for the last three paragraphs)
Thanks for reading my first ever movie review
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