Awful!!!

Rating: 1/10 (30 July 2010)

We went to see this movie at an IMAX theater. After reading the initial reviews about the special effects and the cinematography, and seeing all of the trailers and special shorts on the film, this seemed like a sound choice. What an absolute waste of money! After reading the other user reviews, I can't help but wonder if we didn't watch a completely different film. All science fiction films require a suspense of reality as they are based on a future time, feature incredible technology which is currently beyond our reach, etc. Given that, most films try to put this aspect into some kind of context which makes the central premise believable or possible.
Not in this case. This film's plot vehicle is something called is 'shared dreaming,' through which a third-party can access your dreams and unlock information you are keeping secret. It is somehow done by connecting the dreamers up to a devices contained in stylish briefcases and then - POW - they are in an apparent instant REM state, all connected together and journeying off in their dream world. Huh? It's just thrown out there and the audience is expected to just absorb the concept, accept it and move on to be wowed by all the special effects. A murmur of 'I don't get it' was heard throughout the theater I was in.
Early in the film Dicaprio approaches a student played by Ellen Page, who is a student of his old professor and asks her to be an 'architect' and design his dream environments for him. The environments must have mazes and paradoxes. Now, most folks when presented with such a concept would be calling the nut house on a guy like Dicaprio, but Page's character just accepts the whole thing and dives in, having a whee of a time with the environment she creates, bending it and reforming it in visually impressive ways. There is no attempt, however, to sell this whole thing to the audience and it just doesn't work in any sort of context.
As the team descends through layers of 'levels' of dreams, the whole thing just becomes more moronic and boring. Great visuals, lots of action, but it all just seems pointless.
I would put this down as one of the worst movies I've ever seem. Beautifully shot, but with an empty, stupid plot.