Inception

Most people who love this movie are people who are new to speculative fiction or just have never seen one produced really well. This movie is beautiful to look at with a very creative idea propelling the narrative. However, this idea is needlessly complicated (the series of "kicks" starts to get annoying and boring and inconsistent. None of the character arcs are especially compelling or interesting, which makes the whole endeavor mostly just of academic interest rather than an emotionally invested one. I love smart science fiction and this was trying very hard to be that. But while the technical and directing competence is admirable, the script and ultimately the underlying concept is not strong enough on its own to warrant such an "epic" movie with more than a little contrived tension. Definitely watch it, but lower your expectations. It also should have been 30-45 minutes shorter. Can't believe it made as much money as it did.

The story-line of Inception, if one exists, places itself in the no-person's realm of between subtle persuasion ( the director meant to do that) and the idea that the viewer will fill in any gaps. Nolan's job in this movie seemed to be to create enough action that the viewer will not look to deeply for a solid plot-line. Unfortunately, the scattered progress of the characters doesn't hold together upon scrutiny and the movie turns into a cerebral Fast & Furious - take your pick. I really like the concept of delving into the sci-fi concept of the human subconcious - whatever the hell that is, but this film really needed to be a serial. There just wasn't enough time in Inception to make concept, action, and viewer work together.

This has got to be the strangest freaken' movie I've ever seen. I found it VERY hard to follow, sometimes impossible to figure out what's going on. It has no entertainment value whatsoever, save for the special effects. Perhaps it should been seen on a large theater screen, but I don't think that would help the viewing experience at all.