Sarcastigate at the Cinema: Inception.

Inception is great.  It will make a billion dollars.  Chris Nolan is going to have an even blanker check for the next film that he writes/directs and it showcases that he can, in fact, still write.  I enjoyed it greatly and will watch it again when it comes out on BluRay.  There are some major problems with it (or at least things that irritated me), though.

- It’s dumbed down.  Following in the footsteps of other big-dollar, mainstream, intellectual, recursive thrillers, Nolan takes some short cuts.  I watched the film once, late at night, and it all made painfully perfect sense.   The characters spend a lot of time explaining things to each other that would be criminally obvious for anyone in their shoes.  The explanation is clearly exclusively for the audiences benefit.  Ellen Pages character serves as an extremely laughable outsider and an excuse to hold the audiences hand even tighter.  There may be better precedent for this but the 2004 film Primer serves as a better example in how to challenge the audience through recursion interference (see also Solaris, Following, and even portions of the Matrix series.)  Nolan didn’t have to take it to Primer extremes but he also didn’t have to rewrite this down to an elementary level.  As a result, I’m not sure it merits the chronic rewatching that other recursive thrillers have leveraged into cultural phenomenons.  But it will make a billion dollars.

- Skiing/shooting action scene.  Has this ever been done well?  Ever?  Did Nolan think he could pull it off?  As soon as I saw them near the skis I absolutely cringed.  The only thing saving this entire ”level” is that they didn’t have Ellen Page strap on a snowboard.  I thought for sure it was headed that way.  Ouch.  Truly awful.

-  The effects.  Some of them were incredible.  Some of them were downright cheesy, though.  CGI has come a long way since the Matrix but I still don’t think that this movie is going to age very well.  In 20 years it’s going to look like a cartoon.  I think it’s fine to be ambitious with your screenwriting but don’t assume you can build worlds from scratch.

- The heavy handedness of Leo’s familial faithfulness.  Come on… give me a break….   the only thing driving him was his love for his kids and his wife?  He’s really just a big softie that enjoys the game of experimenting in other peoples brains?  Buhgaw.

You want to know all the good about the movie?  Read another review.  They are all covering it pretty well and I agree that the good stuff in this movie is REALLY good.  The score is phenomenal (and Nolan didn’t allow the composer to see the movie before he scored it!!), the sound amazing.  The cinematography and the set design are astounding.  The fight scenes are (mostly) brilliant.   Leo is going to be up for many awards.  Did I mention that this movie will make a billion dollars?  It will.  You’ll love it.

My last prediction, though: Contrary to what so many critics are trumpeting this week… this will be nowhere near the best picture nominees come 2011.  It just doesn’t have the legs.

Rating: 8/10

Postscript: The lucky gal I was watching this movie with was dozing on and off throughout the movie.  It wasn’t because the movie was boring, it’s because it was LATE.   While I was watching the movie I was actually thinking about how unnerving it would be to half sleep through… to wake up and feel like you hadn’t really missed anything (or had you?)  I can’t imagine that experience.  I wonder if it was pleasant or terrifying?