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Monday, November 23, 2015


I usually like to go back a little further for my classic movies, but this is one of those films that will just not go away. It is constantly either being spoofed or tributed in popular culture, and it has spawned its own sub-genre of movies that are as confusing and pretentious as this one.

I think my favorite take on Inception was when it was spoofed on South Park as being completely ridiculous from start to finish. The basic message behind the South Park episode is that just because something is complicated does not mean that it is entertaining. I kind of get where Christopher Nolan was going with Inception, but he overthinks a lot of this movie and it gets lost in itself  . . . which seems appropriate.

Let me assure anyone who did not understand Inception that it is perfectly acceptable to say that you just did not get it. There is a huge and pretentious following for this movie that looks down at people who do not understand the underlying plot of the film. The truth is that I don’t think anyone in the movie really understands what it is supposed to be about, so the general public is allowed to be confused as well.

There are two plot elements to this movie that I find really hard to ignore. First of all, anyone who experiments with that many sleep-inducing drugs is going to wind up with a lot of physical and mental health issues. The movie seems to ignore the fact that these people are using a variety of experimental drugs to put themselves into a deep sleep a couple of times a week. I tried to dismiss this with my suspension of disbelief, but I just couldn’t do it.

The other thing that I have a problem with is the idea that you can get a “kick” in a dream that will instantly wake you up. In my dreams, I have been stabbed, shot, blown up, beheaded, thrown off a skyscraper and even run over by a commercial jet liner as it taxied down the runway (it was some dream about the Langoliers) and none of that has ever woken me up. Now, if I was induced into sleep by experimental chemicals, I am pretty sure it would take more than just a little “kick” to wake me up instantly.

Like I said, I tried suspension of disbelief on these things, but it just didn’t stick. If I can remain asleep after being run over by a 767 that was taxiing towards a runway, then I am pretty sure that being in a van that falls off a bridge and into a river is really not going to affect me.

Some of the writing of this movie seems sloppy to me. People can be shot in the head as their “kick” to wake up, but if someone gets shot in the stomach in their dream then they may die in real life? What the hell is that? It is almost as if Nolan is purposely trying to confuse people to make the movie seem more interesting. It doesn’t work for me.

Some of the ideas in Inception I found to be interesting. The whole idea of a totem to see if you are awake or asleep I found to be interesting. But all that did was take me back to the idea that if you need a spinning top to tell you if you are awake or asleep because you are not sure, then the sleep-inducing chemicals you have been using have damaged your brain and a spinning top is the least of your concerns.

The idea that people could literally build their own realities in their dreams and revisit them I did find to be fun. I have always wanted to do something like that, and I did like the way that Nolan brought it to life. However, he ruins it by insisting that people can build these realities and then actually live in them for the rest of their lives. Where would your body be kept, and how long can the human body really survive in a chemically-induced coma?

I have seen Inception several times, and I just don’t like it. Like I said before, I kind of get where Nolan is trying to go with it, but I don’t think he gets there. I am not so pretentious that I will presume someone is simple-minded because they did not understand Inception. However, I do have a knack for being difficult on people who are pretentious.

That being said, I didn’t like Inception at all. I wanted to like it, and I watched it several times to give it a chance to grow on me. It didn’t, and it never will.

Rating: 1 out of 5

+George N Root III is a drive-in fanatic who is living his life as a dream, within a dream, within a ham sandwich. Follow him on Twitter @georgenroot3 or send him a message at georgenroot3@gmail.com



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1 comment:

  1. U have a right to ur opinion sir..but u cant decide for others.. its not a pretentious movie folk out there.. I found inception a bit hard .. but at the same time one of the most visually and cerebelally enthralling cinematic experience that I have had ever.

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