7/10

The subject of dreams is a rich one for fiction writers, as anything can happen and plots are limited only by your imagination. Run a web search for "dreams in movies" or "movie dream sequences" and you will find that it's popular and interesting topic. While movie dream sequences are very common, whole movies that use dreams as the central plot are less common. Off the top of my head I can think of: the Nightmare on Elm Street series, The Matrix series, Dreamscape (1984), Vanilla Sky (a remake of Open Your Eyes), Donnie Darko, and there are many others revealed by web searches that I haven't seen yet.

I call Inception  "a really good try". It's almost fabulous, but once again I get the feeling that it has been perverted by interference from the executive. I suspect that the original script was more cerebral and closer to pure science fiction, but someone decided it needed more action and pretty faces in the hope it will sell more bums on seats. The movie finishes up being a mix of high-concept fantasy mixed with a romance and James Bond movie style action sequences. I felt at times like I was watching a movie made by three directors. A lot of the action sequences could have been left on the cutting room floor.

Overall, it's great that an intelligent and challenging movie like Inception made it to the big screen and received positive reviews. Perhaps this will shake the Hollywood green-light morons out of their stupor and hint that they should fund more movies that aren't just dumb-shit remakes or predictable mush.

The strangest of the dream sequences are the standout parts of the movie. The folding of Paris, the crumbling cityscape and Gordon-Levitt's zero gravity fight in the hotel are spectacular and surprising.

This movie must be good, as it's been parodied in South Park, The Simpsons and Rick and Morty, and many others. Run a web search for "Inception parodies".

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