"The Matrix" was a movie idolized by many because of the broad surrealist plot that explored the nature of computers, machines, and what it meant to be human. To most this was something fresh and exciting, a spectacle that had never been conceived before those genius Watchowski brothers penned the story idea into a neat little 110 page screenplay (give or take a few pages). For science fiction nerds it was familiar territory though. Many of the story hooks came from other resources and creative visionaries like William Gibson and Philip K. Dick and the Watchowski bros openly admitted to borrowing heavily from these sources. Were they wrong to take these ideas and fabricate it into something else and slap their names on it? No, of course not, study enough literature and you'll see that pretty much everything has been done already. What set "The Matrix" aside from its predecessors was its amazing camera work, groundbreaking visuals, and fight choreography that governed the way future action movies would be directed. So you can see why I felt lost when a tidal wave of angry consumers came back from seeing "Inception" and dismissed it as nothing more than a "Matrix clone".
Christopher Nolan, now a recognized demigod amongst nerd fandom for his riveting Batman movies, is a person who can seemingly do no wrong. He's a master student that can take nearly any idea and improve upon it with his own unique sensibility. "Inception" was an idea he had been formulating for supposedly seven years and was meant to be both an homage and evolution to the science fiction genre. "Blade Runner", "The Matrix", "Johnny Mnemonic", "Aliens", and a heap of other titles were films Nolan claimed inspired this project. He wanted to leave an imprint on history with his own fantastical creation and in this critic's opinion, he succeeded.
By plumbing the rich lore that comes attached with the psychology of dreams and mixing it with the elements of a heist film, Nolan spawned a rare treat by combining a high octane summer action film with cerebral philosophical concepts. To be fair, most of the language being spoken here is pretty watered down compared to other brain teasers, and while vocal minorities of high nosed pseudo-intellectuals have cried foul they fail to recognize its greatest strength. No, not everyone out there will understand what is going on in "Inception", but most will. It's not a film that talks down to its audience but neither is it an open book. By carefully crafting the exposition holding the audiences hand just a little bit, Nolan managed to arrest any confusion that may be associated with the mechanics of the plot and left the viewer to interpret the various shadowy metaphysical components as independent and autonomous fragments to be analyzed on their own merits.
Rarely do you see a movie that tries to combine two diametrically opposing genres, but it’s usually a treat when you do. "Inception" is that once in a decade action mind bender that raises the intelligence quotient of the general human populace a few degrees and it’s always a delight to have those things around. So no, the movie didn't bring us anything we haven't seen before but the execution of all the moving parts was so flawless that it's hard to get upset without looking like a pretentious parrot who really isn't bringing any solid counter arguments to the conversation other than "It's just like 'The Matrix" or "The movie thinks it’s smart but the philosophy is amateurish at best". Yeah, I'm coming off a little strong on the naysayers with this one but to be honest they deserved to be ridiculed. The movie is devilishly clever and shows a tremendous amount of polish and love for the genre, and if you can't appreciate that, than I don't know what else to say other than, chill out.
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