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“A film like nothing you have ever seen before…. This could be the film to solidify the director’s place among the modern masters.” – Kris Tapley, In Contention

“Inception may well be a masterpiece masquerading as a summer blockbuster.” – New York Post

“Inception is precisely the kind of brainy, ambitious, grand-scale adventure Hollywood should be making more of.”  - Time

Come on.  Really?  I thought Inception was a fun-ride of a movie, but a “masterpiece?”  I totally disagree.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the film. I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun, visually stimulating, and it definitely made me question whether or not I should fall asleep without a gun under my pillow.  But for some reason, I didn’t walk out of the theatre as pumped as I thought I was going to be. I love Christopher Nolan. The Dark Knight was probably one of the best movie-going experiences I have ever had. The first time I watched the chase scene with the semi-truck, I sat with my mouth completely open. No joke, for the entire scene.  The last time I remember being so shocked by a movie was probably The Matrix, which coincidentally, Inception has been continually compared with.

So with my recent attachment to Christopher Nolan mixed with all of the mysterious, “we’re not going to tell you anything about this film” advertising, I thought we were all set for another almost perfect movie-going experience. So why was I disappointed? After mulling the movie over in my mind for a few days, I think I pinpointed the reason: No character development.

Aside from Leonardo DiCaprio’s and Cilian Murphy’s characters, we knew nothing about any of the characters in the film. Nothing at all. This was the first movie I can remember that had very little to no character development in it. Ellen Page, for instance, had the potential of being one of the most intriguing characters in the story, but we knew nothing about her. Where did she come from? Why was she so good at figuring out this dream world? They gave us nothing. What about Joseph Gordin-Levit’s character Arthur? The other team members? The mysterious asian man who hired the team?  Why was it so important to tear down another company by implanting a thought into the head of the company’s mind?  What the heck?

Typically, a story evolves along with the characters. You learn more about them, begin to build your own opinions on them, find out their purpose in the story which in turn allows an audience to relate to someone in the film. If you can’t relate, maybe you know someone who can or maybe you dislike them because none of them are similar to you. Either way, character development allows a story to progress and allows the audience to feel something.  Inception, for whatever reason, decided it wasn’t important for the audience to learn anything about anyone in the film.  Why?  Why would I want to spend 2 1/2 hours with people that I know nothing about?  I wouldn’t, which is why I felt so left-out when the film was finished.  None of the characters learned anything, none of them grew or changed.  They were just placeholders in a dream world.  My only choice was to root for Leonardo. What if I didn’t want to root for someone who illegally steals and plants information into people’s minds?  Mr. Nolan thought that I didn’t need a choice.  He told me who to root for and I didn’t like that.

There are quite a few things I did like about the film. The concept was really interesting to me, so that kept me going.  And I liked the special effects.  Good special effects in a movie can typically keep me watching. I was genuinely interested in knowing how the story resolved itself and I LOVED the ending.  In fact, the ending was probably what saved the film for me.  That last shot on the spinning top was awesomely chilling.  If there was any other ending, I probably would have hated the film.

So why the choice to leave out information on ANY of the characters?   Did they not have enough time?  Was it not important enough?  Or was it intentional?  Maybe we didn’t know anything about the characters because the whole film was Leonardo’s dream and he didn’t know anything about anyone else because he made them up.  If that was the case, then maybe blank empty characters are cool.  But choosing to not include a rich set of characters into a film is a cop-out in my opinion.

So, yes, I would still recommend this film to other people.  I would probably see it again and I will probably buy it when it comes out on Blu-Ray.  But will I call the film a masterpiece?  Absolutely not.  Sorry Mr. Nolan, maybe we’ll meet again on Batman 3.