I’m a little late to the party, but I finally got around to seeing Inception on Saturday. A lot of people have been saying it’s the Best Science Fiction Movie Ever, and I’m not going to say they’re wrong — at least not to their faces, because I don’t want them to form a mob and shoot me full of holes. I’m mature that way. But here, in the privacy of my blog, I will disagree.
I thought it was a very good movie with a cool premise, and I’d like to see it again. But in terms of thought-provoking, smart science fiction, I don’t think it was as good as Gattaca or Serenity.
But there may be something wrong with me, because I have never thought a Christopher-Nolan-directed film was as good as the average evaluation of my friends. This is probably my favorite of Nolan’s films, as I have an actual desire to see it again. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were pretty good superhero films, in my estimation, but of all the Batman movies I enjoyed Tim Burton’s Batman more. And in terms of comic book hero movies, I think X2: X-Men United is the best, and I’d rank X-Men, Spider-Man, and Spider-Man 2 ahead of Batman.
Meanwhile, although I thought Nolan’s The Prestige was very good, the main characters were so unlikeable that, having seen the movie and appreciated the twists, I didn’t really feel any desire to see it again. I have not seen any of his other films.
If you haven’t seen Inception, I definitely think it is worth seeing, so go. And if you walk out of the theater saying, “Eric James Stone, you’re a fool for not thinking that was the Best Science Fiction Movie Ever…†Well, then you can thank me for helping you lower your expectations by not shooting me full of holes.