Inception

Watched the highly acclaimed "Inception" on Friday. Below is my take.

Short version: "Titanic" is better.

And I don't say this because I like "Titanic".

My two favorite stories about "Titanic" are as follows. When the movie was first released on VHS, the MicroNews - internal MS paper that back then was a print edition - published this classified ad: "Titanic on VHS. First tape watched once. Second tape never watched".

Second story: among Windows developers Intel's Itanium chip is known as "Itanic". Although this one has nothing to do with the movie...

Long version: If you consider "Matrix" brainy and captivating, "Inception" is for you!

It is extremely similar to "Matrix". Both movies take a trivial idea ("Matrix": reality is actually a computer generated dream; "Inception": reality is influenced by a human-induced shared dreams) and make a movie out of it by adding large number of superficialities.

In "Matrix" it's tough looking impeccably clothed men beating main heroes up in highly choreographed fight scenes. I guess it must be the Hollywood's idea of what's going on inside a computer. I suppose if I had majored in communications, I would have thought about computers like that, too.

In "Inception" it is impeccably "architected" dreamscapes where the heroes get to confront - and conquer! - their demons. I guess it must be the Hollywood's idea of what's going on inside a human brain. I suppose if I had majored in said communications, I would have thought about the mechanics of human brain like that as well.

Why do I think "Titanic" is better? There, if one abstracts from the plot, one still gets to enjoy the vistas. In "Inception", unfortunately, there is no way to abstract from the plot...