Inception (Two-Disc Edition) [Blu-Ray]
(Warner Home Video)

Hype is the great enemy of modern cinema – it builds up a film to be something other than what it truly is and ultimately leaves the movie-going audience disappointed. This is even the case with good movies, like Christopher Nolan’s Inception – a truly inventive, ambitious action movie that was hyped-up to be the most mind-blowing epic since The Matrix. It could not live up to the hype, but it is certainly a good action movie worthy of checking out.

There is no doubt that Christopher Nolan is one of the premier film-makers of this generation and he brings his breath-taking and seemingly effortless visual mastery to Inception along with his ability to choreograph the best action sequences since Spielberg in his prime. And if Inception were simply aiming to be a great action movie, it would have accomplished that goal easily. However, Nolan was clearly aiming for something more mind-blowing. He wanted to create a plot that left viewers guessing with a convoluted espionage drama taking place in the world of dreams. But simply making a plot hard to follow does not make it interesting or the surrealist action movie they may have been going for.

Inception remains one of the best movies of 2010 – standing out from a group of fairly mediocre action movies – but we have begun to expect more from Christopher Nolan. He is capable of genius and knows it. He assembled a fantastic cast, created a wonderfully multi-textured visual feast that is even more stunning in the Blu-ray edition and was ambitious enough to try something completely different than the standard storyline of the action-adventure movies Hollywood usually offers. However, it just was not enough to be remembered as one of his masterpieces.