One sign of a movie worth seeing more than once is that you also want to read more than one review. Rarely have I been more compelled to read what my respected colleagues have to say about a new film. Now that those reviews are pouring in, Inception‘s Rotten Tomatoes ranking among “top critics” has fallen to 87–which is a very high number, by the way. Most Oscar contenders rank in the 80s.
Here are some key critics: Roger Ebert:
“Inception” does a difficult thing. It is wholly original, cut from new cloth, and yet structured with action movie basics so it feels like it makes more sense than (quite possibly) it does.
Slate’s Dana Stevens:
“It’s a shame that Inception’s visual sophistication so far outstrips its emotional savvy. “
“halfway through Inception, which runs close to two-and-a-half hours, my mind started to wander. Instead of being pulled into his world I felt myself drifting away from it.”
Impeccably made as it is and, like “Vertigo,” blessed with an indispensable score, unquestionably the best thing Hans Zimmer has ever done, “Inception” plays like the film of a brilliant mathematician, scientist or engineer rather than a work by someone who, in another era, would have been a novelist, poet or philosopher. Nolan is a thinker, all right, a very busy explorer of mind functions, but capable merely of diagrams when it comes to the heart and soul.
Time’s Richard Corliss:
“Inception is precisely the kind of brainy, ambitious, grand-scale adventure Hollywood should be making more of.”
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
