Waiting, waiting and waiting for a comprehensible plot to appear. For 2 hours and 30 minutes – waiting for some understanding and grasp of what is happening.
I guess when you are delving into and out of dreams and dream-states for all this time, you either sit back and enjoy the trip (wheee!) or you are so bored out of your mind that you grab six bags of snacks to while away the time. Why didn’t I walk out? Because the film got an 87 percent fresh tomato rating, and if I’m going to be one of the 13 percent who are clueless, I’d better stick around and make sure.
But clueless I remain. Sure, this work of sci-fi is graphic – with action images and sounds to grab your attention. But it’s as if I sat through a slide show of sounds and images that had little or no meaning. Where’s that popcorn?
Okay, so what is it with all the clamor? Maybe I am missing a gene related to comprehension. Or do we really need comprehension for movies these days? Possibly not. Am I old school or just out of touch with the new reality? Without a comprehensible plot, I am stymied. Am I the only one? No. There is a small number of brilliant and brave reviewers out there. So that tells me that if I am out of tune – I am not alone. But why so many positive reviews for this flick?
Do I have it all backwards (thus the title of this essay)? Should I embrace the film even though I sat there not understanding what was happening. Yes, I do understand that the plot deals with entering a dream within a dream that is within another dream in order to enter a person’s mind and subvert his dreams. But two-and-a-half hours of this in and out, with loud sounds and wondrous sights?
I give up. I do not want to take away the wonderment and excitement of all those who loved this movie. More power to them. Maybe what I do want is knowing that the small minority of viewers – like me – who either left after 30 minutes of watching this film, or who sat it out like I did, saw something in this science fiction movie that was REAL. The reality in this sci-fi “blockbuster” is that we saw an Emperor wearing nothing at all – and that was no dream.
Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertebsen@hotmail.com
