I loved the movie.
And while I understand some people's gripes about there not being more "dreamy" elements in it, I see this as a little biased (and kind of cliche) view of dreams, in general.
Even the most fantastical dreamers have mundane dreams. That there weren't any unicorns or dragons or people with extra fingers is actually integral to the plot. Don't forget that the dreams were designed by the team. They weren't just going into Fischer's (the mark) mind. They were creating dreams that he is intended to believe are his own. Remember, the initial goal of their mission relied heavily on the mark not knowing he was dreaming. So, when designing the levels of the dreams, it was crucial to make them mundane, everyday atmospheres that a young CEO of one of the most powerful energy companies in the world would experience - the city he works in, a hotel, and some remote snowbound getaway.
And we cannot say that the movie was completely devoid of dream imagery. A train driving down the middle of a city street, knocking cars out of the way, is very surreal - as was the way Ariadne built the bridge that went across the road, when Cobb was teaching her to build. Building sandcastles that formed entire, life-sized, building complexes and then knocking them down with a brush of their hand? That was pretty surreal, don't you think? They houses that sat on water, in the middle of Cobb and Mal's city? The entire, other city which folded up on top of itself? The zero gravity fighting? Considering that this movie is a more of a psychological piece than a straight out action movie, I think they didn't go overboard on the action (except for maybe the snow fortress dream, which seemed drawn out. However, I understand that this was done to highlight the fact that they were 3 levels down, and time was passing by much more quickly. They were down on that level for about an hour, fighting that battle, so it wouldn't have done the idea justice to have a 5-minute firefight).
All in all, I thought the movie was fantastic. As someone who is "mildly" obsessed with action movies, I can say, with all confidence, that this isn't just another mindless shoot-em-up.
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