8. Inception (2010)
Inception is a great blockbuster, and one that deserves praise for its visual stylings and action set-pieces. But people talk about Inception likes there's more to it than that, or as if there are grand intellectual ideas working beneath its surface. What it actually is, of course, is an entertaining, high concept B-movie. That's not to do Nolan's flick a disservice: I'm sure that even he probably doesn't think Inception is anything more than good action schlock. I'm a huge fan of the movie, though its actual complexity has been greatly over-exaggerated. Compare it to The Matrix, for example, a movie which alludes to philosophical and religious themes with actual intelligence and served as one of its inspirations, and Inception falls kind of flat. Its structure, though "complicated," serves no real purpose: what is the point behind the "complex" dream layers, except as gestures of elaborate narrative show-offness? What is the movie about, exactly, save for its endless lines of exposition? As a package, Inception looks like the real deal: a smart studio picture with all the trimmings of a high-concept action movie. And it is that, absolutely. But it's also an extremely pretty box with not much going on inside it.