Arguably the most popular director of recent times, at least in mainstream circles, Christopher Nolan also seems to be regressing somewhat as a filmmaker as the years have gone on; his early pictures like Following and Memento were genuinely innovative and intelligent in both their methods of storytelling and in actually having something to say; his later works, such as Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, are so bombastic they can barely function as films. Much has been written about the "overrated" nature of Christopher Nolan's work; he can't write dialogue (indeed, everything his characters say nowadays tends to sound like it's been written by a professional speech writer); he can't direct action; his work is cold; his characters are dull and uninteresting and exposition-obsessed. One could probably argue those points into the ground for days on end, of course, and though the man certainly deserves credit for crafting some of the most interesting blockbusters of recent times, such criticism do have real weight. The problem is that Nolan is seen as something of a "god" in this day and age - his inspires such high levels of excitement from millions of fans that any detractors might start to wonder what they're missing. But the truth is that Christopher Nolan is probably more overexposed than he is overrated. The man does what he does, and he does it well enough. Such extensive coverage inspires nit-picking of the highest order, however. And that's it.