10 Sci-Fi Movies That Were Way Too Complicated
4. The Cell
In 1991, Tarsem Singh directed the music video for the R.E.M. classic Losing My Religion.
Clearly the natural career progression for him was to then direct a confusing sci-fi horror movie nine years later.
Starring Jennifer Lopez, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Vince Vaughn, The Cell has Lopez play a psychologist who is treating her young patient by using a machine to enter his mind.
When a serial killer falls into a coma without revealing the location of his final victim, Lopez's character must go into his mind to try and find out where she is.
Young boy, scary adult serial killer. Yeah, those seem like equivalents.
We then get into the classic "alter ego" narrative when the doctor runs into various different versions of the killer's personality. One of them is a big snake thing, because of course it is.
Think of The Cell as Inception without any of the class and somehow even more complicated. Singh doesn't take the same amount of care in explaining his world as Nolan does, which is a huge con against the movie.
Then again, Inception doesn't have a snake monster, so...