10 Stupid Arguments About Chris Nolan That Don't Make Sense

2. The Films Rely Too Much On Twists

This is basically where all those gripes about Memento, The Prestige and Inception go to die. Some would have you believe that Christopher Nolan is simply a M Night Shyamalan who hasn't made his Lady In The Water (or Avatar: The Last Airbender, or The Village, or After Earth...) yet, a director whose principal trade is in the shocking twists he puts in his films, like they're O Henry stories or something. Which is fine, and Shyamalan did a good trade in it until at some point he went totally off the deep end, and that in itself shouldn't be derided. All he does are twists? Great! Even if you're expecting a twist, you're unlikely to predict it. That's what makes them good twists. So long as they make narrative sense, too. But yet again, that seems like a deliberate misreading of Nolan's films. Inception isn't made or broken on the spinning top at the end. Memento isn't rendered null and void by that climactic revelation. The Prestige doesn't become unbelievable by either twist. They're not what makes the film, but they're still important. It's the whole package that's the draw.