12 Movies That Aren't As Pretentious As You Think

3. Inception

Depending on who you ask, Christopher Nolan's ground-breaking sci-fi blockbuster Inception is either one of the smartest tentpole movies ever made or a film that think it's far more clever than it actually is.

It is undeniably a middle-brow film that's decidedly more ambitious than your average summer action flick, and one carefully crafted to provide food-for-thought to jaded "smart" audience members and also more passive, casual viewers.

The fact that Inception touts a wonderfully creative premise yet hunkers it down with condescending reams of exposition is a flaw, sure, but does it make the film pretentious?

Nolan's writing has never been his strong suit, but he still gets a lot right here - he establishes a clear set of rules and follows them, invests the audience in his characters and delivers an emotionally gratifying payoff. With heaps of ludicrously entertaining action along the way, of course.

Given the wheelhouse that Nolan was working within here, calling Inception pretentious feels a bit like an act of snobby pretension itself.

Accepting the typical constraints of big-budget Hollywood filmmaking, Inception earns its reputation as a masterfully crafted sci-fi actioner, warts and all. It's not perfect, but what is?