Mrs. Squash

Inception, by Christopher Nolan and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is a summer blockbuster that many people are walking out of, feeling absolutely blown away by 2.5 hours of high-budget special effects and shoot-‘em-up action, and a seemingly intricate plot. People are talking about this film as a “sophisticated, intelligent thriller”, having been thoroughly hypnotized by the bright colors, loud music and sound effects.

We’re interested in approaching popular culture to critique and engage. We simply didn’t find much value in this movie. Here’s why:

Glorification of Masculine Violence: Inception features millions of dollars in special effects, and is mostly men shooting at each other. Glorifying the violent male reinforces patriarchal patterns of violence. The film employs a few tricks to sneak by with a PG-13 rating: by placing almost all the violence in the “dream world” thus making it not “real”; by having almost no blood in the film; and by having characters use a silencer for many of the gun battles (a classic James Bond trick). To Hollywood studios, including Warner Bros. which released Inception, celebrating fighting and killing is easy money. To the Motion Picture Association (an industry group in charge of rating movies for family consumption) marketing violence to kids is okay when the victims are “projections”.

No Originality: Inception borrows elements (like the ski chase, van chase, unlimited explosive charges, etc.) from action classics like James Bond, the Matrix and the Star Wars trilogy, but offers nothing original to the ...