why inception is catching our attention

On Tuesday, I went to the movies to wrap my head around “Inception” fever. To be fair, I’d heard a lot about it on Twitter and the likes, but I avoided reading anything about it, mainly because I hate overhype in movies, and I was busy all week with British Open stuff and didn’t have time to do anything else.

So, I hit the 8:00 viewing at Tempe Marketplace, and left very content. My checklist for movies are this: Did I look at my watch one time during the movie? (Nope.) Did it entertain me to the point that I want to call my best friend, Chris Hadlock, and have a discussion about it? (Yes.) Would I go see it again while it was still out in the theaters? (Yes.)

As I got home and started to drive through reviews, my love for the movie started to waiver. Why are people overanalyzing all the dream sequences? Is there really a need to know which dreams were which, and who was having which ones to actually enjoy the movie? is there any way to really figure this out in the first place?

That is when something hit me. The reason people are obsessing over “Inception” is simple — it has absolutely nothing to go up against. Nothing. This hit me when I was reading over the box office numbers from the weekend, and was thinking of the last movie I, a movie lover, had dragged my ass to see.

Here are the top-10 movies from this past weekend’s box office.

Inception (Movie that we’re talking about)
Despicable Me (A cartoon movie)
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Nicolas Cage is in this)
Twilight: Eclipse (I’ve acted better faking a twisted ankle)
Toy Story 3 (more cartoons)
Grown Ups (just like “Wild Hogs,” but with a couple more black guys)
The Last Airbender (What M. Night Shyamalan threw up for dinner two weeks ago)
Predators (wasn’t this movie made in 1991? Oh, that’s Predator? Damn.)
Knight & Day (kill me)
The Karate Kid (yeah, exactly)

These are the TOP TEN MOVIES right now. These are the movies “Inception” is battling. This is the stuff that for the past few years, we as movie fans have had to deal with.

The last two years have seen a downfall in movies. For every “Avatar” and “Hurt Locker” that is produced, we get 5,000 movies that are either remakes or romantic comedies that are produced because our country is too dumb not to go see them.

Of course “Inception” is going to be hyped. It would be like Tiger Woods coming around in 1935, with the same talent, physical presence and length he has now. People would be fawning over him like he was the Messiah, and that is why Christopher Nolan is the big name in Hollywood right now.

It’s a fun movie, and it really makes you think, but the excitement for “Inception” is caused mostly because we’ve been living in the desert for a few years and just came up on a clear-water pond. We were thirsty, and now we get to drink.

Go see it if you haven’t yet, because you’ll enjoy it for what it is, and thankfully what it isn’t.