Depends on your philosophy. I think a work of art (film, book, whatever) is made by the artist, but finished by the viewer. The viewer sees the work, runs it through his/her experiences and psyche and decides if it has meaning or not. If you didn't like the film, that's fine. Your opinion is as legitimate as anyone else's.

The truth is, the film had some serious problems. It's established very clearly that if you are killed in the dream, you wake up. The sudden revelation of falling deeper into a dream on death was too convenient. It was clearly a plot device. Also, the film is in the framework of someone coming to terms with his guilt, but does not address the fact that these people are mercenaries being paid to effectively brainwash the mind of someone who didn't obviously deserve it. Finally, the spinning top at the end could be seen as a cop-out rather than a true resolution.

There's a story I read that seem to be relevant here. The first is that when the execs screened the film before release, they brought their kids with them (teens to twenty-somethings). The execs watched the film, and thought it was an incomprehensible mess. The kids watched the film and enjoyed it so much they wanted to see it again. Could be an age difference. Could be a taste difference. It all depends on your criteria for a good film.

tl;dr - No, you're not wrong. People dumping on you for not liking it are douchebags.

Sorry, messed up my post. Ignore "the first is..." I had another story I was going to write up, but I realized it wasn't completely relevant.

Also, my point on the dream deaths was that it seemed sometimes that things were being done just because the writers couldn't think up a reasonable way to make it happen. The fact that it could all be a dream can be used to explain this, but sometimes it just felt like laziness.

My criteria of films is the bottom line: "Was it entertaining?" If the answer is yes, then I'll give it a shot. With this film, I found my sense of immersion being stretched to the limit by the same problems you brought up.

It's nice to know that even though this isn't an end-all be-all answer, I'm more comfortable knowing that those people are douchebags instead of me being some kind of arthouse nazi.

>>207
I like that you mention the top at the end. To me, it was simply a theatrical device to generate discussion of the film and, indirectly, publicity. I noticed the tell-tale wobbles that would precede the top losing momentum and falling, so for me it was a cut and dried matter of them ending the scene before the definitive resolution. However, I realize that some- if not most- people, would not recognize the wobble as being significant, so they're left to make conclusions about whether or not it would fall.

>>206
If not liking a popular film makes you a hipster, then am I a hipster because I think iProducts are full of shit? as my understanding goes, hispters like something because they believe it will give them some sort of social credibility; "I'm a music connoisseur because I don't listen to sell-out bands on the radio." Or because it will make them look cool: hanging out at a high-priced coffee shop reading obscure books or surfing the web on their iBook.

>>211
Yeah, I see where you're getting at. I tried to defend myself again the other day against a hipster with this movie. He tried to come up with some philosophical, deeper meaning bullshit about the movie and ended with "But maybe you just weren't smart enough to get it."

It used to be that if someone didn't like a movie, that would be it. Now, if someone doesn't like a movie, they're either seen as an idiot or some trendy asshole.

And before anyone asks, pic related.

>>213
>He tried to come up with some philosophical, deeper meaning bullshit about the movie and ended with "But maybe you just weren't smart enough to get it."
Wow, what a great argument.

So basically this guy thinks that since you don't actually see the top didn't fall, the suicidal wife was right about the whole thing being a dream she needed to wake up from? Then the philosophical meaning is that there is no certainty of reality so we should kill ourselves to wake up?
Besides being much the same concept as The Matrix is based around, the movie never would have been made if that was the message the writers were trying to send.

>>214
No one can argue with guys like that. It's pointless to try because they're just interested in validating themselves. Whenever I run into someone like that, I just move on. Movies are meant to be fun. Sometimes you learn something, sometimes you talk about something, sometimes you turn your brain off. That's pretty much it.

they arnt rapid wolves
they are rapid sheep
they'll move to the latest thing soon

I didn't like it either.

I thought Inception was a pretty slick movie, but it was no Memento.