Films Inception ripped off

Nothing for days, and then 2 posts at once! Huzzah!
So anyway.. 
The release of Looper has led me to think about Hollywood's recent sci-fi offerings, and in particular how the plots are illogical or deliberately vague in an attempt to prove how clever they are. Worse still, most have become generic mashups of previous, better and yet sadly forgotten films. Nowhere is this truer than with Nolan's alleged masterpiece, Inception. While I have to give credit to the stunning visuals, overall the characterisation was sketchy and the plot was at best lacklustre; at worse so pretentious as to avoid disappearing up its own..ahem

So here is a list of better films, which Inception decided to 'borrow' ideas from... liberally.


10. Strange Days

This oft forgotten cyber-punk offering follows Ralph Fiennes as a cop, in a future where people have SQUIDs, implants that record their memories. The films plays out an investigation involving a brutal rape and murder, and the uncovering of an eventual conspiracy involving the SQUID recording.

09. Johnny Mnemonic

The first of 2 Keanu Reeves films featured on this list, this one is a strange tale, which suffers from having a good idea, and not knowing what to do with it. Johnny, our protagonist downloads data directly into his head, and transports it, but some rival criminals want whats inside his mind.Not strictly connected to the same concept as Inception, but watch it, and you'll see small ideas that have since blossomed in mainstream Sci-Fi

8. Last Year at Marienbad

This French film from 1961 in many ways began the trend of confusing films blending dreams and reality, in which the viewer sure quite which context to take what they are viewing. The two leads are friends who have met before..or are they?



7. The Cell

Jennifer Lopez delves into a serial killers mind to coax him out on a coma. All the basic dream motifs in Inception can be found for you, except this film doesn't just rest on its laurels..it actually has another plot involving real characters!

6. Virtuosity

The story of a cop chasing a virtual reality criminal that has escaped into the real world by way of an android, I admit this isn't very good, but you have to give it to Denzel and Russell Crowe..they try. Another early example of Hollywood enjoying the idea of different planes of reality, and naughty criminals jumping between them.

5. The Matrix

We all know the plot to this. Man discovers the world is all virtual reality, and is actually ruled by robot slugs. Oh, also he's the chosen one? Despite being one of the most basic tenants of existentialism, it was still hailed as a breakthrough at the time. Substitute a computerised virtual reality, with a dream state, and suddenly the similarities to Inception start to become overwhelming.

4. Ghost in the Shell

 If the above films only have tenuous links to Inception, the next few are corkers. Ghost in the Shell, from the Manga of the same name, was a revolutionary anime, and a must for any serious film-goer. Set in a dystopian future where dangerous hackers can hack into anything from powerful cyborgs to other humans minds, the concept of mental interchange has never been scarier

3. eXistenZ

This is almost as close as you can get to watching Inception, whilst not actually watching it.A complex plot involving computer games companies, and sharing minds whilst sharing games, its too complicated to properly summarise. needless to say, like many other films on this list, it uses this background as a guide to explore other concepts about reality AND AT THE SAME TIME produce an entertaining narrative with characters you care about. Pretty much all you can ask for. The only downside is the final line of the film, which echoes the cliched stupidity of Incepetion's ending.

2. Dark City

 This film is brilliant. Enough said.  A world where memories can be injected, and reality is in the eye of the beholder, one man wakes up with no idea how he got where he is, in a city he's never heard of. To say any more would spoil the excellent twist at the end. A masterpiece

1. Paprika

This Japanese Anime, base don a novel, is the film that Inception inevitably gets compared to, and with good reason. The story of a therapist using a machine to travel into his patients dreams, whilst exploring a mysterious theft, This pretty much set the standard for this kind of film, right down to the final act where reality and the dreamworld eventually and inevitably merge.