Anyone else see this year's Shutter Island?  I thought it was decent.  More than decent, really, but not quite on par to what the most glowing reviews out there are saying.  It's a solid Scorsese character piece, and DiCaprio turns in a very good performance with his Teddy Daniels.  The problem was seeing this after Inception, as parallels between Daniels and his Dom Cobb can't be helped but drawn; most specifically, both..... suffer from a traumatic experience that involves a deceased wife who manifests from mental instability.  Inception does it a bit more subtly, and honestly, quite a bit better.

There are peaks of excellence and disappointment throughout.  A good chunk of the second act is the psychological thriller genre at its best: unsettling and joyfully intense.  Once Daniels gets into the thick of it, the story actually seems to boast more than a passing resemblance to Silent Hill; the disturbing visual nature of..... Teddy's nightmares, his resolve to get to the lighthouse, and his desire to find closure with his dead wife and children all bring to mind Silent Hill 2.  As is the consensus, the central mystery isn't terribly difficult to figure out.  At first, it does a good job with the gradual reveals, but then regrettably shows its hand a bit too soon.  The ending, too, is so exposition heavy as to make the intended resolution somewhat redundant.

But the biggest problem I had with the movie is the use of green screen.  I'm shocked at how glaringly obvious and hokey some of the backdrops look, which managed to obliterate the film's otherwise convincing feel.  I mean, there's the use of green screen for the sake of using green screen -- but when you try to stick it in a well-crafted period piece that's intended to be more drama than over-the-top action, it sticks out like a sore thumb.