Handles Dreams The Way Inception Should Have... A lot of people love Christopher Nolan's Inception, but my biggest criticism of that film was that nothing in that movie looked or felt like a dream. Everything was way too literal, too concrete, too symmetrical, and too mechanical. Dreams aren't like that.
Dreams are fluid; ephemeral; harmonic; discordant; whimsical; garish; frightening; fun; flighty; and most importantly, abstract.
I'll be the first to say that a movie attempting to capture the unorthodox and incorporeal nature of dreams is no easy feat, yet Dreamscape is one of the few films to do it and do it well. The ever-changing scenarios, the nightmare sequences, the distortions, the dead-ends, and the lucid aspects of dreams that allow you to sometimes take control are all present in the film.
But before going further, I should point out that this movie isn't really about dreams so much as it is about how dreams -- or rather, connections to the mind -- can be utilized for good or nefarious means.
Dreams are just a conduit for this interesting plot point about government utilization of individuals with special abilities.
This isn't X-Men or Scanners or Firestarter, though. There's nothing particularly sci-fi about Dreamscape at all, and it is in-fact very grounded for the most part. In fact, you can see how it's basically the exact same plot basis for the cult-class Jennifer Lopez flick, The Cell.
I think The Cell had more interesting topical matter covered within the context of the film's story, and that gave leeway for a lot of awesome visual sequences, but Dreamscape works in a more practical, mystery-thriller way, where the dreams are some of the least used elements in the film.
However, when the dream sequences do appear, they're treated very much like dream sequences. Much like The Cell, director Jason Ruben has a really good concept of how dreams should be portrayed on film, inconsistencies, bewilderment, craziness and all.
You don't need to be a cognoscenti when it comes to the subject matter of dreams to depict it in a film that seems true to how they are in real-life, but at least attempting to capture the abstract nature of dreams goes a long way in making the on-screen depiction feel like a dream, and I think Ruben did just that with Dreamscape.
In many ways, I kind of wish Nolan had a less methodical, less mathematical approach to how Inception was constructed, and incorporated more of the fleeting and wispy moments of a dream throughout the film to remind viewers that it's actually a dream they're watching. I know in many ways he wanted a level of aesthetic consistency so that in the final shot it would leave viewers guessing if they had really escaped the dream or not, but I think that level of intrigue could have been retained while still making the meat of middle portion very dream-like.
With films like Dreamscape and The Cell, among others, you never stop to question if or when they're dreaming. And when they are, I feel like the director and production department did a fine job of capturing the sometimes ridiculous nature of dreams, especially the distortions, mischaracterizations of real people, the nonsensical elements of how we project real life situations, traumas and events in our minds, and how we deal with them when we're in there.
Of course, the movie is still very much a product of its age, and some of the special effects haven't aged very well, while others look pretty cool (especially the zombie train segment, which was done really, really well). There's a bit of a horror element to the film, too, especially when the dreams take on the nightmarish aspects, which I think was executed superbly.
Also, the whole plot involving the President is a bit over the top, but again, this is a film of the 1980s (also the subplot about nuclear war is very.... interesting, and obviously a topic related to the Cold War era in which the film was made).
Anyway, this is a film well worth a watch, especially if you like psychological adventure thrillers. It's kind of a rare breed as far as sub-genres are concerned but it's a cool film nonetheless.