If I can be shown this man's emotional journey, if indeed that's all it was, why not another, more interesting or involving one? I don't have a crazy wife, children, or a machine that lets me infiltrate dreams. I don't even dream that I do, nor would I want to. If these dreams are equivalent to realities, then I want to experience a reality that I care about for its own sake, not for the sake of an exploration in metaphysics.

I'll continue to think about it, and I'll think about seeing it again when it's on disc, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Now, if you feel a movie has to have a positive message, I can see why this movie would have upset you. The characters are not positive people — they steal ideas from mens minds and break up a massive corporation to help ANOTHER corporation gain a foothold in the energy industry — and the situation they're in is a grim one, hampered as it is by Cobb's subconscious (either indirectly or directly), not to mention the fact that if it is all a dream, the “importance” is hard to grasp.

(SPOILERS HENCEFORTH, BE FOREWARNED)

And it sounds like that's what bugged you about it. “If it's all a dream, so what?” And that's where I totally could not disagree with you more (apologies if I'm constructing a straw man here). A man needs to find peace within himself. Remember how they said limbo could last lifetimes? It's possible that Cobb put himself back in Limbo after his wife committed suicide and the whole thing was constructed by himself as a maze that allowed him to achieve catharsis and resolve himself of his guilt — conveniently paralleling their plan with Fischer. But this is something we DO want to root for; we want to see a broken man be reborn, even if it is in a dream, even if it is only in a world that he's trapped in. It's certainly sad if it's all a dream, but that doesn't make the emotionality of it any less real. And if the world is as straightforward as presented, then we have a great case study of how dangerous it is to let our guilt overwhelm us, and how that guilt and fear can present itself in dangerous ways (Moll could be symbolic of how we lash out at others when we feel guilty or self-conscious of ourselves, something that definitely happens).

Keep thinking about the movie. Actually piece together the symbolism used and what that all means. It's an incredibly rich movie, full of subtly placed ideas not just about reality and our place in it but also about how our subconscious can control us, and how it can be out of our own control. It's a movie about thought and ideas as much as it is about dreams.