Breathtaking masterpiece or $500 wallet?

Rating: 9/10 (16 July 2010)

I'm gonna go with the former, although something in my brain pan keeps coming back to the movie's casual mention (twice) that the rich and powerful central figure who is the target of Cobb's team of dream invaders carries a $500 wallet. Who would pay that much for a wallet? I mean, what could a wallet have that would make it worth that much? I couldn't shake this question about money foolishly spent.
Watching this, admittedly, amazingly entertaining but absurdly complicated movie does make you stop and say, "Wait a minute, I want to see the flow chart." Plot points race past at breakneck speed. Do they go down three or four dream levels? Why did Leo inception his wife? Was the eroding seashore city limbo? Why were they all tied together and floating in the elevator? How did Cobb "betray" the team with memories of his wife?
Perhaps repeat viewings will make all this clear. If anything, Inception is a movie that will have audiences back for a second viewing to try and clear things up.
In a word, Inception is a movie that has its way with you. You are helpless in its clutches. A freight train crashing through rush hour traffic? Check. Siege of a mountain fortress with avalanche thrown in for good measure? Check. Paris folds in on top of itself? Check. Volcanic Hans Zimmer soundtrack? Check.
Oh, and machine gun warfare. Lots of machine gun warfare.
And then there's that hotel hallway fight. Whoa. One for the books.