A good film, but not as good as the hype

Rating: 7/10 (5 March 2011)

I heard a number of great things about Inception, including from my sister who came out saying it was one of the cleverest and best movies she'd seen. After seeing it for myself, I thought it was a good film, but not as good as I was led to believe. Out of the Christopher Nolan movies I have seen, Inception didn't wow me as much as Memento and The Prestige, and it is one of my least favourites of his so far. Does that mean the film is bad? No, I am just saying I do not think it is Nolan's best as I have heard people say.
My main problem with Inception was the lack of emotional attachment, I do understand completely anybody who says it is emotionally cold. Particularly in the characters, they are written and acted well, but not much is done to make us empathise with them and their predicaments. I loved the idea of the story, it was clever and somewhat original and it did start very compelling and intriguing, but as the film progresses it does become rather convoluted and I found myself losing a little interest. Also, the pace is uneven, as the characters became more cold and the story more convoluted, the film really does start to drag until the conclusion where the film does thankfully pick up.
Inception despite these faults does have a number of strengths, especially the beautifully crafted production values, dream sequences and effects and Nolan's superb direction. Hans Zimmer's score is incredibly good too, while powerful and haunting it rarely becomes overbearing, while the dialogue is on the whole clever and thought-provoking. The acting is generally very good, both Leonardo DiCaprio, with a more hardened persona which has grown even more, and Ellen Page give strong performances and while Marion Cotillard is underused she is pretty good as well and Cillian Murphy I think gives the best supporting performance as he is superb.
Overall, Inception is a generally good film but not as good as it is lauded to be. 7/10 Bethany Cox