Refreshing concept. Stale action

Rating: 6/10 (19 July 2010)

Inception is overall an enjoyable experience. The concepts and rules Nolan presents to us are, like the intriguing Morpheus / Neo relationship (in the superior The Matrix) delivered to us in large chunks of exposition that never get boring due to the interesting ideas being put forth. This film never bores.
However for a film about dreams, the action and set-pieces (except for a fight in zero G) are surprisingly unimaginative. Chases are never more than run, shoot, run (unlike some set pieces in the Bourne movies for example) and scenes like the ski chases in the snow feel flat when they could have been exciting set pieces with a bit more thought. It seems to me, that even though I enjoy his films, Nolan's weakest link is his direction of action.
I also thought there could have been more use of the surreal and of the bending of physics at some stages. Yes I know they need the subject to be tricked into believing that it is not a dream but at one point a subject is told that he is dreaming, giving Nolan a pass to screw things up a bit visually. Yet he only goes so far as to have a bar shake and drinks in glasses bend with gravity. He could have gone further in scenes like this that's just my opinion.
Overall this is worth seeing. Nolan has not made a single bad movie and all his movies are worth seeing. Inception isn't one of his top three (That's The Prestige, The Dark Knight and Memento in my opinion) but he can stand proudly beside his resume with this addition.