High Concept Film with Poor Storytelling

Rating: 5/10 (24 June 2015)

I didn't want to do this but after seeing the results at the IMDb's top 250 movies, with Inception at #3! I snapped... UPDATE: it was #3 at the time I reviewed this film upon its release.
Let me start off by saying that I wasn't really that interested in seeing Inception. With every trailer I saw i had no idea what the movie was about. It all seemed to me like a high concept film with not much of a story. In essence, I was pretty accurate about my pre-notions.
Although I think high concept ideas should stick to music videos, video essays, and video ads, etc...I'm not against high concept ideas on film. There were very good films with complex ideas that were actually done very well (i.e. Memento, Eternal Sunshine...). But it wasn't the concept that made them great movies, it was the story. In Memento we're sympathizing with the character and captured by what's going on because we're trying to find out who he thinks murdered his wife. In Eternal Sunshine we're carried into Joel's mind as he realizes his love interest erases him from his memory! But this film, as much as it begged us to, seemed to fail at demonstrating anything remotely as captivating.
I have to give credit to Nolan for translating the engineering of his imagination to moving images. I know there's layers and layers of content we won't notice until the 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th viewing.-heck it took him 10 years to write it! We better not get it all in the first viewing! But it all comes at the cost of what storytelling is all about: STORY TELLING.
Hey listen, I got it, OK. Even if I wasn't smart enough to figure out what was going on myself I would've had Nolan explaining it through dialogue anyway... but did I care? I really wished I did! I really wanted to care that Cobb got to see his kids again, but I didn't feel Nolan persuaded me enough to! That for me was it's biggest flaw. I could've hated the main character or I could've loved him, and I would've been satisfied. But if I have no regard for the main character, as far as I'm concerned, you have failed me; no brilliant concept or tip-top VFX could replace that. *SPOILER* And for some reason manipulating one billionaire's decision (Fischer) causing him to not be one anymore in order to benefit another billionaire (Saito) didn't move me nearly as much as the animated singing piece of turd did on South Park. hi-dee-ho!
In summary, it's entertaining for the audiences that are amused by stories overlooked by visual FX, strenuous, complicated multi-layered concepts produced by directors who make comic book movies. *shrugs*
p.s. there's another movie I'd rather watch where Leo struggles with reality. As good as he is, Nolan's still has lots to learn.