Very clever idea but over-long and over-complicated

Rating: 6/10 (3 January 2011)

We have a phrase in the UK about 'too many eggs spoiling the pudding' and my view against the majority of reviewers, is that Nolan had committed the same sin with Inception. On the positive side, the story has an intriguing and largely original premise. The cast are all pretty much excellent – DiCaprio and Page and but Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy also and great to see Tom Berenger again. Also a brief cameo by Pete Postlethwaite who I heard only today has sadly passed away – a great actor who appeared in some really interesting movies. Inception clearly had a big budget – masses of CGI (maybe a little too much?). All the ingredients are there but I felt that the script was a layer or two overdone. The 'arctic' section for example was largely unnecessary and didn't add anything to the story, other than dubious justification for extended gun play and James Bond style explosions with people flying through the air. Make no mistake, the story is very clever and bold but the plot lacked tightness and tried to be too clever, to the extent that my attention wandered as did that of those with me (all 'serious' movie fans). I really felt that 30 minutes or so could have been shaved off the running time and that the momentum of the story would have greatly benefited as a result. I know that Inception has achieved cult status and that this review will be considered blasphemy by some but I really feel that this thriller could have been so much better with tighter editing and direction.