Either a great sci-fi flick or general disappointment

Rating: 6/10 (31 July 2012)

There's something very important to note about this movie, and what a watchers opinion might be of it before almost anything else is said. And that is to consider whether the person watching it is a fan of other mind bending sci-fi stories to begin with.
The reason for this is, Inception is not a great mind bending story questioning the nature of reality. But it is a very accessible one. "Questioning the nature of reality" is not a huge sub-genre of science fiction, and the most notable author of it's kind, Philip K. Dick, has often been criticized as something of a hard read for a general audience.
But for fan's of Dick, or mind bending movies such as The Nines, there's just not too much to get into in Inception. For it's genre it's a rather basic idea, laid out as clearly and often as possible to make sure everyone's following along. For those that were engaged by say "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said" then the idea, which is central to enjoying the movie, will probably seem workaday, unoriginal, and a bit boring.
And that right there is the crux of whether you like this movie. Because without the idea, without the science fiction behind it, much of the rest of the movie reveals itself to be workable, but not overly remarkable.
Certainly the camera work and sense of style is unique and quite entertaining. But the actual plot, of breaking into a man's mind to plant an idea, feels a bit bereft. The only thing "at stake" is a man returning to his family, a family we never actually get to see him interact with directly, and so doesn't have the impact it could. Nor is there any real villain involved, and so no one to root against either.
Nor is the action particularly inspired nor very well filmed. The one exception, of course, is the short but rather spectacular altering gravity fight.
But beyond this three minute sequence Nolan's inability to actually concentrate the camera on the action happening is repeated again and again. Grenades are thrown, and we get a bang and cloud of smoke off to the side, mostly obscured. When the characters shoot guns, that's mostly what they do, we rarely get to see what their effects are unless it's highly obscured and off to the side. Nolan always keeps the camera solely on the characters, never on the results of their actions, nor are the characters usually doing much more than shooting at half seen "bad guys".
When the characters have more to do, such as in a brief on foot chase or the above altering gravity scene, the action is good. But the majority is just the uninvolving action of killing half visible at most baddies with no character nor emotional impact. And considering there's a lot of action at times, that steals a lot of screen time.
So, Inception is either a great sci-fi idea that you've not been introduced to, or an average movie with a sci-fi idea that you've seen done much better elsewhere.