An unusual film that forces the audience to participate intellectually, but not without minor flaws

Rating: 8/10 (30 July 2010)

(Minor spoilers, but nothing major)
Just when I thought Christopher Nolan is past his prime in original, creatively intriguing work (Memento) with a re-make and two entries in the superhero movie re-boot, Chris surprises the audience with a complex, multi-layered story that forces the audience to think in "solving" the jigsaw puzzle of the multiple-dream-parallel plot that might confound logic, but which might make sense only when you have it all figured out by the end.
The condition is that when you go to see this movie, you must be willing to participate intellectually. And pay close attention, from beginning to the end for clues. If you cannot do that, maybe you should do yourself a favor and skip this movie and watch Transformers series instead that emphasize mindless storyline & characterization with explosions and repetitive action.
I hated Batman Begins (Chris directed this film as a large-scale film so he could handle the challenge of directing bigger films later). I thought The Dark Knight is alright, except for the flat last half-hour. I don't expect anything more from Chris, until he surprised me with a neatly structured story that tells the audience to figure it out, or you're lost.
Unlike some moviegoers who had to return to see it the second time to try to fully comprehend the puzzling story, I totally get it the first time through, even though I have questions about some parts that might be ambiguous ("is this real or just a dream?"), especially the typical happy ending.
You have to *think* proactively throughout the movie to get the movie the first time through, because the story is so precisely multi-faceted it would be difficult to follow, let alone enjoy, the movie if you don't pay attention and instead eat over-buttered popcorn and slurp soda in your mouth in oblivion to the unraveling story.
I commend Mr. Nolan for his splendid job in authoring a complex screenplay. He must have used the index cards and drafting papers to draw up the complex plot populated with characters, and actually make it work in terms of impeccable structure without destroying it later in the movie, such as nakedly obvious plot hole and impossible logic. Of course, Inception is only a movie, however high concept.
I would think Inception is possibly the most expensive "art" movie yet produced, because the script is classically "uncommercial" in studio perspective. Mr. Nolan is said to have made Inception on condition that the studio gives him a budget to produce the movie, or he would not return to direct the third Batman movie.
Given Nolan's background, when he made a debut feature film in Great Britain for a measly $6,000, he played the studio game with the roll of a well-timed and well-shook dice, and won the gamble. Only Steven Spielberg, George Lucas (independent) and James Cameron have the commanding power to do whatever they want, and Nolan is joining this exclusive club of "total creative freedom." Inception, however wild the concept is, was borne with the rare degree of uncompromised creative freedom, and Nolan have given the audiences exactly what they want: a thrilling action movie that is also unusually challenging and mystifying to solve, just by using the gift of the educated or at least averagely intelligent mind that might double enjoyability in entertainment value.
There are parts that I might dislike, and that is the focus on Leonardo DiCaprio character's relationship with a deceased loved one that might feel detracting in the long run, even though this detraction is the point that a lucid dream tend to have an interfering element. And the ending is ambiguously weird, for sure, subject to interpretation.
As usual, Nolan felt obliged to populate the film with gun-toting bad guys for action's sake, and I find that a bit annoying. By injecting action element in the movie, Nolan made it elevate to commercial so the studio knows how to sell the film. Without gun-blazing action for thriller's sake, the film might be leaden in prolonged plotting and pacing.
Flaws notwithstanding, Inception is ultimately a neat high-concept movie that is challenging to follow using the mind to unlock the puzzle to understand precise plot, and it's a contender as one of the best movies of this year. Inception beats the pool of lame and mindless movies by standing out as the ultimate thinking man's thriller not seen since Michael Mann's best film The Insider.
And I hope Nolan doesn't screw up with further films that might be progressively worse in terms of quality that surrender to contrivance, as had happened to current perpetual-hack director M. Night Shyamalan, who became a one-trick pony with The Sixth Sense.
*** 1/2 out of 4