Spectacular, but lacking a human touch.

Rating: 7/10 (28 July 2010)

This review will be no doubt lost in the absolute sea of opinions on this movie, but part of me has to wonder if its herd mentality that is giving this movie such high ratings? I walked into the film expecting to be absolutely blown away, like i was when i walked out of the Dark Knight, i could hardly envision a way Nolans squeal could be bettered, Inception however shouldn't really be mentioned in the same breath.
Usually in a movie, we want strong characters, emotional development, relevant action, a story that is told chronologically, all topped off with a good twist. I didn't really feel inception offered me any of these, if you haven't read above, this contains spoilers.
The development was interesting, you know from the start that scenes are being thrown at your head so it can come together in a puzzle towards the end, but unfortunately, there is no end, there's not even a puzzle. We follow Leonardo, as Cobb, who seeks to do the impossible, planting an idea in someones head, to make them believe that what they are doing is their own will. It is difficult, but we never really have reason to take the side of the Cobb here, i found the explanation as to why Fischer Jr taking over the company was such a bad idea? I assume its just because they told us that.
But this is were the problems started, for instance to begin with the audience was never aware of what the plan was, and while i must admit, the whole thing was bewildering and intense, i never really had a solid grasp on what each 'level' meant as they stacked dreams ontop of one another.
There was a lot of action that happened, and the visuals were amazing, but the endless fight scenes felt pointless and not that relevant to the story, when you had several different scenes intertwined, i couldn't really connect with any of them. It just seemed like a lot of stuff on the screen? It actually reminded me of the Star Wars prequals, and you know its not going well when that happened.
The characters here were not the strong point either, none of their rolls were explained at all and apart from Leonardo we arn't really sure who they are, why they're there, and what they're actually doing?
And THAT ending, you could see it coming from the moment he 'woke up'. That was not really the twist i expected from Nolan.
On the happy side, the story was unique, the visuals breathtaking, and the messages were worth seeing the film for. It really gives you an appreciation of the power of an idea, and anyone watching this film can't help but feel there is a small amount of this that relates in how we use a perception filter to grasp the world around us.
Inception is a good film, and i recommend you see it, but maybe its just a little 4 dimensional for me.