Certainly different but somewhat disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (10 December 2010)

Not many movies rate a 9/10, especially when averaged over almost a quarter of a million votes. So - devoted Sci-fi freak that I am (and being so often disappointed by cheap SF offerings), I was sure I was on a winner.
However after viewing the movie last night, I found it confusing and inconclusive. I understand the basic concept, that by entering a person's subconscious, it might be possible to steal or implant information / thoughts, without the subject later being aware - "It was all a dream".
However in the main phase of the movie, where Cobb (DiCaprio) is tasked by Saito (Watanabe) with implanting Fischer (Murphy) with an idea which will neutralise his rival, the end of the matter seems to be that Fischer, who always thought his Dad regarded his as a loser ("a disappointment") in fact simply wanted him to be himself i.e. to realise his own potential. Surely this would be empowering rather than diminishing or defeating, as Saito wanted.
The intrusion of Dom's wife Mal and kids into many scenes was an excessive distraction which seemed to get the movie too far from what was supposed to be happening. Interesting idea, that they'd already spent some 50 years together in a deep dream layer .. but a bit too far-fetched. Real dreamstates are certainly tinged with reality, but not the concrete reality expressed in the movie. Only when Dom enters his own world towards the end of the movie, do we see skyscrapers which look like plain cardboard boxes. It would have been unacceptable to audiences if the "dream invaders" had entered a more cloudy reality (the old idea of Heaven) as is commonly experienced in dreams.
I notice many reviewers who gave the movie a 9 or 10/10 say it must be viewed multiple times in order to be fully understood. Is this really the mark of a good movie these days, it must be studied like a high school text? I greatly prefer Spielberg's method of storytelling - complex and very entertaining but comprehensible in one sitting.
And what's with all the gunfire? I understand that subjects can be psychologically prepared to resist extraction or perhaps implantation, but much of the gunplay seemed gratuitous, simply there for audiences expected as some sort of crowd-pleaser.
The CGI and cinematography is first rate, but nothing really compensates if the basic story is not comprehensible.
Well it's a movie I will certainly keep in my SF collection, and no doubt I will watch it at least once more to try and see what others find so appealing. 6/10