Masterful filmmaking

Rating: Null/10 (5 October 2012)

To me one of the marks of a great film is that I can watch it again and again and always find something new, something that I missed the last time or something that I had forgotten, but which I now saw again and learned to appreciate it even more. I have that here, with Inception. People also often use the word tight to describe a great film. Tight as in everything seems to fit together, the details support one another and the film feels like a lot of thought has been put into it. I have that with Inception.
Is the movie perfect, though? No, because no movie really is. There are some minor plot points that don't really add up and there are some really vocal people out there that complain about the rules of the dreaming. Some claim that there shouldn't be any rules, some claim that the rules make no sense. I especially despise the former ones. I liked that Christopher Nolan tried to establish clearly set rules into the dreaming. These rules give us purpose, they allow us to form expectations, they allow us to speculate, to discuss the details of what we have just seen. So I don't really understand what these people are trying to accomplish when they claim that there shouldn't be any rules. Perhaps they think that randomness equals art and were expecting this film to be one big explosion of crazy imagery and drug-induced madness. I don't know, I just like forming theories, for which I require rules.
Nevertheless, whether you agree with the form of dreaming that this film has, it's a great film. And not just because of the complex and rather unique story, but also because it has an ensemble cast, rich and detailed characters, imaginative imagery and an ending that's still the only one that has earned a standing ovation from the crowd. Well, the only one that I've ever seen.
To whom I might recommend this film? To everyone, frankly speaking. The film is so multilayered, so complex in design and execution, that I can't really think of a person that wouldn't enjoy at least some part of it. One of the greatest scifi movies there is and one of my personal favourites of all time.