Overwritten...with sensational imagery

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2010)

I doubt any film could have lived up to the hype surrounding this one. I thought "The Dark Knight" was about the best action film ever to hit the screen, and "Memento" a clever puzzle that engaged.
"Inception" has the look of a great film, but it's about as heavy-handed as any film I can think of. We're constantly stopping to hear a long explanation of the new rules of dream logic that got us to...something that isn't at all dream-like. And by the time we hit the slope on skis it seemed so weighted down by mundane "action," I lost all interest.
The first 30 minutes or so when you don't have your footing on what's going on are the most satisfying. But once the explanations start (and they never approach the cleverness of "Memento") tedium sets in.
Logic is abandoned: Who says that if you die in a dream you never wake up? Why is one person's projection lethal and another's isn't? How can an "architect" of one person override another's? On and on.... And "just because" really isn't a satisfying answer for a film that purports to be a sensation.
Visually, it can draw gasps. Intellectually, it's just plain silly. And the entire length works against any excitement. I'd have voted for one less dream within a dream.
There's a 1962, 28 minute short film, "La Jetée" which is likely the source for Nolan's idea. It devastates the viewer with much less fuss than all this $160 million dollar rattling and rolling.