Mission Impossible / Matrix Thriller That Doesn't Quite Work

Rating: 7/10 (19 July 2010)

A pity. A fine idea. Just not quite pulled off with enough cinematic craft and expertise. The script probably needed another draft to transform the talkative explanations into a more cinematic form.
A Mission Impossible IMF mixed with a Matrix-like world is a stunning idea. Unfortunately, Inception doesn't quite know whether it wants to be a human drama, a tragedy, a high-concept sci-fi flick or just a plain old thriller. It end up falling short of all of them.
And DiCaprio is miscast. Personally, I think he is an empty-shirt of an actor. All surface and no projection of any depth or enough intelligence for this role.
Inception runs over 2 hours, but feels heavily edited at the beginning and the end. Despite this, it takes its time wordily explaining the concept of 'inception', fails to develop any of the characters for the audience, relies on the bombastic Hans Zimmer soundtrack too much and utterly fails to build dramatic tension in the slow, too-drawn-out conclusion.
A great opportunity missed.