The first great film of the decade

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2010)

With Inception, Christopher Nolan carries on his great work from both Memento and The Dark Knight, and the result is like a cerebral Bond film (indeed, the ski chase seemed like a rather overt homage); it has the complex narrative structure of the former by deviating from conventions in both time and space, and at the same time the unusual ambition and explosive action of the latter. Furthermore, I think he managed to pull it off in both aspects excellently.
With a whole dream (within a dream (within a dream)) world to explore, it would have been easy for Nolan to resort to sheer tricksterism. While it does feature some amazing effects, like the rotating hotel and a city folding in on itself, it does not really come across as showing off.
A common complaint about Inception seems to be that the first half spends too much time lecturing its audience on how dreams work and what can be done in them. While it is a rather extensive segment, I found it highly entertaining even on repeated viewings, and it does help the film to delve deeper into Leonardo DiCaprio's complex character. Admittedly, it could certainly have been told in a more economic fashion, but in a grand film like Inception, it only seems fair that most parts are fleshed out – the second half provides more than enough action to satisfy the viewer anyway.
Another recurring complaint has been that the dream worlds are not dreamlike enough. Except for some minor details, the dream worlds do look a great deal like the real world, but I for one have dreams that resemble Inception a whole lot more than, say, Last Year at Marienbad.
That being said, Inception is certainly not without flaws. For instance, it's easy to succeed with the mission if you keep coming up with new rules for the dream worlds as you go along, and I also felt that most of the characters (save DiCaprio's) were sort of underdeveloped, but that would make sense if it all takes place in DiCaprio's dream, which seemed like one out of several possible interpretations. The rather subpar plot about trying to break up some giant conglomerate as well as the fact that the protagonist is being followed by a strange, underdeveloped corporation fits into that interpretation too. And in any event, this didn't bother me at all since it is such an intense and thought-provoking ride all along. All in all, Inception is probably the first really great film of the decade.