Exceptional Movie, NOT a Paprika Rip Off

Rating: 8/10 (17 July 2010)

In the spirit of full disclosure I am a Chris Nolan fan boy who was patiently awaiting this release for the last couple years. While it is an exceptional ground breaking film, it sadly did not live up to my expectations. An 8/10 from me is normally a very high compliment coming from me, as I've only given out a handful of 9's and 10's, but this is a movie that could have been so much more.
I actually got very excited when I read some reviews here on IMDb suggesting parallel's to Paprika (or saying Nolan flat out ripped the movie off, actually according to Wikipedia this script has been in development for over a decade). Paprika's dream world was flat out insane and took multiple viewings to really dive into the nuances.
The dream world in Inception, in my opinion, is all too real, while it deals with manufactured dreams I would expect a dream world to be riddled with contradictions and nonsense. I left the theater feeling like I got the entire movie, whereas going in I expected to leave in a daze eager for another viewing to try and figure things out. It's not often I want a movie to be less coherent and logical, but with the nature of the subject matter I really expected nothing less.
That said this was a bold movie for mainstream Hollywood to make, there has never been anything like it shot in live action. The cast was phenomenal, not a single weak link. Even the extra's acted well. Ellen Page's performance really stuck out, she's on her way to becoming a super star.
The cinematography was spectacular with even the few scenes dealing with dream-induced pseudo-reality seeming oddly real. What is amazing is that the movie was shot in analog and not digital, non-technical people may not grasp just how impressive that is. Nolan likes the higher film quality and I think the results speak for themselves.
Nolan has delivered yet another groundbreaking top-250 hit and continues to expand a resume that is starting to challenge that of the likes of Kubrick and Hitchcock.