An excellent thought-provoking sci-fi thriller from Christopher Nolan

Rating: 9/10 (19 July 2010)

With the onslaught of dumb action movies that came out over the last 2 years, Inception is a welcome to return to the Hitchcock style of intelligent suspense and drama.
Every actor in this movie gives an incredibly strong performance, i've never liked any film Leonardo DiCaprio has been in before (except for Gangs of New York) but this gave me new found respect for the man. But Joseph Gordon-Levitt steals the show, he's really witty and a great person to watch. It's a shame that DiCaprio's character took the spotlight so much, i would have loved to have seen more of Gordon- Levitt's character.
The story and plot is extremely complicated and may take 2 viewings to completely understand, many previews claim Inception is a "heist" film, it isn't, the heist is not even the main focus of the story. The Main plot it about the power of an idea, how it interweaves with memories and dreams, and how an idea can make/break someone's life.
The Special Effects are incredible, but the really big special effects scenes are obvious IMAX moments that Nolan has a habit of making (think back to The Dark Knight when Batman was in Hong Kong and the camera panned around him stood on a skyscraper). There are plenty of scenes that use Slow-Mo, but the plot justifies it so it doesn't seem like a tired action gimmick completely. My favourite scene from the whole film is when Arthur (Gordon-Levitt) is floating around a hotel in zero gravity, and fighting with some bodyguards along the way.
The film was not completely flawless, the film was saturated with technical jargon. The film sometimes slowed down to a standstill to explain how it works, it's this problem that leaves no events of this film to the imagination (except the ending). This overuse of explanation is what makes the film so long, but the movie needs this explanation to keep people interested and not make them lost in the plot. I also didn't like the scene on the snow base, it seems in movies there's only so much that can be done on a snowy mountain. The ski chase is right out of Thunderball, oh and guess what, there's an avalanche too, it just had a few too many clichés But the biggest problem is the very end of the film, i personally didn't mind it, but my friend almost screamed with frustration at it. leaving something open to interpretation is all well and good, but when the film closes on it with no explanation when everything preceding it was explained into oblivion, it sticks out like a sore thumb and leaves some people alienated. It's easy to see why people hated the ending, they wanted a legit answer for the 2 and a half hours they just watched.
All in all, it's a great movie, not perfect, but it's going to be remembered as one of Nolans best, one for the intellectuals who love movies and love pulling them apart to analyse them.