A quite complex, slightly entertaining piece.

Rating: 6/10 (26 July 2010)

I will start off by saying that this movie does deserve attention. There is some merit to the writing and cinematography. In fact, some would allege that this is undoubtedly the greatest movie released thus far in 2010, and while I'd agree, I'd disagree to the numerous claims about this being one of the greatest films of all time.
(some spoilers) I'll start with the characters. I cannot remember any of their names in the movie, except for Leonardo's wife (Mel? or some short name starting with an "M"). Yes, I cannot even recall what Leonardo's character's name is. I, like several other reviewers, do not think that the movie took enough time to explore the characters and to get a feel for them. I could care less when the heir to the company dies.
Of course, the film spends a very large portion of time exploring Leonardo's past. Yet, this time could be better spent doing something else, like creating some more emotion or searching several of the other characters' pasts. His character is extremely stolid throughout the movie, save for some flashbacks and towards the end when he comes to his realization about his wife. I was not incredibly impressed with his performance.
Then to the plot, the ever so hard to summarize plot... Well, I can dig intelligent stories, but this story has such a convoluted storyline that it's slightly ridiculous. The story is so complicated that it spends too much time introducing everything and little time developing anything.
I feel as though the first 15-20 minutes is completely worthless, for it leaves any viewer clueless and establishes little. Sure, the top (which is a clever motif) makes its first appearance, but its importance is not even discussed until later.And sure, the end forms a sort of thematic circle that leads back to the beginning, but that was absolutely unnecessary because it established nothing. And sure, the idea that the projections in a dream rebel against the dreamer is hinted at as well, but this entire concept is later explained, and no reference to this part is even necessary. Wasted time.
One of my major gripes in this film is the wasted time. It dragged because the story spent so much time trying to hammer in Leonardo's story to the point of exhaustion. Yet, with all this time, NONE of it was spent developing any other character. The same people with whom Leonardo would end up trusting his life and mission were simply figures used to further the plot. Useless. It felt at least three and a half hours long to me...
Now, my last major gripe is the fact that this is complex purely for the sake of being complex. Yes, I understand the story. Yes, I found it a little entertaining. No, I do not rate this movie highly in my list. Why? Because it is incredibly drawn-out and fairly unoriginal. The concept of going through others' dreams has been done. The concept of "dream within a dream" (Edgar Allan Poe) has been done before. The concept of taking a corporation down has been done before. It's simply taking several interesting plot ideas and trying to glue them together. For me, the result is not cohesive enough. Fair enough to those who truly enjoyed the film.