Christopher Nolan's Inception is one of his very best films.

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2010)

With the exception of the incredible Toy Story 3, the Summer movie season has been looking good, but not particularly great. All I can say is, thank God for Christopher Nolan, who has upped the season with a film that ranks among his very best work.
Inception takes place in a world where technology exists to enter the mind. Dom Cobb (Played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is an extractor, and the best at what he does: stealing ideas from people's heads. He is asked by a businessman named Saito (Played by Ken Watanabe), to perform Inception, to PLACE an idea in the mind of a rival company's heir, Robert Fischer (Played by Cillian Murphy). To do this, he assembles a team, such as team point man Arthur (Played by Jospeh Gordon-Levitt), forger Eames (Tom Hardy), and new team architect, Ariadne (Ellen Page). But once the mission is finally under way, they all soon find out that the stakes are higher than they thought, and Cobb must also deal with demons from his past not only tormenting his mind, but threatening to compromise the operation, and plunge the team into limbo.
Nolan has set up a reputation for himself over the years as an ambitious auteur, and Inception is a masterstroke of storytelling. He takes a while setting things up, and challenges the audience to keep up, but the pay off is a thrilling two and a half hours that flies right by. One terrific sequence worth mentioning is a dazzling hallway fight sequence where gravity goes haywire, and the film's teasing final short has you itching to revisit after only seconds.
Another thing that makes Inception great, is it's performances. The Inception team of DiCaprio, Gordon-Levitt, Page, Hardy, Dileep Rao, as well as "tourist" Ken Watanabe, are all wonderful. Marion Cotillard (who I won't go into detail about) is just great, though not quite the standout. That would be Cillian Murphy, in a subtle, but fantastic performance.
I also want to commend the tech crew who made this movie look, and sound to the highest level of craftsmanship you can get. The tech crew includes people who Nolan previously worked with on The Dark Knight (another great movie), such as DP Wally Pfister, Film editor Lee Smith (Especially!), Composer Hans Zimmer, Sound designer Richard King, and respective special & visual effects supervisors Chris Corbould, and Paul Franklin. They did their job wonderfully, making inconceivable, and unbelievable worlds conceivable, and believable.
The world of dreams is a complex, but unique thing as your mind creates the places, while you experience them. It could be of small, or gargantuan proportions, and Nolan has brilliantly executed this. It was my most anticipated film of the year, and it fully met (or even exceeded) my expectations.
However, as enthusiastic as I am about this movie, maybe to the point of too much enthusiasm, I must stress that Inception may not be a movie for everyone. If you're a fan of Nolan's previous work, you'll really like this one. If you're not, results may vary. It is, like I said, a very challenging film to fully take in. It's a film that demands strict attention, and could require multiple viewings to fully grasp, and understand. Never the less, I highly recommend seeing it.
Inception is a knockout Summer film that must not be missed. It's a thoroughly compelling, and challenging Sci-Fi, as well as a thoroughly entertaining, and thrilling heist movie.
In my opinion, one of the year's best films. I give it a very well earned **** out of ****