Good by summer blockbuster standards, but no masterpiece

Rating: 6/10 (18 July 2010)

Dreams are both endlessly fascinating, and utterly tedious. Fascinating in what they represent, tedious whenever anyone tries to explain one to you. This is Inception. There's an undercurrent of something great here, but it's spoiled by the mundanity of the mechanics of trying to make the story make 'sense'. Dreams don't make sense, they're abstract. But Chrisptopher Nolan tries desperately to make the dreams in Inception follow rules. Endless rules. So many rules the story starts to wither under the weight of them. Which is a shame, as dreams are the perfect playground to create something remarkable. I feel Inception failed to make it there.
The performances are mostly excellent, with Marion Cotillard particularly good in a role that's deliberately underwritten. There's some great visuals in there as well, even if things exploding in slow motion does start to get a bit old towards the end.
I'd rather watch something this well crafted over Transformers 3 any day of the week, but I left Inception with a definite feeling of disappointment at what could have been.