Calm down there, fan-boys.

Rating: 6/10 (11 November 2014)

Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for most of Nolan's (and his brothers') works, but this one just doesn't rise up to the standard of filmmaking that we're used to from these guys.
Where to start? The overtly obvious and cliché ending? If you've seen any movie involving space-time puzzles and paradoxes, you see it coming from miles away. One might say that's not the point of the movie, that we should rather see it as a story of love and affection and whatever. Well, sorry folks, the Nolans seem to talk the talk but they can't walk the walk. The "dramatic" content of this film is barely above that of a romantic comedy. It relies too heavily on time paradoxes but doesn't really give us the psychological background of the characters, as to why they do what they do.
Some cliché shots: explanation of the worm hole is exactly the same as in Event horizon. The girl running after the car of the departing father, only to be held by another loved one, queue dramatic music- wow, I haven't seen that before. The "beings" (or us in the future) simplifying their reality so it suits our cognitive capacities-come on Matthew, you've done that movie already! The robots look like Monoliths from 2001. Well, if you're gonna be inspired by Kubrick, be inspired by the sheer emotional and psychological subtlety and precision that makes 2001 a masterpiece.
"Human nature" is a very easy answer to explain both all the evil and all the goodness that is going on. Yeah we have survival instinct, also compassion for our loved ones, which may come into conflict with the overall goal of our survival as species. So where are all these forced-tear-jerker scenes coming from? What else is new since 2001 or Solaris? Is that all there is to it? A movie with this much ambition and hype was supposed to be a milestone in the genre, but instead it is a faint copy, easily forgettable. What we've seen previously from these guys in films like The Following, Memento and also in Dark Knight, hell, even Inception, is that they really know how to create memorable characters with unique insight into their psychological background. None of that complexity is to be found in this movie. The characters are made from cardboard and they feel like repetitions of other sci- fi movie stereotypes.
The dramatic substance of the movie, which is literally thrown to our faces every moment, does not live up to the quality of its' technical execution. Sure the visuals are great, but that's to be expected from a $169 million movie. Music is great too, though sometimes overused, but it's Hans Zimmer for crying out loud. What I enjoyed was the layout of the dystopic future, perhaps a little emphasis on how the world came to be that way would have made for a better and more plausible movie(don't even get me started on the absurd physics of this movie. good luck running from a black-hole).
Simply put, this film is by no means a 9, and it simply doesn't qualify for the top250 (though of course there are many titles there which don't qualify even for the top875384).