Sorry to say, my fears regarding Christopher Nolan's Inception came to pass. It's an enjoyable movie, yet I kept wanting to enjoy it more. It's a visually spectacular movie, but - as is often the case with Nolan - a somewhat cold and emotionally unengaging one. It's also overlong and unnecessarily complex. With its dream inside a dream inside a dream inside a dream plotline it felt like Nolan & co. had leapt to the messy threequel without properly exploring what was a fun premise to begin with. And most disappointing of all, certain inconsistencies of plot, unanswered threads, and a two dimensional supporting cast suggested that most hoary of cinematic cliches. While Nolan steered away from explicitly delivering this during the movie's final moments (a la Shyamalan) the film did - perhaps even more frustratingly - hint at it, as though the writers wanted this to be a twist that movie anoraks will debate endlessly for years to come. "Ah, but was his wife telling the truth? Was he actually...?"
But don't let all that put you off. Inception is definitely the best and most imaginative blockbuster of the summer thus far (though it has been a pretty dire summer) and it is a film you ought to see at the cinema. It proves, indisputably, that we don't need 3D to make our eyes pop out. Indeed, 3D would only have spoiled the tremendous sfx on show here, so kudos to Nolan for not jumping on that particular lame bandwagon.
On the Nolan-ometer, Inception falls below Memento, The Prestige and The Dark Knight. It's Batman Begins all over again: thoughtful, fun and spectacular in parts yet too long, too cold and flawed overall. Still, a better flick than many other contemporary film makers could dream of delivering. Just not as gripping as it might have been.
