I would not go as far as David Edelstein who wrote:
“I truly have no idea what so many people are raving about. It’s as if someone went into their heads while they were sleeping and planted the idea that Inception is a visionary masterpiece and—hold on … Whoa! I think I get it. The movie is a metaphor for the power of delusional hype—a metaphor for itself”
but Inception was a bit disappointing. Nolan doesn’t display as much control as on The Dark Knight. The introducing scene is kind of a mess and gives you the feeling you are looking a low budget-movie (cf. street explosions and riots).
There are many good ideas, the spinning top obviously being one of the best. But the going-out of the dream mecanism remains unclear and the Marion Cotillard part is not as exciting as it could have been. The worst part is that by trying to make it all stick together, by trying to explain everything and make it look logical, Nolan doesn’t succeed in making it clearer and breaks the movie’s rythm. Again, the Dark Knight was amazing at this but Inception’s final scene (4 scenes in 1: the bridge falling car, the hotel room, the snow facility and the limbos) is too much of a challenge to handle narratively. It ends up being a rather boring sequence with unnecessary action scenes.
What could have been a masterpiece is ‘just’ a good SF movie.
