This film engages the audience from the very beginning and keeps you hanging on the edge of your seat with eyes wide open until the very end. The superb cast of the movie led by Leonardo DiCaprio and fellow young ubertalents Joseph Gordon Levitt, Cillian Murphy, and Ellen Page is balanced by the gravitas of Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, and Tom Berenger. The mind bending special effects action stuntwork in the hotel scene keeps the audience in awe and amazement as to how such a feat can be possible, except in a dream. This movie is not for the casual movie-goer; and although the plot challenges the audience to actively engage the cerebrum to follow along, it also hand-holds and reminds you of the superstructure of the plot so that one cannot get too lost through the complexities of Christopher Nolan's fictitious dream-exploring. The scoring for the film is also excellent, however, you may be too distracted by the awesomeness of everything else to notice. Oscar records-setter???

This is the second Chris Nolan film I've walked out of saying "Wow!" repeatedly. It honestly feels like something his brother, Johnathan would have written (like Memento). The great thing about Inception (and Nolan) is that it doesn't try to dumb down anything for the audience. The concepts are explained, yes, but the audience is expected to keep up after that. As a result, Inception could warrant a second (or even third) viewing to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together. This is a great Ensemble film. The movie feels like an Ocean's Eleven or a well written Mission: Impossible episode. Every member has something to offer here, with Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt being the major standouts. Even Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy add some great touches. Overall, though, the story is carried by Leonardo DiCaprio (and Marion Cotillard, to some degree). Through the course of their mission - to enter someone's dream and implant an idea - you worry about the characters.

The acting, cinematography, and story concept are all great. This is definitely an original. However, I was not blown away as much as I was expecting to be, especially with all of the hype I kept hearing. Maybe my expectations were too high. There were definitely some "Matrix" elements, and some really cool effects that make this worth seeing. But some of the layering just got to be too much for me, and when you see it you'll know what I'm talking about. It was well written and acted.

Excellent movie for the viewer who is interested in an intellectual excercise rather than just passive entertainment. I'm still trying to "peel the layers of the onion" as to the dream within a dream within a dream. One of the most entertaining and interesting movies I've seen this year. This movie is probably aimed at a demographic of 20 to 40 year olds looking for a departure from the norm in cinematic experiences.

The person I saw the movie with gave it the best compliment. He thought it must have been adapted from a book because the story was so coherent. I agree. It was extremely well written and very well acted and directed. I never read reviews of science fiction movies until after I see the movie because critics invariably tell you too much about the story and only rarely figure out what is important in the movie. This movie avoids making the most serious error a sci-fi movie can make: It avoids confusing science fiction with science fantasy. Good science fiction takes a premise, in this case that a third party can have access to your dreams, and then shows you the real world as though that premise were true. Despite several intricate and overlapping story lines, this movie never loses its way. A plausible reason exists for everything that happens within the parameters of the story. This movie is a meld of Dreamscape and Dark City, but far superior to either one. Bravo