Inception

It's Leo's characters and mood from Shutter Island, the plot of a heist movie, concept on par with Enternal Sunshine of a Spotless mind with the dramatic pace and action of The Dark Knight. All and all it's pretty awesome. Is it worthy of the worship many people are giving it? Well I hate to judge movies in comparison to other movies coming out in a season (one of the best movies of the summer? Obviously), but even on a general film level, its concept is creative, its effects are clever as well as cool to look at, and its story is interesting. It is certainly note worthy, but its just short of a masterpiece. Kinda like Avatar, only less cliche.

Inception has already gotten that reputation of being an intellectual thriller, and while I don't disagree with this, I don't think it's so complicated that it warrants the "warning" that people can't follow it. Christopher Nolan has always had very intricate plots in his movies where he's gone through small details very quickly.
The first twenty minutes give us a jumble of scenes that we're trying to figure out how it fits together, but then we're saved by Ellen Page, the newcomer in the group, and because Ellen Page is a newcomer, everything has to be explained to her, therefore everything (eventually) is explained to us. So as long as you hold on through that first bit, everything else should fall into place.

In the meantime, Inception is truly more action than cerebral. The cerebral part is centrally the movies setting and technology, but the movie is an action thriller.

What's not really a downside but more of a missed opportunity is the very literal portrayal of the dreams. Aside from Ellen Page making Paris fold in half, nothing strange or fantasy-esque happens in the dreams. No one takes advantage of the sheer creativity and wackiness that commences in dreams. Even Freddy Kruger turned himself into a phone. This is what really makes this movie a action thriller and technically less of a science fiction film.

Leo continues to prove his worth as a dramatic actor even though he's essentially doing the same character from Shutter Island. The rest of the cast does a pretty good job, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 days of summer) was especially impressive.

Overall, fun creative action movie with that little something extra. Thanks Chris Nolan.