INCEPTION

Went to see Inception.

I'm a big fan of Chris Nolan's - Momento I thought was a great movie and what he did rescuing Batman from 3rd rate Hell was terrific - so I was really looking forward to it. Of course my assessment might have been affected by the rotten sound system they have in the King's Lynn Empire but a few inaudible sentences aside I have to declare myself disappointed.

On the plus side: I thought Leonardo DiCaprio was excellent in the lead role and the idea behind the story - the infiltration of an idea into the subconscious of a dreaming man - original and provocative.

The problem I had was this bright, sparkling idea became weighed down with too much baggage. It might have been better to have dumped the three-level of consciousness tip and merely tried to make the one-level consciousness a more intiguing place.

I also thought - unusually for Nolan - that his imagination faltered when he was presenting the sub-conscious: it looked too much like home. I put a lot of this down to the lighting: if the sub-conscious had been rendered in an off-kilter colour then it would have gone a long way to upping the 'this is wierd' ante and making it more disturbing. If the tone of 'Franklyn' could have been introduced...

The final act was also a muddle and went on way too long. In fact the film was too long period and some of the peripheral characters were crying out to be culled.

So all-in-all a disappointment. But I'm pleased to see it doing well at the box office: it is a daring film and all the more power to Chris Nolan for having the balls to do it.

Score: Rod 6/10 for execution (9/10 for style)
Nell 8/10
Kit 6/10
Ellie 7/10