A masterpiece in structure, visuals, and special effects, but its dialogue remains wooden and it remains heavy with exposition.
Ten years to the day since its theatrical release, I think the movie is mostly aging well. The practical shots are really well done. Leo gives it his all. Nolan’s at his most impressive here, by a country mile. Probably Zimmer’s best score. I can listen to it all day while working and it doesn’t get old.
When the film was first released, I was bothered by the public’s obsession with the final shot. Who cares? It was a predictable and knowable final shot. But the rest of the film is like a Beatles record: you might have heard it hundreds of times, but some beats will always surprise you.
Nolan found his perfect sweet spot between Bond, Spielberg, and Hitchcock with Inception, and I don’t think he’ll ever do it again. (But I hope he proves me wrong with Tenet.)
Unrelated to the film: Made the mistake of giving my Blu-ray copy of this to somebody a while back, so we re-watched the digital copy. The Blu-ray looks and sounds 100x better. For films you love, discs are the way to go. Streaming adds a smeared layer of Vaseline to everything.