Our second thunderously approving take on Christopher Nolan's new SF outing...

"If you can steal an idea from someone's head, why can't you plant one instead?"

The veil of secrecy pulled over Inception since its green light in 2009 isn't hard to understand - were Christopher Nolan's confidence not obvious in every scene, viewers and critics alike wouldn't be surprised if the director exhibited insecurity in the knowledge that his new film couldn't possibly match the success of The Dark Knight. Its plot is designed with such precision and imagination, moreover, that repeat viewings are all but essential to allow complete comprehension. In the same way that Toy Story 3 makes you cry so much that you need to see it at least twice to enjoy the jokes your tears obscured, Inception begs a second viewing to allow the superb ensemble performance and spectacular visuals to be fully enjoyed, without having to crack the labyrinthine story.

"This is a film certain to feature in the end-of-year lists and also proof that while Hollywood might seem preoccupied with remakes, needless sequels and 3D, real originality and vision is still possible in cinema"

What is Inception? Without giving anything away, it's a thriller that's also a philosophical musing, a love story within a heist movie, an action epic that seems close to courting convention only to toss viewer assumptions aside. Mostly, it's confirmation that Nolan is the most audacious and technically skilled blockbuster director working today. He made one of the finest films of 2008 with The Dark Knight, combining fine performances, explosive set pieces and a subtext-laden screenplay and with Inception, he's set an immensely high bar for 2010. This is a film certain to feature in the end-of-year lists and also proof that while Hollywood might seem preoccupied with remakes, needless sequels and 3D, real originality and vision is still possible in cinema.

It's also a commendably deceptive film that almost invites your scepticism before offering another example of its invention and depth. Even after its daring opening, darting through time and space, and a magnificent, hi-def, super slo-mo collision of the real and dream worlds exemplified through a crashing tower of water, it's not unreasonable to see Inception as an ambitious but formulaic crime thriller. The excellent Leonardo DiCaprio's motivation as the world's "most skilled extractor" Dom Cobb - namely a master thief of the mind - could have been outlined in Cop Drama 101, with "one last job" offering a chance to clear his name. Our predictably broken-hearted leading man even has a bright young assistant (Ellen Page's Ariadne - note the name, Classics scholars… ) and sidekicks both menacing (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and wisecracking (Tom Hardy). The action is frenetic, the suits are sharp and a ski chase sequence proves Nolan could be trusted with the Bond reins as well as feeling entirely appropriate for the glamorous crime flick that Inception seems on the surface.

"Inception reaches greater emotional heights than you might assume from the infamous 'folding rooftops' shot of the trailer"

Yet it's so much more than the "sci-fi actioner" promised by the promotional bumph. While touching on technical touches familiar to Nolan - rooftop and helicopter shots, foreground hypermotion with background slo-mo - it also envisages a multi-dimensional world in which the laws of physics are irrelevant and an M.C. Escher staircase seems entirely possible. The dictums of dreamland are clearly defined, with a real world five minutes akin to an hour of dream time, that 'falling feeling' a method of rousing the dreamer and death in a dream resulting, usually, in waking in the real world. But in exploring the complexity of the title concept of planting notions in the head of the dreamer, addressing the Catholic concept of limbo or delving into the self-harm of the subconscious, it reaches greater emotional heights than you might assume from the infamous 'folding rooftops' shot of the trailer.

There are ticking clocks, atonal blasts and pulsing synths on Han Zimmer's score but the music accompanies breathtaking action as often as resounding intellectual impact. And while a spinning top provides a symbolic lynchpin for the challenging story - you really may need a second viewing to fully grasp the chain of events - Inception is as much about the passions of the heart as the whims of the head. Like all the finest sci-fi films, Inception holds a mirror to the real world and invites us to consider father-son dynamics and the strength of ill-feeling and regret. We might race through dreams within dreams or watch without blinking as a Paris street implodes around Cobb and Ariadne but we'll also linger on the notions of loss and memory as powerfully as we did after Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Solaris or Moon. Tom Hardy's master of disguise Eames might batter and bomb his way through a thrilling mountaintop explosion while Gordon-Levitt dances in faltering gravity and a minivan tumbles to seeming oblivion but, simultaneously, Nolan's screenplay dares us to consider marital devotion, bereavement and the possibility of a self-conceived heaven.

This is a bold and brilliantly conceived modern classic that mixes mathematics and philosophy with high-octane action and never condescends to the viewer nor courts the lowest common denominator. The highest compliment to be paid to Inception comes from Ariadne's description of the dreamscape after a jarring first visit - "it's pure creation".

Lewis Bazley at Twitter

Inception IMAX review

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