This review was originally published on Lucien, Cameras, Action in July 2010. It is appropriate that this sci-fi thriller from director Christopher Nolan is released so soon after James Cameron’s record-breaking hit Avatar. For everything that was stupid, ugly, undeveloped, incomplete and unenjoyable about that terrible film is brought to such an excellent level in this magnificent achievement in filmmaking, that it proves how awful a director Cameron really is. Inception is undoubtedly the best film made in several years, better even than Nolan’s last masterpiece, The Dark Knight. In this, he piles everything great about all the greatest films ever into one spectacular epic that every single person that watches will want to go back and see several times. I have, so far, watched Inception, three times, just one week after its release, and I would be very happy to return and pay to see it many more times. Nolan doesn’t need Cameron’s gimmicks of 3D and motion-capture to captivate his audience. He’s a storyteller, and they can make an audience gasp, laugh, cry and shout without them …