From a wannabe auteur/art-house cinephile's point of view I'll say, "Nolan, you sold out...".

Nolan had a very original concept, but then he treated it in a way very close to Memento, and then mixed it with strong elements of The Dark Knight, which produced 'Inception' a.k.a. Memento on Steroids.

The product was a very generic Hollywood blockbuster due to the use of lots of action sequences and explosions, even if they served a purpose in the story, they underwhelmed the original concept, and made the movie pretend to be bigger than it really is.

The script took turns on your brain, just like Memento and The Dark Knight, even though it;s way less smart than the first, it's pretty much like the latter, and at times it tries so hard, but felt like Nolan didn't invest more time finessing it.

Cinematography was pretty much neo-noir, it worked at times, but at others didn't serve much purpose.

Yet, it's a pretty decent blockbuster, and could be easily a public's favorite, it has an OK story with lots of flash and a "smart" plot that'd simply dazzle the public and make them feel that it was worth their time.

The best thing about this movie is the hotel corridor sequence, it really was the highlight of the movie.