I particularly loved how you think it's the protagonist seeking revenge, throughout the entire movie... but infact, it isn't. I also loved the ending, the foot steps. What do you think that means? Do you think it means 'the monster' walked away? Or do you think it was simply a mistake by the hypnotist, and he will figure out everything. I loved the ending.

time had obviously passed.....both characters had grey hair and showed signs of age.....he loves her and knows this is his daughter...but cannot break himself away from a relationship with her and yet cannot tell her what they have done.....while in trance he is told that the monster walks away...and in 70 steps dies peacefully....when he wakes he is probably around 70 paces from the chair he was in....i think the most important part about the trance scene and from what i can tell a very overlooked part is the tape recorder....it ends (this is the best part and most gratifying part of Woo-jin's revenge....the tape recording of them have sex).....

so i think he knows nothing of her other than a lover....but

i think the weirdest part of the ending is that there are no tracks left by the hypnotist.....

i think in many ways this entire movie is more about redemption than it is about revenge

First, the relationship between Leo and Marion Cotillard--which is absolutely central to the suspense in the film... it just didn't feel right. Like, I see what he was going for with it as far as the emotional content but it could've been explained a little better--despite Ellen Page's repeated warnings, it was never really clear the what danger she actually posed to the team was or why. Even though it's compelling at the time, not being totally clear on that takes a lot of wind out of the movie's sails on immediate reflection.

Second, there are a lot of minor plot holes I'm willing to ignore in the name of suspension-of-disbelief, but a couple major ones did stand out, eg: the one succinctly phrased in the "Inception Meme" going around: (link). I can think of a million ways that could've been addressed--perhaps even ones that would lend a layer to the big question of the movie (by which I mean, the open-ended aspect of it referenced by the final shot) but it was just sort of overlooked.

Third, and this is sort of the central criticism, the tone of the film felt a little off. It feels like the movie was about the nature of reality, what's real and what isn't and places where those lines blur. That totally begs for well-done surrealism, but aside from a few cool special effects (Joseph Gordon Levitt in rapidly shifting or absent gravity, Ellen Page bending the city and making reality out of mirrors) that were mostly just accents, the movie felt a little too straightforward and logical for its subject matter. The whole idea relies on dreams being controllable and predictable and structured (right down to a formula for the relationship between dream-time and real time)--just an environment where the mind otherwise functions like it would consciously--and that just rings a little false. It leaves one with the feeling that there's so much untapped potential in the story and that Nolan could've stretched it a little more to do something really interesting.