Saw it with
By far the most technically immaculate film I've seen in recent memory, probably not saying a lot - it's been a long time since I was so enraptured by what's going on screen. Nitpicking would've been a futile exercise in itself since I do it so often with the movies I watch, so instead it was much better to wonder where else this film was capable of taking its audience. I would totally watch it again and then grab the dvd off the shelves for the behind the scenes extras and commentary.
Ok. That was a bit of gushing on my part.
I read the Inception comic prequel "The Cobol Job" that the guys at Udon worked on in web-format. The panel by panel thing the site had in flash was terrible, so I just yanked the pdf instead. It provides a rather compressed exposition without giving any ideas away. In hindsight I like how it introduced us to Ken Watanabe's character as Mr. Saito.
There were lots of little things I liked about the movie, things I'd love to see expanded even further in commentary or as a short side story expansion. If they were all included into the film, it'd have been much longer than the 2.5 hour rollercoaster ride it was. There was a slight bit of emotional and conceptual/imaginary restraint Nolan has that kept the film from spiraling into the psychedelic nonsense that was "The Cell", but it's the kind of restraint that works within the boundaries of the film itself.








Here's to hoping we see more.
I think Fischer could only go with Saito in level 3 because Yusuf is in charge of the kickback in level 1, Arthur is in charge of the kickback in level 2, Cobb is compromised because of Mal (though it ended up not making a difference because she showed up anyway), Eames is already running interference against the bulk of the projections, and Ariadne's the architect (she designed the maze, so if she was to accompany Fischer she'd stick out like a beacon for the projections). Ariadne's also looking after Cobb because she's the only one who really knows what's going on with Cobb's subconscious.