I wrote a small essay in order to keep up with the story and even then, only by the skin of my teeth.
But then, in the final few minutes, when the big bad thing has seemingly been avoided, I was in a maze of incomprehensibility again.
This film is all about the ying and yang, how everything needs balance, but Nolan failed to see that the ability to follow this story also needs the same balance. Travel far enough and you'll come back on yourself, bury your hand in ice, it will feel like it's burning... make a film that is so intelligent... it's dumb again.
Nolan has been given the impression that the audience are smart: they could cope with Inception, yup, it was great. But then Nolan must have thought "so, the audience can follow complex plot-lines... of any complexity" and forgot that we are not in his head and being lost in his own bubble.
A couple of moments in the film throw us totally off and require many re-watches to figure out but some are dumb: at one point, our uninspiring protagonist (why this actor?!) shoots at himself and nothing can explain that away. He is trying to kill himself...?!
And then there are the masks: pretty much our only clear indication that things are running in reverse. But Nolan mucks around with that concept too, confusing us further.
You can have too much intelligence. You can have too much of anything.
Unsatisfying.
Oh, and stop it with the "saving one person against the world" thing. We get it. It's been done.
