Inception is championed as the brainiest blockbuster of the summer, and I doubt anyone’s going to question that particular line of argument. I also doubt that it will leave you overly confused or lost, because for all its superficial complexities it is actually presented in a coherent way that never overcomplicates the basic premise. I’m now going to clumsily distort this premise and muddle things for those who’ve not seen it, so I apologise.

Brooding, squint-faced icon Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, a sort of dream policeman and thought wrangler who needs to complete one last mission in order to return home to his children and native land, from which he has been exiled. He partners with fellow man-child Joseph Gordon-Levitt in order to round up a bunch of sleepy reprobates to act as the team who are going to execute a multi-tiered act of industrial espionage through the medium of dreams.

The target for manipulation is Robert Fischer Jr (Cillian Murphy) who must be persuaded to dismantle his father’s energy empire through the act of inception, or inserting an alien thought into a host’s mind. Cobb is at the helm of the assault, but his troubled past literally haunts his dreams and threatens to derail the whole operation. Excellent support is provided by the loveably camp Tom Hardy and ivory-skinned Minpin Ellen Page, and although the direction of the script does verge into the realm of the silly from time to time, for the most part the cast manages to hold it together through the most ludicrous situations.

Now come the inevitable comparisons to The Matrix: Don’t worry, Inception isn’t very similar to The Matrix. You could join the dots between some surface similarities, such as some impressive wirework combat and a general confrontation of the meaning of reality, but like Christopher Nolan’s earlier films the focus is on the power of memory and its ability to distort and ultimately act as a mutable, inconstant force rather than a firm foundation of a personality. Some people might say that Memento is a better film with a far more intricate plot, but I’d disagree because it becomes powerless after the first viewing, whereas Inception begs to be watched on multiple occasions.

Don’t expect a revolution with Inception. It’s great, and some moments are poignant in a vague kind of way, but at its heart it’s a fairly traditional action movie, complete with a training montage and an ethnically diverse group of mercenaries fighting for a common cause. However, it’s not likely to be bested in a summer that includes so many sequels, remakes and adaptations. As an original piece of screen property it’s essential viewing, and the tension that accumulates in the final act is built and sustained in a masterful manner.