Originally Posted by fernandito
If there's one criticism leveled at Nolan it's that the characters in his films are usually just cyphers in his intellectual puzzles. Faces of a rubix cube, if you will.
In Inception's case that's not a problem because the film itself is structured like a puzzle. The cyphers exist in service to the story and theme(s). Like Mike mentioned, Inception is at its core a blockbuster. What that means is that the ratio of grand spectacle to lengthy exposition will be tipped in favor of the former. In the same way you wouldn't expect visual heavy set pieces from a 'French indie film', you'll be hard pressed to find sumptuous dialogue in a big budget film, it's simply the nature of things.