I think there are two ways you can watch this film and the way I watched it was greatly influenced by current events. 

Either, you can try to figure out what is going on every step of the way and try to take the material seriously, or you can simply take a long lense and not pay too much attention to the finer details and just push yourself on to the rollercoaster ride.  

The dialogue is laughable compared to the somber tone they go for, but to Nolan’s credit there is a knowing quality to the film, as shown through Edward Pattinson’s character, it does admit to the ridiculousness of it all from time to time. The dialogue however is still atrocious and it suffers from the very common mistake of “telling not showing”. Surprisingly, Inception, which is very much it’s sister film, does not suffer from this problem, and I suspect it is to do with pacing and the lack of groundwork. To be fair, when dealing with time, things always tend to become a bit woolly, so I admire the attempt regardless, but perhaps if the concept was if anything, simpler and more “need to know” basis then this would have been a slicker film. 

The visuals however, the action scenes, the soundtrack are the trademark, and this does not fail. Because of this, what in the hands of another director would have ended up being a terrible film, ends up being ok and passable, but not of the level that we expect now from a Christopher Nolan film.