Review by Enrico Camillieri

Tenet 2020

7

Review by Enrico Camillieri
BlockedParent2021-01-03T20:00:23Z— updated 2021-06-16T06:54:16Z

I went into this movie with high expectations but knowing little to nothing about the movie itself (I hadn't even seen the trailer). A Nolan movie, packed with action, a touch of sci-fi and time travel: that's all I knew. And to be honest, it was more than enough. I went into Tenet sure that I would love it.

The reality, though, is not as pretty.

But let's start with the positives.
The soundtrack was great. Even though I feel that Zimmer would have elevated this movie to another level, Göransson did an excellent job. The music was appropriate, underlining every single moment of the movie.

The cast did really well. Especially Pattinson, which I really appreciated in this. Also pleasantly surprised by John David Washington, whom I didn't know before. He did really well as The Protagonist. Good job also by Debicki. Really, considering their characters, they all did the best they could.

The cinematography, as expected by Nolan, was top notch. Great CGI as well. The action sequences were done really well, I truly enjoyed them. Same for the car chase. I don't know how they managed to film/edit the inverted scenes, but they were amazing!

Now for the not so positives.
The sound mixing was really poor. Often the music completely covered the dialogue, making it really hard to understand what was going on. Thank God for subtitles.

The pacing was off. It felt really rushed, in a movie that should have left the viewer some time to understand the situation. Almost like a magician that doesn't want you to fixate your eyes too long or else you might discover his trick, the movie is always rushing you from scene to scene. I get what they were going for, but it was not executed properly.

The dialogue was also not as good as I expected. Very hand-wavy if that makes sense. Coupled with very one-dimensional characters, it really put me off. With the exception of Pattison's (and even then, not that much better), every character felt so flat.

And finally, the plot.

While it starts from an interesting and, at least for me, unheard idea, it quickly devolves into a generic spy/bond movie. I'm not personally a fan of the "it's always been this way" time travel solution, but I won't hold that against the movie. What I didn't like is that there was no sense of empathy for the characters. I didn't give a damn about their actions, because they felt more like automatons than human beings. Same thing for the time travel gimmick: it was really intriguing, but I soon didn't care for it because the movie couldn't be bothered to keep it consistent and to play by its own rules it had set up

In the end, I still think that Tenet is an interesting movie. Just not perfectly executed. Maybe a longer runtime would have given time to sort some of the issues by slowing down the pace a bit. But the interesting time travel mechanic, the fact that the movie will have you think about what was going on (in a good way!) even after it's over, the great score and the gorgeous looking cinematography make me recommend it. Especially to fan of the director or those who liked Inception (which is a superior movie, IMO).

7.5/10

This is a bit of a nitpick, but in the fight at the airport it was obvious that they were fighting another version of The Protagonist. I mean, Pattison unmasked him and looked surprised, while the camera didn't show who it was. Who the hell could have been?

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