I have almost no idea what happened, but I liked it. Might be my favourite James Bond film.
Love the layers in this movie. Couldn't stop thinking about it after I left. I've seen it twice already. In fact, as I was leaving the theater, I saw myself going in and thought, "Man, he is going to love this!"
Umm
Maybe I'm just not smart enough, but i have NO idea what the fuck I just watched was or why it was so fucking long, but it looked good visually.
I missed like every character's name besides "kat"
I felt no connection to anything going on other than all the michael bay esque "look at all this shit get blown up" scenes.
I imagine this is what people felt like when the matrix first came out.
Finally saw it. The experience of watching Tenet is oddly similar to watching University Challenge in the sense that you'll spend most of the time in awe at the intelligence and feel very proud when you actually can work something out.
It weird because it's also simultaneously too long and not long enough. It does need a little bit more quiet scenes just to let the audience breathe more than anything.
Christopher Nolan creates a temporary palindrome. A James Bond movie that incorporates concepts such as time clamp, entropy of objects, and reversed motion. Everything is too dependent on this narrative puzzle, even the development of the characters. But great action sequences that explore new visual approaches is magnificent. An impressive cinematic representation of the Sator square (Opera/Arepo, Sator/Rotas).
Best movie this year so far!!!
If i watch It in reverse does it get better?
Not as solid as I hoped. It's confusing for sure, but they could have done so so much more with this concept and world. But they didn't. It has left us with a story that is interesting, yet unrelatable. Things move way too fast and I would have preferred a longer runtime because it is that intriguing. And while the ending is great, the way that Nolan tries to merge the two viewpoints isn't done well. Leaving me feeling like my dad when he watches Transformers (2007) and asks who is who.
It needed to be simplified a little more because everything else is amazing. The effects, the overarching story, the acting. The music, however, is terrible and overblown to give a sense of action when there isn't enough happening. The only part where it worked well was in the final fight, but even then it needed to be quieter.
The cinematography is good as always, but I feel it is lacking compared to Nolan's previous work.
When it comes to action and the draw to this movie, the reversal shots. They deliver, but they are too and far between. It gives us great scenes of reversal action, then one drawn-out segment at the end that doesn't feel rewarding as like I said before, it isn't merged well.
This movie may grow on me more after a second viewing, but it left me in a state that I don't wish to see it again any time soon. It is not fun enough to see again, it is not engaging enough to associate and learn from. Something that Nolan has done well at in the past is his ability to leave questions with the audience after they finish his films. Here, it just provides answers and left me unsatisfied in that regard.
7/10
It's quite difficult to understand this film, and I'm not speaking about the time paradox. Absence of plot, no character building, no emotions, poor sound mixing add to the confusion. Looks more like a bunch of demos of special effects put together to impress.
I have never been so confused and yet so absolutely amazed and intrigued at the same time. Some scenes will make you go 'How the fuck did they even film that', and my jaw literally dropped at some of it. The mindfuckery in this movie is probably the most out of all of his movies (IMO).
It is one of those movies which needs more than one watch. You would have to watch it the first time to be completely amazed and just enjoy the mind boggling cinematics, and the second time to understand what is going on.
When coming up with the idea for this film, I imagine Nolan asking himself: can you take a Roger Moore era Bond plot, up the amount of sci-fi and dial down the camp? Yes, you can, but this isn’t exactly the way to do it.
Pros:
- I love it when directors aim big. Give me someone who tries something as ambitious as this over the average blockbuster anyday.
- Directing & cinematography, as is to be expected from a Nolan film at this point.
- Score. Especially during the opening scene and inversion stuff.
- Action sequences, especially the car chase.
- Most of the acting is solid. JDW is excellent, Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki are great.
Cons:
- This film has been edited to shit. It’s got pacing that’s all over the place, and there’s a rushed sense to it all. Scenes aren’t allowed to breathe, exposition is delivered so rapidly that you barely have any time to process it. I’m lucky to have a brain that can keep up with difficult plot mechanics, and yes, I could follow what was happening all the way through, but it all makes for a film that’s inaccessible for most people on their first watch. Unfortunately, it definitely doesn’t feel like the film that mainstream audiences are going to embrace during the time of a pandemic.
- Just like with Dunkirk, Nolan once again deliberately chooses to not flesh out his characters, resulting in a film that feels emotionally shallow. It’s very hard to connect with the film on a personal level in that regard. Take Inception, for example. Even when you strip away all the amazing stuff from that film (rotating cities, hotel fight), there’s still an emotional core about a man who’s been estranged from his kids because of what happened to his wife. There’s a reason why we want Leonardo DiCaprio to succeed at implanting this idea into Cillian Murphy’s head. Tenet has none of that. Who’s the protagonist? Who’s Robert Pattinson? What’s this agency they’re working for? We just don’t know.
- The sound mix. The dialogue just isn’t very clear for a lot of the film. Why they didn’t use ADR for some scenes (especially when people wear masks, as that’s easy to edit around) is beyond me. I honestly started to read the subtitles after the opening scene.
- Kenneth Branagh. He’s a great actor, but his hammy performance feels like it comes out of a different movie (a campy Roger Moore era Bond movie, that is)
- I found the climax to be uninspired, and a little dull.
- Minor point, but there’s some really unsubtle foreshadowing during the fight at the airport ( when you have a character unmask an inverted person offscreen, and they look surprised, who do you think it’s going to be? )
Overall, I feel like this could’ve easily been an 8 if the film was about 30 minutes longer, thereby taking its time to flesh out the characters, world and mechanics of the plot. It almost feels like WB forced Nolan to trim a lot of scenes in order to get a shorter runtime, but that’s also doubtful as WB isn’t beyond releasing movies that are way shittier at 3 hours (It: Chapter 2). Besides, he’s Christopher Nolan, so I assume he has final cut. As it stands, I just cannot recommend it.
5/10
2 1/2 confusing hours, great cast with solid performances. The movie missed the mark don’t waste your time.
The movie is a pretentious piece of shit, a James Bond movie with people walking backguards and time travels. But the protagonist is maybe the worst actor I've ever seen... and I saw a lot of bad actors.
This is not Nolan's best film but it's still enjoyable. I think I've seen too much time travelling films/series (and films/series that use time manipulation techniques) to find the plotline confusing and hard to follow. This Nolan film also reminded me of Doctor Who, this time, River Song's and the Doctor's relationship: the first time one member of the pair meets the other is the last day of the other member. They have a strong connection despite drifting away from each other in time. I would be interested in seeing how The Protagonist said goodbye to Neil in the future.I like that we do not know and will not know much about The Protagonist (not even his name). I could also understand Kat's character but the main villain not so much. I also like the specific time-manipulation technique the film uses, however, there are certain holes I got annoyed by. Sure, inversed people need their own oxygen to breath and wear masks, but how can they see like at all?
Pros:
Umm?
Cons:
-- Uninteresting characters. Tenet is a film devoid of emotion. All the characters are exposition vehicles with no depth:
"The Protaganist" is the most generic good spy ever;
Elizabeth Debicki, the only woman in the film, wants her son back. She is just a Woman Who Needs To Be Saved, nothing more. Her storyline has some of the laziest writing I’ve ever seen in a movie. Her very, very bad Russian husband literally says, "If I can't have you, nobody can!" and she says, _"I'll scream if you touch me!" :laughing: So bad;
But the worst of all – the villain. He has a nationality that is tired and over-used for a villain these days … yes, you guessed it, he's Russian. :flag_ru: Americans with a soviet fetish really are the worst. American political correctness allow only people from former Eastern European block to be villains, so they choose from Russian, Pols, Serbians … hey, it’s called diversity!!:exclamation:Kenneth Branagh’s character is God-awful, cartoonish and caricatured so much, he fits every possible outdated stereotype of a Russian villain ever. Agonizingly formulaic. He’s evil simply because he’s evil and Russian.
-- Terrible dialogue. Real actual lines in this movie, “It's a Cold War, cold as ice.”, “It's not Estonian ... it's BACKWARDS”. :face_vomiting:
-- Horrible sound editing. It made the movie painful to watch.
-- The movie is poorly acted. All the actors look like half-asleep filming it. Lead performance by Washington is totally meh. I get it that every lead actor in American movies has to be black but they should have chosen a better actor, or give him something better to work with. Kenneth Branagh’s performance is ultimately one of the worst acting turns ever seen in the history of movies. So embarrassing. People who speak only English should stick to their own accent because they suck so bad in other accents and languages.
-- The whole plot is not original at all. A CIA agent on a mission to stop a Russian billionaire from destroying the world using plutonium that controls time. You can’t make this shit up. It is your extremely generic "go here - do this, go there – do that" movie, while changing the location every 5 minutes, as if the change in cities does anything for the plot anyway. The movie has such a big budget yet we have to pretend the KUMU Museum of Art is in Oslo. Not that Americans would notice I guess. So, that is pretty much all the movie is: random action scene followed by a long exposition scene. Repeat. And we have to unconditionally accept that this banal visual nonsense has some deeper purpose, otherwise “you didn’t get it”.
It's shocking how bad Tenet is. This isn’t a complex movie; it is just a condescending and pretentious one. It’s not an intelligent movie either. The only smart thing in the whole movie is Nolan’s decision to make the typical Hollywood blockbuster – the main actor, the villain, the fight scenes – everything is predictable, Nolan can’t risk to do anything interest. Cannot wait to be told I "didn't understand the movie" by all the Nolan fanboys. Sorry, I don’t think everything Nolan shits is gold.
It's a good film but it's not Nolan's best work. The plot is confusing, rushed, and occasionally too clever for its own good. The special effects were great, however, and the direction was slick. However, it's not the Bond movie people were comparing it too, and it's not the sci-fi classic people expected. I enjoyed it, and while i don't mind a movie that causes me to think, I do prefer a film that offers a little more coherency.
One of those movies that needs to be watched, pondered, then watched again. I’ll have to revisit this comment in the future to see what my past self thinks about it.
“I sleep”.
Man, it feels great to be back at the cinema again. Also, I forgot how loud the IMAX speakers can be.
The first major blockbuster in five months is also the one that’s closing off an uneventful summer season. But then again, that alone is a nice filling when you think about it, because a movie with so much meat on its bone, sizzling with rich flavours and so much to chew on, there’s really no need for appetisers.
‘Tenet’ is a head scratcher of a movie, but I really really liked it. I did not fully understand all of it, especially on my first watch, and that is perfectly alright. Despite the movie being 2 hours and 30 minutes long, the movie runs at a quick pace with characters speaking at a fast rate, so it is a rush against time to try and keep up. Repeat viewings and discussions will be seriously needed to solve this complex, but grand puzzle.
As I said before, you can love or hate Christopher Nolan, but there is no denying the craftsmanship on screen is nothing more than extraordinary. I am not a die-hard fan of Nolan, even though I would consider him one of the best working director. I can recognise his flaws, but also cheer on his strengths. An ambitious filmmaker that wants to make every movie he makes special. I mean, there literally crashed a Boeing 747 plane for real in this movie. I have no idea how they filmed and executed it. I rarely asked this, but it gives me great pleasure to sit in a cinema and say, “how the hell did he do that?” And trust me, there was plenty of that throughout the movie. This Nolan guy is a madman.
All of Nolan movies follow the theme of time, but in this movie, time becomes his playground. There was some stunning and jaw dropping scenes involving time bending and reversing of time that was easily the highlight of the movie. I also love how it involves objects and the environment around the characters. What is even more impressive is that there was a mixture of both practical and visually trickery in some scenes. There was a fight between scene a SWAT guard and The Protagonist (John David Washington), one is fighting in reverse, while the other is fighting normal. A fantastic scene. The cast and crew trained for weeks learning how to move and fight backwards, while visual trickery was used in some aspect. Some old school movie magic.
Basically, the whole movie is one big UNO card game.
The performances from everyone was solid. The presence of John David Washington makes his character The Protagonist compelling to watch. Robert Battinson, on the other hand, was the show stealer for me as this charming and sly fox. I hope his performance further makes mainstream audiences move away from his ‘Twilight’ days. I was surprised to see Aaron Taylor-Johnson in this movie and almost did not recognise him at first, but he was great. Elizabeth Debicki was also great, and her character was the only emotional anchor of the movie, in terms of the audience finding some attachment to.
I enjoyed Kenneth Branagh as the Russian villain of the movie and Branagh fully goes for it, as he is chewing up the scenes. Then again, famous poet Charles Bukowski once said, “If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start.” Whenever the scene requires seriousness, I think Branagh pulled it off well, even if the character itself was a stereotypical Russian that you would see in a James Bond movie. Other actors such as: Himesh Patel, Dimple Kapadia, Clémence Poésy, and Michael Caine were all good.
The sound work in the movie was incredible. There was an extreme focus on certain details with sounds that adds so much to the intensity and scope of the movie, especially the gunshots which sounded very realistic and had that loud echo to it. It reminded me of Michael Mann’s ‘Heat’ and ‘Collateral’, in terms of gun shots.
The score from Ludwig Göransson was phenomenal and hearing it in the cinema was intense. It fitted every scene so perfectly. An electronic soundtrack with the melody playing backwards. The cinematography by Hoyte Van Hoytema was great once again and it was incredibly striking to watch. Everything on a technical standpoint was a marvel.
I was not expecting to hear music from Travis Scott at the end of a Christopher Nolan movie. I never thought I'd hear a "SKRRT, SKRRT" in a Nolan film, but it’s a welcoming addition, because when the song came thumping and throbbing through the speakers at this heavy pace, it was so good.
However, I have my issues with the movie. First, I had a hard time understanding some of the dialogue or what the characters were saying. Not because it was complicated, but because it was hard to make out what was being said. I mean, some of it was muffled. Subtitles would have been lovely. It also did not help that the characters talk really quick.
Out of all the Nolan movies, I think this movie lacks at the emotional core. As I said early, Debicki’s character at least gives you some emotional attachment with her story-line involving her son and her toxic relationship with her Russian husband, but even that doesn’t get developed enough. There wasn’t quite that emotional tug at the heart strings that you get in Nolan’s other movies. Although, I would not call the movie hollow or anything, because watching the movie, I felt that awe and intensity, so at least I felt something.
And that is really it for the issues.
I am confident that this movie will have a special place in the future, as the ideas this movie presents is too fascinating to forget or brush off. Even days after seeing the movie, I am still examining the elements that came to light and piece together the puzzle to get the whole sense of the picture. Even those who think they got the plot; I can bet they are dead wrong. Those are the best qualities to a movie, in my opinion. A movie that only tells you so much and leaves your brain fighting for hints, but it’s that urgency of knowing the answers and returning to a movie that you weren’t keen on before, to only discover something new that you never got before.
Overall rating: “ᴡᴇ ʟɪᴠᴇ ɪɴ ᴀ ᴛᴡɪʟɪɢʜᴛ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ. ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀʀᴇ ɴᴏ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱ ᴀᴛ ᴅᴜꜱᴋ.”
”.ᴋꜱᴜᴅ ᴛᴀ ꜱᴅɴᴇɪʀꜰ ᴏɴ ᴇʀᴀ ᴇʀᴇʜᴛ ᴅɴᴀ .ᴅʟʀᴏᴡ ᴛʜɢɪʟɪᴡᴛ ᴀ ɴɪ ᴇᴠɪʟ ᴇᴡ“ :gnitar llarevO
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Another Nolan fuck up. He should stop using IMAX cameras and start using his brain :brain: to do a movie.
... I am wondering how Christopher Nolan could make such a weak sauce. A 3 minutes terrible story prolonged for 150 minutes. I have been waited for so long to see what Chris Nolan have in the hat and then this.
Yeah..... this kinda broke my brain:confounded:.
After 3rd viewing it almost made sense :joy: and is a great film though. Christopher Nolan is a genius.
Not quite inception level but still a decent film with some good action that was different and cool effects also that couldn’t make it’s mind up in going backwards or forwards and made it very confusing at times also felt the plot was rushed and not enough information.
It's okay, nothing too special. Not as good as people make it out to be, and definitely overhyped.
Tenet is Christopher Nolan's attempt at utilizing similar timeslip mechanics as Primer, and should not be confusing at all to anyone who has ever watched that film. In fact, the moment that we are introduced to turnstile, it should be immediately clear how the film ties its loose ends, connecting the ending with the first minutes of the film.
The interesting take is how, and I think Nolan does much better job than the film I mentioned.
The point of the film, I think, is that there is no multiple realities. The future is already set in stone. "What happened's happened" means basically the world has been like that since the movie start. “Ignorance is the Tenet team’s ammunition” only because they don’t know how or what happens in the future, they do what they do to save the world. Basically everything in this film has already happened and no one is in control.
And I think that's the beauty, and the sad deterministic view of the film. "What about free will?" the Protagonist asks very early in the film. There is none; only fate.
So unlike what others have claimed, Tenet does have a plot, albeit a deterministic one. As a film, Tenet does not trouble itself by laying out vague scientific jargons or trying to explain the time mechanics to the audience. Nolan takes a straight point, focusing on the heist/mission like he did with Inception.
Some might say that the characters are soulless, unlike Inception. I think it might be the consequence of fast-moving scenes cut/edited with high efficiency. Especially in the first half of the film; at times I had to pause the film a few times to understand what's going on. But character's relationship leaves a better impression as we get to the ending. Although I have to admit that the villain's motivation was not at all convincing/interesting; they serve more like as a background to the whole mission.
I also see Tenet as Nolan's further experiments with sound design/ambient music, after what he did with Dunkirk: in certain scenes, like the inverted car chase scene, Nolan contrasts a seemingly linear/flat cinematography with shepard tonal music that makes the scene getting more intense and pressured only through repeating the pitch (see Vox's video/article on this subject).
Tenet might not be Nolan's masterpiece, but it's a very interesting experiments that does things well and really streamlined in the timeslip/time travel genre.
Interesting and confusing, but I'm not sure if that makes this good. So like, save her in the past to change the future? But also plutonium? Generations from now something something? Too many ideas at once and nothing solid to ride on nor care about. I'm good with not watching this ever again.
Was bored out of my mind. Have no clue what happened in the movie.
Brain hurty!
This was, undoubtedly, the best Mission Impossible movie since the Brian De Palma one!
When Christopher Nolan messes with Physics, you know you're in for a wild ride! Confusing, at times, but the way things pick up, kick into full gear and every piece starts falling into place (literally backwards) during that delightful crescendo approaching end, it all provides for a very entertaining and satisfying experience!
Really, as corny as this may seem, don't try to understand the movie, try to feel it, instead.
I bet many people looked at the screen like what's going on. But it was worth watching trying to figure out who what or when. Took 2 and a half hours with a glimpse for me. Aside from all the actors, respect to Nolan. He is such an artist.
I watched this movie in the theatres and left with a headache. I’ve understood absolutely nothing from the movie since the beginning. And I’m glad that my family, and people who watched it too feel the same way because I felt as if I was brain dead...
I want to watch this without knowing anything about it (never see trailers etc) and I must say I like this movie a lot. Its a bit confusing but such a cool concept and execution! 9/10
Way to much illogic and plot holes, stuff that just happens, stuff that the lead for no apparent reason or explanation just knows. Another attempt of a time travel movie down the drains.
If you scratch the patina of the subjects of temporality (the future and the past, the causes and the consequences) and entropy (also wrong, and I wonder if the film had any scientific advisors), the film is a banal, bland example of artificial intellectualism. Speculations from the art market, travels around the world, the arms industry, each part of the film seems to need conceptual arguments to make sense of it. But it doesn't happen anyway.
It is what most movies who are more into "diversification" and try too hard to appear sophisticated end up being - a mess
The set pieces are all excellently crafted and memorable, epic action and the score is so thrilling and immersive. The reverse technology stuff is a good concept. Excellent cinematography.
Poor characters in general and they lack development, completely unrelatable and cold. Ordinary acting, nothing stands out to me. I'll be honest, no idea what was going on most of the time in the story. I don't think it's because it was too hard to follow, but rather because I lacked the interest (never gripped me).
I am at a loss about why people consider this a good movie. It's only very mildly entertaining. Sure, it has an interesting concept, but other then that it's one cliche after the next. Waste of time..... time, get it?
John David Washington has the emotion of a doorpost. 0 chemistry between him and Elizabeth Debicki and supposedly he risks all for the girl? Yeah right.
When it comes to paradox movies, if you don't like gratuitous explosions and high speed car chases, I highly recommend you skip this one and go right for "Predestination". Say what you will about Nolan's screenwriting and directing, but Heinlein is actually a scifi writing master and can make a paradox that doesn't have science holes large enough to drive a "must have a" firetruck through.
I have seen every Christopher Nolan film except Larceny and those 3 shorts he did. He may be my favorite director. This is the worst movie he has ever made. When I think of this movie I think of George Costanza yelling ITS FINE and that's what I want to do. I am pretty sure Nolan had the idea about a backwards car chase and thought, "well how do I make that into a movie?" and poof, here we are. The writing is extremely snappy, almost to the point of parody. People non-stop rattling off 6 word sentences at one another with almost zero silence between them. The action, well, I had no idea what the heck was going on most of the time. It's just not written well. I am a geek for time movies or time-anything. I watch it all. I have never once not understood the movie/whatever. Even the so-called complicated ones. This? I have no idea what was going on. I mean I get what the evil Russian big bad was doing, but the actual action sequences with the inverse-whatever its called? No idea. There's also stupid stuff like loudly discussing terroristic plans on airport subways in a crowd while everyone around does seem to notice. But its a pretty movie with pretty people that are all good to great actors. Nolan should be glad COVID made it so nobody saw this in theaters. It helps his reputation to not see it, because this was not up to his standards in anything but the visuals. Maybe he can get back to that Jim Carrey cum Howard Hughes movie he had to cancel all those years ago. As for Tenet? ITS FINE.
Nolan had a good idea with Inception, but not with this. The plot is confusing not because it's smarter than you, but because the premise collapses on itself. If you step in and out of a machine that inverts time for you in relation to the rest of the universe and are allowed to interact with that universe still, you instantly become a paradox. Anything you do from that point on goes on an infinite loop of altering the past, thus making it impossible for the past to lead up to any moment where the past altering events you cause occur, thereby nullifying yourself. No need to try to wrap your head around the "how it works", because it doesn't.
The problem is the movie delves so deep into this premise, that I'm constantly reminded of the paradox while watching it. Given this distraction I found the movie difficult to enjoy.
What a mess !!
I understand he tried to do something different with time travel stuff, but this is totally confusing.
Simply time reverse movie with a lot of plots, this movie is a hot mess wasn't executed right.
It's obvious to me now after this moive, that Christopher Nolan's career, is on the down slide. This movie completely sucked. Bored the hell out of me. I won't watch another one of his movies unless it has batman/christian bale in it reprising his role.
The cinematography? Fantastic.
The score? Heart-pounding and creative.
The dialogue? Serviceable, at best. Incomprehensible, at worst.
The action? Some of the most creative stuff I've ever seen.
The plot? Interesting.
The story? Overwhelmingly confusing.
The idea of this movie is so high concept that it had to have been directed by Christopher Nolan. Unfortunately, it was also written by Christopher Nolan. He spent so much time fleshing out the mechanics of this world he built, he forgot to give the audience anything to which they could connect, instead opting to lazily tack on a shallow something that resembles a connection in the form of a mother-child relationship (which means nothing to the movie). And the fact that the protagonist doesn't have a name and lacks any want, need, or motivation besides saving the world, to the point that he's credited as "The Protagonist", almost makes me think that Nolan wrote him poorly on purpose.
All this movie has going for it are what I listed above: the shots, the score, the action scenes, and the interesting ideas. However, you need characters that make meaningful decisions that impact the plot, not characters that follow the plot you've already written. But looking back on the movie, isn't that exactly what Tenet is? Isn't it just characters reacting to and moving according to a pre-planned plot? Is this whole movie just a meta-commentary on movies that are all plot and no story?
If it is, I deserve a pat on the back for coming to that conclusion. As I see it, this is a 2.5 star movie with an extra half-star for style. It would have gone a long way for him to have written stronger characters; if the story was stronger as a result of that, this could have been up there with his other films, or it could have even been one of his greatest films.
This movie was a refreshing addition to the action / thriller genre. Rather than just having a run-of-the-mill bank robbery or stop-the-master-villain movie they came up with a fresh angle. That said, it is not always an easy watch. I love movies that are complicated and require thought. If I am being honest I didn't always understand everything about the sci-fi aspect of the film, but it really didn't matter. I got the gist of it and could follow along (towards the end of the movie it makes more sense). It kind of felt like a Bond movie without having to be limited to the expectations that come with the Bond character. The lead was excellent, although he could be a bit wooden when delivering some of his more conversational lines.
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An aesthetic showcase that's completely uninterested in human beings (and for the love of God, what does Christopher Nolan have against decent sound mixing?)
It's undeniably fascinating to see a tent pole Hollywood production engaging with issues such as entropy, thermodynamics, reversibility and irreversibility, time's arrow, the grandfather paradox, and T-symmetry, all the while keeping proceedings housed firmly within the spy genre (it's a Bond movie in all but name). Indeed, one of the film's central questions is especially noteworthy – if what and who we remember from our past defines who we are in our present, do things that haven't happened to us yet also speak to our identity? Do our future actions determine who we are as much as our past actions? It's a fascinating question. And one with which Nolan does precisely nothing. However, the film's main problems aren't related to the squandered existential potential, the much ballyhooed complexity, the puzzle-like structure, the philosophical musing, or the thematic similarity to Nolan's previous work. Rather, they are more fundamental, existing almost entirely at a structural level (although some of the performances don't help matters, nor does the abysmal sound mixing). The film looks incredible, the practical effects in the action scenes are extraordinarily mounted, the cinematography is stunning, and the editing is superb, but there simply isn't anything of note under the shiny veneer. It's a film with virtually no interest in human beings.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/1lbO1H
I didn’t rate this because I think I need to watch it a few more time first. And get a “Tenet for Dummies” book. My brain can only hold the simplicity of time travel movies the way Marvel does it.
What a crazy movie!
I haven't looked at time this way. It was very interesting and intriguing. Opposing flows of time existing simultaneously on the same place. Brilliant execution too. I love how there were no loose ends, a common mistake in time travel stories (or usually ignored).
Highly recommended if you want to challenge yourself.
Tenet on paper is a super interesting that I think I would have a great time with, but the execution fell flat on its face. The entire plot is so purposefully convoluted that it is really hard to follow. Christopher Nolan whips from one scene to another so fast to cram as much exposition in that so many moments just got right over the audience's head. Half the scenes are just exposition dumps with audio so poorly done that you have to read the subtitles the entire time to even understand what they're saying. The acting is all fine in this movie, but I spent so much time trying to understand the film that any mishaps could have gone right over my head. The only redeeming aspect of this film is the fights and heists. These scenes were filmed with incredible precision that really showed off the scope that the protagonist was trying to accomplish. I had a good time with that, but that was few and far between.
Verdict: Bad
83 | Tenet is a visionary film. Some of us might be don't understand it, but all of us certainly can feel it. How Christopher Nolan and his crews craft this film is beyond our expectations. Tenet needs a couple of times to view it because of how extraordinary the substance of the story that it brought. It also made us imagine what the future might be like. It made us wonder if we are living in the past or the future. Tenet explores another mystery that our reality has. It gives us a glimpse of answers and a bunch of questions about our belief in God, faith, reality, and future in general. The relationship between the protagonist and Neill ended and begin beautifully written. What's happened, happened.
•••••••••••••••••••••••
Rating: 82.15
Plot
25%: 2.3
50%: 2.3
75%: 2.5
100%: 2.6
Favorite Characters
Unfortunately, the first 2/3 are very hard to understand, the pace of the film does not allowed us to make sense of it. The ending in the style of Inception explains a lot, but also leaves room for speculation.
Complex, troubled, flawed... and yet: Brilliantly entertaining. Only Nolan could deliver a movie like this!
My impression after just finally watching this...
First 40-45%: 4/10.
So many scenes felt clipped, rushed into the next, with not nearly enough connection to follow what was going on or why. Visually impressive, and I had the distinct impression that something big and interesting was going on, but I was very confused about what it was.
Last 55-60%: 7/10.
A little after we meet Sator, events started flowing somewhat more understandably. Still a bit confused here and there, but not as much. And the big ambitious sequences closer to the end were mostly well-executed (and in stunning detail), including some loopbacks that belatedly filled in some of the earlier-on confusion while completing the story well. Still not quite up to the greatness level the ads promised, IMO, but better.
I have the impression that a second watch would make more sense, in part due to some of the revelations near the end. My issue is that a second watch shouldn't be this necessary to get the story enough to appreciate it.
While I appreciate some degree of mystery and confusion up front that gets explained later on, that doesn't quite work any more when the confusion reaches a level that I don't understand why people are doing what they're doing.
I suspect that this would have been much better if given the additional time to flesh things out, especially the first half. Maybe as a limited series over four to six hours.
This movie desperately wants to be so much better than it is. Pretentious, hard to follow and confusing for the sake of it. Most of the time you don't have a clue what's going on, the poor acting and bad script make it so you don't really care. I've seen reviews saying you need to watch it 2-3 times, trouble is, I'd rather read a telephone directory than sit through this garbage again.
I would like to this movies next time . It is really good.
Wow! It was extremely boring and I literally took the last 45 minutes forward. The start was good, but it was a real disappointment for Nolan.
I do not recommend watching it, especially if you are related and knowledgeable about Physics, check out other movies :)
Atmosphere: 7.5 / 10
Story: 6.5 / 10
Flow: 5/10
Display: 8/10
Charm: 3/10
Acting: 6/10
Overall score: 6/10
“Tenet” is yet another Christopher Nolan blockbuster that shows off intriguing ideas and spectacular action, but unfortunately struggles at telling an emotionally engaging story. I dig the dark tone and ambitious scale of his films, but always find it hard to connect with the paper-thin characters. Neil might be the only exception here, but it felt like credit should go to Robert Pattinson for his performance. Overall, I quite enjoyed it, and can totally see myself revisiting it a few years from now, but at the same time, I can’t help feeling like it was in many aspects also a missed opportunity.
Even more than “Inception”, the film can be described as a more daring take on a James Bond flick. The problem is that Nolan has always been awkward with two of the vital trademarks of a successful 007 film: wit and sensuality. The humor was a bit better than usual, though.
Despite its reputation as a tremendously convoluted film, the plot is as simple as ”Avengers: Infinity War”: the bad guy is collecting powerful artifacts that could lead to the destruction of the universe, and a group of heroes travels across time to stop him. The only thing to be really confusing is the way time travel is handled. There is no machine that instantly takes you to a particular point in time: you have to “invert” yourself and physically walk your way backward, with the whole world around you appearing as it is “rewinding” itself. This results in action sequences that are as visually breathtaking as they are mechanically overwhelming, particularly when you get to see characters moving in opposite temporal directions interact on screen. When it’s a couple of characters you can more or less figure out what is going on, but when we are talking about color-coded troops, it gets a bit too much for your eyes to handle.
This movie is like a really good piece of steak, cooked well done with no seasoning.
Horrible aggravating quasi music in every second scene. Incomprehensible plot. Somewhat interesting effects.
Great idea, great story, great acting, but totally ruined by the sound. This is an example of a director gone mad, thinking he knows best. About 50% of the dialogue is inaudible. It would appear that it has been intentionally mixed in this was through a misguided notion that it pulls the observer into the movie. The only thing I can hope for in this movie is that someone re-edits it and makes a version that normal people without the hearing of a dog can enjoy. This director needs to be kicked into touch, typical god complex, he knows best.
Yes, Tenet is a complex movie, but what else to expect from Nolan. I think complexity is a way to achieve the goal of creating a fantastic movie, but sometimes I feel complexity is a goal on it's own for some directors. Too complex movies tend to lose the viewer after a half hour, where it just gets worse and worse sinds youre completely in the dark.
Tenet makes some of that mistakes, but even as a lost viewer the movie is not really that attractive. Yes, it's visually pleasant and some great shots and locations are nice to see, but rather than that it's kinda shallow. Boring characters, not a great soundtrack... The movie missies emotions to me. It's just kinda bland. A lot of jadajada, some reversed action scenes.. It just doesn't do it for me.
Christopher Nolan films never lack in striking visuals, with Tenet having a number of slick scenes and a consistent look. But would this be beautiful trash like Interstellar or Dark Knight Rises, or would it be an intriguing puzzle like Inception or The Prestige? For me, I was sucked into Tenet, even if it can fray apart when you sit and think about it too long. It feels very much like a spiritual successor to Inception in that the mechanics of the film are what drive it more so than the characters. And that's fine for me. This came across as a modern Bond-esque film with a truly sci-fi sheen. I seriously enjoyed every minute of this. I can understand some of the criticism, but I also think some of it was a bit overblown.
Yeah, that was terrible. Don’t waste 2 1/2 hours of your life. I like sci-fi movies, I like action movies, but some of the cheesy lines in this were laugh out loud bad. And that’s not a good sign for what should be a tense film
I am very, very forgiving with most media that I consume, meaning that I can usually be entertained by most things that I watch. Tenet sucks. Nothing makes sense, the sound and mixing is horrible, and the whole thing was just...boring? I love insane action scenes - nothing here was that great. I tried 2 previous times to get through the movie but fell asleep both times, and when I finally sat through the whole movie in one sitting on the 3rd time, I was the most underwhelmed that I’ve been in a long time. I can’t recommend this movie less, glad it came and went during COVID. Let’s leave it in 2020 with the rest of the garbage from last year.
What a complete and utter mind f:asterisk_symbol::asterisk_symbol:k. I struggled to keep up with it so much, I think I must’ve been inverted.
That said, what a brilliant, non-stop action-packed masterpiece.
Great performances all around, especially from Washington and Pattinson!
Great CGI and special FX too.
Would definitely recommend this movie - but not if you’re not able to stay completely focused!
An entertaining action movie with no personnality nor atmosphere, and almost no real science-fiction features, that should have been intriguing rather than confusing.
The proposed concepts are not that complex to assimilate and understand, this is the lazy storytelling that makes the movie looking mindblowing, when it's really not... or you have never seen anything with time travel related content.
Nolan did a much much better job on Memento (which is imho closer of Tenet than Inception, even if completely different).
If you want to see a much more interresting movie (in every ways) about time "manipulation", with thriller and action vibes, just try "Triangle" (2009)
This movie aimed to be the next Inception. In terms of powerful visuals, complex narrative and truly mindboggling concepts that require you to think deeply to truly understand. It did not fully accomplish this incredible feat, but it did manage to pull some good punches.
I did find that the film lacked sufficient character development, and quite honestly, the emotional acting didn't seem very strong. While the action scenes could have me at the edge of my seat, any of the character development/emotional building scenes left me feeling underwhelmed.
Ultimately, they had a lot of the aforementioned characteristics but it simply wasn't done smooth enough. Oftentimes the plot felt jagged as you were torn from scene to scene. They handles the the explanation of the mind-bending concept, but they simply couldn't make the entire film feel smooth and connected. Despite understanding the plot and the internal physics quite well, I couldn't help but find myself lost in a way that did not make the film appealing.
Unwatchable. Not entertaining. Not good. Had super high expectations of Christopher Nolan that to put it mildly were not met. Did anyone manage to suffer through to the end of it?. "...Tenet doesn't make any sense Morty..."
"Don't try to understand it. Feel it."
Tenet had me interested, then confused, then I was like whoa, then when it ended I looked at my loved one and said: I need to watch this again. I don't think watching one time is enough for a full review. Robert Pattinson is so cool, and Nolan loves the concept of time.
A total waste of great actors and stunning visuals since you will end up being too much distracted figuring out what is happening to care
The concept is original, filmed as only Nolan could film it, but it's not on par with his previous entries. Maybe it's just me, spoiled by Nolan's opus, but Tenet left me wondering "how much is too much" when it comes to complexity.
To be clear, I loved the movie, I loved the originality of the concept (it's time travel ala Nolan) and unlike Nolan's previous movies it doesn't require multiple viewings to fully understand or appreciate. The reason is not the inferior quality or complexity of the idea compared to his previous movies, it's the concept itself. Visually explaining this idea to the audience ends up both the most entertaining part of the movie and the reason the it suffers. The idea is amazing but takes up so much screen time unraveling that the story ends up not getting enough attention. And mind you, the story is there and while it's not groundbreaking, wrapped in a Nolan concept it would have made for an amazing movie. Ironically, if the movie was half an hour longer, both the concept and the story would have received an equal telling and the movie would be a 10 out of a 10.
As it is, it falls short of Nolan's usual standard. If you've seen a documentary on how Nolan crafts his stories, you'll understand why this movie is the way it is and why Nolan approached it the way it did. Sit back and enjoy unraveling the concept, I know I did.
This would have made a fine short Black Mirror or Twilight Zone episode, but it's far below cinema quality:
- the Protagonists's dialogue with other characters was void of emotional conflict and was for the most part scatterbrained attempts to rapidly explain the story
- motives of the villan were exceptionally corny
- backward time concept had a wildly inconsistent delivery
That's it? All this "So complicated", "Impossible to understand it at the first time" bullshit for a straight forward bad and boring bond movie...
Surprised? Come on...
The idea is cool, impressive and i understood the movie. Time was circular for them and they did what they needed to do. Classic "time is circular" idea. The problem was the acting, flow of events, dialogues. Oh God! The dialogues! Did he think he made it sound cool? They just sounded irrelevant. I couldn't connect with the protagonist and this was Nolan's mistake. It was because of the flow of the scenes also. He should have made it look smoother. Sometimes it felt like you are watching a slide show. Nolan wanted to sth different again. But the problem was what he did wasn't different, it was just a classic mindfuck time shit movie. Plus, the flow of the scenes, dialogues were badly arranged. Nolan is better than this. Btw, if you didn't get the movie, it's Nolan's fault. Because the idea is simple, time is circular.
An extremely fast-paced action packed high concept spy thriller that masks its utterly mundane and bland story with time travel shenanigans and not ever really explaining itself. But entertaining for what it is and enjoyable enough. Score was excellent but for some reason, the editing was actually AWFUL in certain parts.
I'll say the movie is actually not all that confusing though it does try to confuse you. People who watch sci-fi and read other time travel stuff will see the twists coming a mile away. The rest of the plot is relatively easy to follow if you just accept the premise
This movie is confusing as hell and there's no fn way anyone got it without reading 10 articles about it and having seen it more than once or even twice.
And unlike Inception, it doesn't invite for repeating viewings. Take away the cool looking action scenes and you have nothing. NOTHING.
This movie really f'ed my brain, gotta watch it reversed to fully understand it I guess. Bonus points for the originality
and messing me up. .pu em gnissem dna
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Not the director best but but I liked it
A worse version of inception. The movie is ok, it gets more interesting towards the end..but other than that it's your average movie with a huge budget
Bad actors. Horrible and unnecessary complicated story. I lost interest very quickly. It's like you start watching a new series at the last episode. You got zero connection to any character and it's not worth to invest your time trying to understand what's going on. Yeah, I get it - that's the point - reverse time and all this Memento BS. No thanks, it's not intelligent, it's just crap.
A Christopher Nolan's film for sure. It has all the action, all the twists, all the intrigue. I cannot say much without spoiling the film. I liked it even without understanding everything that happened, but I think Nolan tried to create another blockbuster masterpiece like Inception but didn't achieve it. It seems way more pretentious than Inception and less solid. The music (or sound) is great and accurate to the film. The acting is also great. The movie is really good. But I have the feeling that there are some inconsistencies or plot holes and it is necessary to watch it again (maybe backwards, if you know what I mean) to determine if they exist or not. I am glad I could watch it in theaters, it's totally worth it.
I feel so stupid!
The principle of the film is so simple.Yet i could not figure the working and understand it.I was watching the movie like a fool the entire time.Not rating this
I would really like to write something about the movie or even rate it but I'm not sure I've seen it, yet. I feel like I fell asleep several times watching it and I missed parts of it. Parts I need to understand it.
The different planes of time I understand. That's pretty much sci-fi 101. But the whole thing is absolutely emotionless. Why should I care for the characters and what happenes to them or the world ? On the technical side I really had difficulty hearing the actors at times. Like everything that seemed to be important to understand this story was mumbled on purpose. The stunts were good at first but it wore out the longer the movie went on.
The movie is probably intented to watch more then once. Normally I would let some time pass and do that, with subtitles if nessessary. But it didn't tickle me enough to do that.
what a successful, flop of a movie
I always like it when I can express a few tears of joy at the end of a film.
Now, I've prolly gotta watch it a couple more times to understand everything that happened in the middle, but, luckily, I knew that'd be the case going in.
Seeing Tenet in the cinema means I understood ~90-95% of it. I'll definitely watch it again at home to get better comprehension. Great movie tho.
I saw it once and thought "what?!"
I saw it twice and thought "wow!"
I cannot wait to see it for a third time.
This is one of those mind-bending movies that absolutely warrants repeat viewings. See it on the biggest screen you can and preferably IMAX.
The first time was entertaining but confusing - I was too busy trying to understand the plot that I missed the spectacle... I was almost "out" of the movie.
So I went home and watched all the trailers, behind the scenes videos and the ending explanation.
Then, after a few weeks I went a second time and boy was it so much better for me - I was literally "in" the movie - completely immersed and loved it. I saw the film in a whole new light and was completely blown away.
I caught all the clever easter eggs and visuals I had missed first time.
I appreciated the directing and acting a lot more.
My score first time was 6.5.
My score second time is 8.5.
It's true what they say in the film...
"Don't try to understand it. Feel it."
I felt it and will be looking forward to that feeling again.
Cinema is supposed to take you away to another world, away from the harsh realities of life.
Let this film do that and then thank yourself.
this movie was so insane but i think in a very good way. I was confused many times but it still captured my attention i loved it
I liked it. For me, it wasn’t about “feeling” at all. It was just a neat exploration of an intriguing sci-fi idea. It didn’t move me in any deep way and that was OK for me.
4DX probably improved the film experience for me as well.
Washington’s acting still remains suspect in my opinion. Everyone else was solid.
This movie encapsulates my favorite saying of "I don't know what it is. But I want it". I have little to no idea what in the world was happening during the movie but I loved it. I'm gonna have to watch this at least 3 more times (and with subtitles) to even figure out what the hell exactly happened.
Expected more......felt like an Inception rehash....with Fringe and Counterpoint thrown in.
I liked it. At some point in the movie I figured out how the flow was going (still no idea how it actually works, but like they told in the movie "Don't try to explain") and started for looking for some clues that later in the movie came back. It was a very fun movie and sure it takes some time to get into. It can be very confusing if you miss some part, because the movie is going very fast. That was my con about this movie. For a 2,5 hour long movie this movie is going to fast sometimes. I wished they took more time for several scenes so that they could give some more impact or let me sink everything in.
Also very nice cast and great acting work.
The best movie I have seen in a while. While year after year we are surrendered by superhero craps fed to us by Marvel and alike (and we have to watch them all for some reason), this is a kinda action thriller movie that has a new idea, something to say and keep you on the edge of your seat all along. Amazing.
The premise was a brilliant rethinking of a much covered SciFi trope. It was a spectacular exercise of the mind to unravel its mysteries. The filmmaking and sound track were innovatively executed. The only problem was I couldn’t understand 50% of the dialogue, much of which was given through oxygen masks or under the noise of battle by an international cast with all the glory of their divergent English accents. In a film so rooted in complex intellectual constructs and subtle plot twists, it sure would have been nice to hear what they were saying. I’ll look forward to seeing it again, for the first time, with subtitles. Although we were in a state of the art theatre, I discovered that one of the other four in the Auditorium was able to catch more of the dialogue from her seat at the elevated back of the hall. I think this film rates a 9 (superbly clever) out of 10, but I won’t know until I see it again with subtitles. [SciFi Action Adventure]
My ear still ringing from the killer soundtrack and my head still turning from the plot and my heart still swooning over the suits. Can't wait for my second viewing !
There is a moment midway through this film where you can suddenly feel everything clicking into place. Up until this point, the film has been entertaining, with some great set pieces and a scope that is trademark Nolan, but the central hook of the film - “time inversion” - has felt almost superfluous to the plot, albeit a clever visual conceit that gives the film a different vibe to your average spy thriller. But then comes the “moment” - a simple act of crossing a threshold - where suddenly you realise how the visual conceit is going to figure into the rest of the film and also how most of the first hour has been pure setup for what is to follow. It’s the kind of twist that isn’t really a twist at all as it is a visual explanation that the film has really been waiting for. Nolan has taken quite a gamble in delaying this “moment” for so long and there is always the feeling the film is hiding elements of the plot in the first half. This means the explanation may have come too late for some to invest in the film fully, but if you are still with it, there is a sudden feeling of exhilaration of knowing to an extent some of what is about to follow and the film lets loose with some fantastic set pieces that are hugely satisfying if you have been paying attention.
Performances are great, with Branagh in full scenery chewing mode and the score is suitably Zimmeresque and loud. It doesn’t quite hit the highs of its closest cousin - Inception - but it’s scope is similarly impressive and it’s going to lead to plenty of theories and explanations in order to follow each major character’s journey through the film. Great stuff in the end, but it was touch and go there for a while.
Another great movie from Nolan. While for me it was a bit predictable it was still a well spent 3 hours and I will watch it again. The action was amazing and the story line too, not sure why I figured things out way before they happened cause it's a Nolan movie haha. Still go see it and be stunned!
Amazing movie in my opinion. Keeps you thinking and guessing. Some nice not too over the top political topics to think about as well. Lots of paradoxes to think about and the way time travel / reversing time would work
This movie is absolutely worse if you understand physics or are a student of physics. Nolan burnt hundreds of millions into this and didn't bother to consult even a high school physics teacher? Does he know what entropy is. Does he think entropy and time are same things? I understand we need to keep our brains at home when watching scifi but the plot is so convoluted and complex that I cannot forgive the stupidity of the premise. This movie is a stupid person's idea of what an intelligent movie might be.
How could people rate this already? Based on the trailer? Or where you part of the crew? I don't understand this...
Review by Enrico CamillieriBlockedParent2021-01-03T20:00:23Z— 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?