SummaryArmed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist (John David Washington) journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time. Not time travel. Inversion.
SummaryArmed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist (John David Washington) journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time. Not time travel. Inversion.
For me, Tenet is preposterous in the tradition of Boorman’s Point Blank, or even Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point, a deadpan jeu d’esprit, a cerebral cadenza, a deadpan flourish of crazy implausibility – but supercharged with steroidal energy and imagination.
It’s breathtaking to watch the director work on such a grand scale, but the humans within his film do sometimes get lost. For all Nolan’s metaphysical mastery, there’s an undeniable coldness to his twilight world.
Haven't watched Memento in a long time but this is in the same vein as that Nolan movie.
It is definitely hard to understand every detail at first viewing, though I didn't feel it detracted in any way from the experience. The 2nd time you notice all the attention to detail - which you will invariably miss - and will bring an even bigger appreciation for what the director has accomplished.
I will say they are different viewings and two very different experiences worth having each on it's own.
Nolan says he has been working on the script for many years and it definitely shows. As some people say, it has a lot of exposition and maybe one or two things could be done better on that sense.
It is much less a "spy movie" as it is a brilliant sci-fi thriller, with a remarkable sound track and pacing. The sound editing did miss the mark a bit and needs to be reworked.
Definitely a huge surprise, as I would have expected this to be rated similarly to Memento and above Inception.
An All-Original Science-Fiction Masterpiece from Christopher Nolan, and His Most Underrated Film Yet. Tenet was ahead of its time. In my personal opinion Tenet serves as an additional brilliant film in Christopher Nolan's filmography, that unlike most of Nolan's other films, never got the place it deserves in the spotlight.Christopher Nolan presented us with yet another masterpiece, that only a brilliant mind like his is capable of. The amount of sophistication and attention to detail in this movie is uncanny, and Nolan brings us hope once again that an action blockbuster can challenge the intelligence of its audience. The film is for sure very complicated and requires more than one viewing in order to begin to understand it (a few analyses and illustrations reviewing online might be required as well), but that only makes it a grander achievement from Nolan's side that managed to create a movie so sophisticated and original, that yet at the bottom line everything in it still aligns perfectly and makes complete sense (kinda like Inception).I remember sitting in the theater watching it for the first time thinking I understood it alright, but once a certain scene (involving the colours red and blue and a turnstile) came I figured I probably don't understand it at all, and just enjoyed the experience ("Don't try to understand it; Just feel it"). The second time i watched the movie I came prepared, and once I truly understood everything (or at least, most of it) i figured what a brilliant story and what a unique film it is, and how Nolan just outsmarted himself once again and created something i'm not sure any other director would have been capable **** the technical side, i think everyone would agree this movie is a triumphant achievement. The Cinematography, Visual Effects, Production Design, etc. Are all top notch. Got to give some respect to editor Jennifer Lame, it must have been a real challenge to edit a film of this type. The highlight though must be Ludwig Göransson's musical score, that is nothing short of a masterpiece in my opinion. A non stop intense and aggressive electronic celebration, that elevates the film to another level and works brilliantly as a listen outside the film as **** movie came out in an awful time that, in part, prevented it from being a sensation like Inception and Interstellar has been back in their day. That and, of course, the fact this movie is nothing short of an investment, that requires the viewer to watch it at least 2-3 times to fully comprehend. I believe and hope in the future Tenet will get some more of the respect it deserves, and might even take the path of films like Fight Club and many others that were panned on release but became cult classics afterwards.Personally I love this film passionately and I highly recommend it. I don't think anyone else besides Christopher Nolan, the guy that has Inception on his resume, could have provided us with a film like this. I consider Tenet as a triumph in the Science Fiction genre, and one of the most entertaining, most original and most unique entires in that genre.
It’s basically espionage adventure, but with a science fiction backbone: Nolan ups the ante on “Mission: Impossible” by making the impossibility not just physical but quantum physical. And he goes about it expertly, bullishly and with giddily perverse intent to bewilder.
There’s a chilliness to Tenet that I haven’t felt in his previous work. The stakes, presumably, couldn’t be higher — both onscreen and offscreen — but after watching the movie, I don’t understand why I was meant to care. As an intellectual exercise, Tenet is very interesting, if not entirely successful. As a movie, I’m not so sure.
This is a bad film by a good filmmaker. It has the veneer of substantiality, but it’s unsubstantial. It is the product of sincere conviction and artistic confidence, but both were misguided. Every filmmaker needs to take the occasional chance, as Christopher Nolan did with “Tenet.” Not all chances pay off.
There’s something grating about a film which insists on detailing its pseudo-science while also conceding you probably won’t have followed a thing. We’re clobbered with plot then comforted with tea-towel homilies about how what’s happened has happened.
This movie has a great break-in scene, lots of fights, and some satisfying moments where confusing events become clear.
Unfortunately, the plot is super confusing. So much so that at points I just gave up on figuring it out and kept watching. It's also 2.5 hours long. The soundtrack is incredibly average. I think they recycled the Inception soundtrack, added a few foghorns and called it a day. David Washington's character alternates from having no idea what's going on to being ultra confident and competent, and it's jarring.
I think you'll enjoy this if you want action more than plot.
So much potential! Probably too much potential, actually. The plot is much too full of over-thought nonsense, but the action is interesting to watch. Overall, this is a high-budget, low-quality film.
The sound mix is truly terrible, and the lead actor has almost no charisma. The final ten minutes of the movie introduce a much more interesting movie that could have happened, but didn't.