Surprisingly uninteresting. The sole female protagonist is reduced to a boring hausfrau, almost anything of value in the film's world is accomplished with guns or melee combat. There is also quite an obvious problem with the film's central conceit--why was the algorithm not destroyed rather than hidden by its inventor? Tenet is too clever for its own good, with too much hand-waving about the pseudo-metaphysics of time travel.
What a piece of shit. Nolan should really stop writing. If the best he can do is mix bits and pieces from all his hits and see what shit comes out of it, he should stick to directing and maybe try to find someone to write him a good script next time.
pretty much uses the same method Bill and Ted applied in their first movie to get the keys. “Oh yeah! I can’t forget to go back and sacrifice myself to save you dude”.
In all seriousness, this movie was annoying. Nolan needs to understand that complex mechanics don’t add much to the core drama of a story. The audience only needed evil guy abuses woman-end of the world scenario to get things going. The rest felt like homework. Too many characters and too many stop and explain scenes. Positives? John David Washington’s acting saves a thin character, the action is nice for the most part and some of the ideas are cool but that ain’t enough to recommend it.
Tenet is... Inception meets Memento. There. Done. All kidding aside, what Nolan has made here is a time travel puzzle movie that won't surprise fans of things like Primer, Timecrimes or Moffat's Doctor Who too much, but that still puts incredible images on screen. The locations feel fresh and new, when things blow up it feels like it's all done in reality, and the way time-reversed elements interact with forward-moving elements could make you as giddy as those topsy-turvy sequences in Inception. But it's a very intellectual film, by which I mean I was never truly emotionally involved in events where the characters are MacGuffins looking for MacGuffins. In Nolan tradition, Nolan offers a lot of exposition to explain the rules of his world - though to be fair, a lot of it is still nonsense - dovetailing into pretentious philosophy when he feels like it. I was much more interested in John David Washington as a quick-witted superspy - his dialog made me smile and laugh - and would totally give the Broccolis permission to cast him as James Bond (Brit or not). R-Pat is fun as his sidekick too. Tenet is well made, to be sure, but almost everyone is a cipher, at some remove from the audience.
Sure, Tenet is kind of a worse Inception: even more technical, more distant, louder and less creative with a lesser cast. Sometimes it's exhausting to follow, too complicated for its own good and very serious about that to round things off. While I still can enjoy all of that and adore the non-CGI work, I had to laugh at ICM's top comment: "Primer with more explosions" - yep, that's spot-on. A film to be sighed at or even detested by those folks who weren't keen on Nolan before.
And still I have to say I am impressed by the existence of Tenet. A 200 million tentpole blockbuster - 2020's summer's only major release - with a completely original concept, as in not remade, rebooted et cetera, that can without exaggeration be compared to a clusterfuck sci-fi experiment such as Primer. A giant, truly demanding movie brought to cinema's biggest screens for an impatient audience which is used to Youtube, Tiktok and Netflix. I find that unbelievable and will forgive some of the artistic weaknesses.
Who knows how often we will have to look up the plot summary of a multi-million dollar blockbuster after the film industry recovers from the Covid lockdowns. With many more Marvel and Disney films and endless franchises incoming, we might one day look back at Tenet, even if partly failed, and scratch our heads: "Wow, they really did something like this."
At two and a half hours this film feels too short. There is barely any time to take in and digest what's going on. Definitely requires repeated viewings.
I understand @BareLolk’s feelings. It’s way too demanding to follow the film’s plot... you miss the blink of an eye and you have no clue what’s goin on anymore. While I usually enjoy “mindfuck” type movies, it’s just a bit too much.
Didnt understand not 1 minute of this movie. Even after reading explanations it still didnt make any sense. Maybe Im just too dumb, dont know. For me - really overrated piece of crap.
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Comments 1 - 15 of 50
viccc
Surprisingly uninteresting. The sole female protagonist is reduced to a boring hausfrau, almost anything of value in the film's world is accomplished with guns or melee combat. There is also quite an obvious problem with the film's central conceit--why was the algorithm not destroyed rather than hidden by its inventor? Tenet is too clever for its own good, with too much hand-waving about the pseudo-metaphysics of time travel.Alec Chalmers
My favourite bit was the bit that hasn't happened yet.envynav
The best way I can describe this movie is “Primer with more explosions”.greenhorg
Imagine catching covid because you just had to go out and see this.Mrion
The action set pieces were really cool, too bad I had no idea what was happening in them.BareLolk
Though I don't really like much about the movie, I respect the effects, the fight choreography and the attempt to make the script work.It's an impressive work of entertainment - but it's not a movie for me.
BadFluffy
What a piece of shit. Nolan should really stop writing. If the best he can do is mix bits and pieces from all his hits and see what shit comes out of it, he should stick to directing and maybe try to find someone to write him a good script next time.baraka92
At the end, Robert PattinsonIn all seriousness, this movie was annoying. Nolan needs to understand that complex mechanics don’t add much to the core drama of a story. The audience only needed evil guy abuses woman-end of the world scenario to get things going. The rest felt like homework. Too many characters and too many stop and explain scenes. Positives? John David Washington’s acting saves a thin character, the action is nice for the most part and some of the ideas are cool but that ain’t enough to recommend it.
Siskoid
Tenet is... Inception meets Memento. There. Done. All kidding aside, what Nolan has made here is a time travel puzzle movie that won't surprise fans of things like Primer, Timecrimes or Moffat's Doctor Who too much, but that still puts incredible images on screen. The locations feel fresh and new, when things blow up it feels like it's all done in reality, and the way time-reversed elements interact with forward-moving elements could make you as giddy as those topsy-turvy sequences in Inception. But it's a very intellectual film, by which I mean I was never truly emotionally involved in events where the characters are MacGuffins looking for MacGuffins. In Nolan tradition, Nolan offers a lot of exposition to explain the rules of his world - though to be fair, a lot of it is still nonsense - dovetailing into pretentious philosophy when he feels like it. I was much more interested in John David Washington as a quick-witted superspy - his dialog made me smile and laugh - and would totally give the Broccolis permission to cast him as James Bond (Brit or not). R-Pat is fun as his sidekick too. Tenet is well made, to be sure, but almost everyone is a cipher, at some remove from the audience.Torgo
Sure, Tenet is kind of a worse Inception: even more technical, more distant, louder and less creative with a lesser cast. Sometimes it's exhausting to follow, too complicated for its own good and very serious about that to round things off. While I still can enjoy all of that and adore the non-CGI work, I had to laugh at ICM's top comment: "Primer with more explosions" - yep, that's spot-on. A film to be sighed at or even detested by those folks who weren't keen on Nolan before.And still I have to say I am impressed by the existence of Tenet. A 200 million tentpole blockbuster - 2020's summer's only major release - with a completely original concept, as in not remade, rebooted et cetera, that can without exaggeration be compared to a clusterfuck sci-fi experiment such as Primer. A giant, truly demanding movie brought to cinema's biggest screens for an impatient audience which is used to Youtube, Tiktok and Netflix. I find that unbelievable and will forgive some of the artistic weaknesses.
Who knows how often we will have to look up the plot summary of a multi-million dollar blockbuster after the film industry recovers from the Covid lockdowns. With many more Marvel and Disney films and endless franchises incoming, we might one day look back at Tenet, even if partly failed, and scratch our heads: "Wow, they really did something like this."
I gotta get an aspirin. But I regret nothing.
Sebambino
Perhaps Nolan`s worst movie.peterskb45
How can a movie be both so amazing and so frustrating at the same time?Norf
Primer meets Bond.At two and a half hours this film feels too short. There is barely any time to take in and digest what's going on. Definitely requires repeated viewings.
kiwidesign
I understand @BareLolk’s feelings. It’s way too demanding to follow the film’s plot... you miss the blink of an eye and you have no clue what’s goin on anymore. While I usually enjoy “mindfuck” type movies, it’s just a bit too much.SimbaLV
Didnt understand not 1 minute of this movie. Even after reading explanations it still didnt make any sense. Maybe Im just too dumb, dont know. For me - really overrated piece of crap.Showing items 1 – 15 of 50