I couldn't have said it better myself. You really hit the nail on the head.Vader182 wrote: ↑September 4th, 2020, 8:46 pmreview time:
Tenet is a delirious, exhilarating ride with some of the best action I've ever seen. Every minute hits with sensory assault and spectacle, with mad scientist plotting that flies too close to the sun in a way only Chris Nolan can. As a film it falters, but as a"CINEMA!" experience it is magnificent. However, Tenet was the wrong movie to reopen cinemas: it's arty blockbuster on the chassis of Nolan's least accessible, most oppressively icy film. What it reveals in Nolan's strengths with concept, style and action, it exposes in his weakness with character, plot, dialogue. It is a bizarre medley of mastery and misstep.
It is a deliberately opaque movie; murky rules are quickly established and just as quickly broken and a plot that makes little sense via visual or muffled dialogue. The characters, or lack-thereof, are husk-people that lack psychology, arcs, change or catharsis. Lacking catharsis is key, as all of Nolan's movies climax with an "aha" feeling of cohesion tied to character (reunion, revelation, etc) so when Tenet gets where it's going, you feel ...empty. There's an unrelenting hollowness to Tenet that's both blessing and curse, and while I engaged with that despairing chilliness, it's another door the general audience may not walk through.
Most disappointing of all is that Tenet is the first Nolan film without a soul. The biggest disappointment isn't that its quantum maze is confusing--I loved feeling lost in its tangled web--it's that the ambiguities you're left with are technical rather than philosophical. It's a dazzling, alienating puzzle, and what innuendo of depth and meaning may sit beneath Tenet's temporal seas, is ultimately handwaved in its rush to the credits.
Everyone does good work down the line, performance, lensing, score, but most impressive was Nolan wielding the exquisite visual control of Dunkirk and applying it to heists and car chases, and the time-inversed fist fight is the best brawl since the bathroom in Fallout. All in all, it's a visual and somatic thrill that doubles as a minor disappointment and his worst movie since Insomnia.
It's an 8/10 from me.
-Vader
Tenet User Reviews/Reactions [Possible SPOILERS]
Having now seen this film myself, I can say most of these user reviews are misleading.
It is a really really really good film. Cinema spectacle at its enjoyable best.
Go watch TENET, it is far far superior a film first time around,AND with multiple viewings compared to Dunkirk and Inception.
This one will age like wine.
It is a really really really good film. Cinema spectacle at its enjoyable best.
Go watch TENET, it is far far superior a film first time around,AND with multiple viewings compared to Dunkirk and Inception.
This one will age like wine.
2nd viewing is like a new film, so perfectly calibrated and it all fits into place. Possibly one of Nolan's best? And there's far more going on here than many are realizing.
Posts: 1230
Joined:
January 2019
I may disagree with Nolan's full on stoicism, but there's no denying that Nolan put a lot of heart into it.
Posts: 55632
Joined:
May 2010
Co-signing every single beautifully written word here, with a lesser score. Bravo!Vader182 wrote: ↑September 4th, 2020, 8:46 pmreview time:
Tenet is a delirious, exhilarating ride with some of the best action I've ever seen. Every minute hits with sensory assault and spectacle, with mad scientist plotting that flies too close to the sun in a way only Chris Nolan can. As a film it falters, but as a"CINEMA!" experience it is magnificent. However, Tenet was the wrong movie to reopen cinemas: it's arty blockbuster on the chassis of Nolan's least accessible, most oppressively icy film. What it reveals in Nolan's strengths with concept, style and action, it exposes in his weakness with character, plot, dialogue. It is a bizarre medley of mastery and misstep.
It is a deliberately opaque movie; murky rules are quickly established and just as quickly broken and a plot that makes little sense via visual or muffled dialogue. The characters, or lack-thereof, are husk-people that lack psychology, arcs, change or catharsis. Lacking catharsis is key, as all of Nolan's movies climax with an "aha" feeling of cohesion tied to character (reunion, revelation, etc) so when Tenet gets where it's going, you feel ...empty. There's an unrelenting hollowness to Tenet that's both blessing and curse, and while I engaged with that despairing chilliness, it's another door the general audience may not walk through.
Most disappointing of all is that Tenet is the first Nolan film without a soul. The biggest disappointment isn't that its quantum maze is confusing--I loved feeling lost in its tangled web--it's that the ambiguities you're left with are technical rather than philosophical. It's a dazzling, alienating puzzle, and what innuendo of depth and meaning may sit beneath Tenet's temporal seas, is ultimately handwaved in its rush to the credits.
Everyone does good work down the line, performance, lensing, score, but most impressive was Nolan wielding the exquisite visual control of Dunkirk and applying it to heists and car chases, and the time-inversed fist fight is the best brawl since the bathroom in Fallout. All in all, it's a visual and somatic thrill that doubles as a minor disappointment and his worst movie since Insomnia.
It's an 8/10 from me.
-Vader
Going again tonight and fully expecting to get there even score wise, with better sound.
I felt nothing watching this film. One of Chris Nolan's most disappointing films, this is coming from a massive Nolan fan. I'll tell you what the the action was the highlight, Nolan outdone himslef in that department. Eveything else though... soulless. 5/10 from me. Robert Pattinson brought his A-game though, gave me massive Buce Wayne vibes.
Posts: 8437
Joined:
August 2012
so when is this movie’s funeral and am i invited
Posts: 61
Joined:
August 2009
Terrific film. Visually dazzling. No sound problem in the theater I saw it in. Not really confusing (except some of the freeport heist) till the final battle. Washington is ok. Brannagh, Debicki, and Pattinson are quite good.
