After a number of delays due to the COVID 19 Pandemic,
Tenet is finally out on the big screen and in typical Christopher Nolan fashion you have the
opportunity to watch it in 70mm or IMAX to take full advantage of the big screen experience.
Nolan apparently conceived the ideas behind Tenet over the past twenty years
and had been working on the script for the last 5 years. Nolan loves spy movies and
grew up watching many spy thrillers, with the Spy Who Loved Me being one of his favourites.
He enjoyed the glamour and multiple locations that comes with the genre
but for Tenet he wanted to do a new spin on it, introducing science fiction centred
the idea of inversion, where an object’s trajectory through time could be reserved.
Reviews from the critics have been a bit mixed so far with most leaning towards the positive,
many are praising the performances and likening it to Inception.
Some felt it was easy to admire but almost impossible to love lacking a certain humanity.
Despite its originality it was called out for being a humourless disappointment.
For the films plot. We are introduced to a CIA agent only referred to as the protagonist,
played by John David Washington. He is recruited into a secret operation,
given only the word "tenet" and a gesture to begin investigating. The Protagonist visits a facility
where he learns that in the future, technology has been developed that allows objects to be reversed
and move backward through time, with the potential to cause World War 3. The protagonist recruits
Neil played by Robert Pattinson, to help track the manufacturing origin of inverted bullets,
they infiltrate the compound of an arms dealer. She tells the protagonist that
the bullets had been normal when she had sold them and that a Russian named Andrei Saytor,
who can communicate with the future, had reversed them. To reach Andrei,
the protagonist approaches hiswife Kat so he uncover more details about his operation.
Before the pandemic, I had seen a few trailers for Tenet and honestly it didn’t really get
me that excited, visually it wasn’t jaw dropping and the idea of reversing time,
wasn’t the most exciting premise for me. Despite my reservations, it was another
Christopher Nolan film, he hasn’t disappointed me before, Dark Knight Rises has its issues,
but the guy has written and directed great movies, he has a solid track record.
After watching the movie I did enjoy Tenet for the most part. it had a really deep script,
you have to pay attention or you will get lost very quickly. Nolan doesn’t stop for the audience
to catch up, you have to keep up with him, as the dialogue is fired back and forth quickly,
often during lengthy exposition particularly with the scene featuring Michael Caine.
The movie plays out in parts like a James Bond film, as you might expect due to its
Spy Thriller direction but then it moves away from that and becomes its own thing.
Nolan has to be applauded for the vast amount of action scenes done with in
camera effects, there appears to be little use of CGI, of course computer techniques are employed
but they go completed unnoticed as it appears very real. Seeing a giant jumbo jet smash into
a building was pretty incredible. One of my favourite moments is seeing a building
collapse from an inverted explosive, so we see it return to normal then gets attacked in real time,
its utterly bonkers and something I’ve never seen before.
Its always great to see Chris Nolan shooting on 70mm and IMAX,
watching this on the big screen is certainly worth it to soak in the fine level of detail that comes
with shooting on large format colloid, but the visuals for the most part don’t have that WOW
factor that we’ve seen before in Nolan’s other films, Interstellar and Dunkirk for example,
having imagery which is just breath taking, Tenet is very much grounded in reality and not
relying on too much heavy tech it lends itself to more normal sedate settings,
of course the photography is splendid but its not the be all end all if you don’t see it in IMAX.
Seeing the action play out in reverse and in regular speed
in one shot is impressive, you have to admire its choreography, and it must have been a
nightmare to coordinate and direct that, and its cool to see someone acting normal
in an inverted timeline but when you see two characters fighting, and you have one reversed
it becomes quite funny to watch, reminding me of the Red Dwarf episode ‘Backwards’.
What largely affects the movie negatively is its sound mixing. Unfortunately many
moments of important dialogue is drowned out by very loud sound effects or the score
just taking over with such thunderous bass your ears struggle to focus on the important parts.
This is a creative choice by Nolan to help immerse the audience into the scene,
but it doesn’t really work. This isn’t uncommon as people complained of Baine in Dark Knight Rises
often sounding muffled and Interstellar having similar issues to what I experienced in Tenet,
where the dialogue volume just appears to low for ones ear or gets lost in the direction
of the sound design. To be honest I felt a bit uncomfortable for the first 10 mins of the film,
imax always has the sound louder than a regular digital showing,
so it felt like an assault on ones senses until thing slowed down, and you got to use to it. The
first gun shot in the film, will really make you jump out of your seat due to the volume.
The film is a bit business-like and lacks the emotional angle for me to fully connect
and invest in the story, its has an interesting arch for the protagonist, but there isn’t much
emotional jeopardy for him, so its very much like a typical Bond film in its execution,
he gets the mission and heads out to complete it. Kat is not played as a love interest,
and although there are moments when the protagonist is concerned for her welfare
it doesn’t fall into the traditional trappings of the genre. Unlike Inception and more so
Interstellar they have a strong emotional core and motivation to their stories and the action within,
whereas Tenet is a straight up spy thriller with science fiction elements
and takes itself very seriously. Hence why it has been criticised for being humourless.
The cast is superb however, John David Washington blew me away with his performance,
totally sells his role, he’s great in the fight scenes, taking on a lot of his own stunts
and delivers the often dense dialogue scenes with ease. Robert Pattinson,
like John just falls into the role and nails it, and becomes a great sidekick
to the protagonist. Kenneth Branagh is terrifying as Andrei, really impressive,
I’ve never seen Kenneth this evil before, such an incredible actor, damn that man can shout!
Elizabeth Debicki as Kat plays a tortured woman, trapped in an abusive marriage fighting for
escape. She plays it well and doesn’t fall into the damsel in distress cliché. Her own influence
over Andrei is a powerful weapon and she plays an important part in the protagonists mission.
Honestly I don’t think the idea of reversing time, essentially footage just played backwards
is that interesting to watch on a feature length scale. Nolan has crafted a very intelligent script
to sell this idea and concept but we don’t get something that truly is the next level
of filmmaking from him, in some ways it felt like a step back for him and in some areas it
felt like step forward. He has crafted a very smart spy thriller that is just
missing a few elements to make a more enjoyable experience on the whole. It moves so fast, if
you blink and miss a bit you can misunderstand the motivation for a whole sequence. The hard-to-hear
dialogue makes keeping up even harder. I enjoy thought-provoking and original film-making but
the physical watching of a film should not be a challenge. If a film relies on its story-telling,
exposition and problem-solving over its action sequences then the audience needs to be given the
opportunity to follow that. The film has some nice pay offs where a close-looking audience
gets the opportunity to spot things before they happen and that’s rewarding in a complicated film.
I do want to and need to see it again,
there are many things I missed on first viewing. There may be some who fully understood what was
going on but for me, I don’t think you can fully soak it in on first viewing,
there is a lot happening and it did seem to flyby even with a 2 and half hours run time. Despite
that, once we got to the 3rd act and I felt things needed to wrap up, feeling it was a tad too long.
It would be a great double bill to Inception,
that movie when it came out really blew people away and rightly so. Christopher Nolan crafts
very intelligent blockbuster movies, they’re not dumbed down at all, he gets to make what he wants,
a freedom many directors don’t get and he has earned that opportunity by proving successful
with his output but tenet for me doesn’t quite hit the mark to make it Nolan’s next masterpiece
despite its strong cast, direction and production values. Having said that its refreshing to see
something at the cinema that is original and not another superhero film or a remake.
I certainly recommend you see it, but only if you feel comfortable returning to the cinema,
but if you can wait a bit longer than give it a watch when it comes out to rent.