During the desert warfare scene in Tenet. I didn’t know who was shooting at who.

He needs to work on stuff like that.

BobCobb wrote: ↑

September 2nd, 2020, 2:41 pm

During the desert warfare scene in Tenet. I didn’t know who was shooting at who.

He needs to work on stuff like that.

Don't want to make excuses and use whataboutisms, but I feel like that is what a war battle usually is. It's chaotic, not operatic. Even if you watch films made by people who actually fought at war, like Oliver Stone, they do the same thing. The construction of the sequences is told subjectively to convey the disorientation soldiers feel when they have to go all-out at the enemy.

I saw the name of the topic and I already knew that most folk will start picking at the fight scenes in the Batman films. Okay, listen, I'm an action movie whore. I'm not talking "Oh, The Matrix films and John Wick films, man, those are cool" kind of action film fan. I'm deep down into this B###. I'm talking from old-school stuff like Day of the Jackal to all the obscure wannabee Hong-Kong-action-movie flicks like The Corrupter. I grew up with action flicks, most of which were in fact focused on hand-to-hand action. I've watched it all. And yes, the fight scenes in TDKT neither are consistent, as the first movie was clearly copying then still fresh Bourne films while the other two abounded that style completely, nor do they have the hard-hitting kinetics of Isaac Florentine's films.

But I do think couch potato arts experts really need to stop pointing their fingers at Nolan like he took a piss in their cereal when they are talking about him sucking at the fighting scenes and acting like it's some revelation they found in the old testament.

Again, I don't want to go into whataboutisms, but they really need to stop pretending that Nolan is the first A-level Hollywood auteur who isn't preoccupied with filming flashy fight scenes. Unless directors hire second unit to do job for them (which most of them, a lot like Nolan, don't), they always do less than a stellar job. Likewise, Coppola simultaneously made what is one of the best movies ever made (The Godfather) that also contains one of the worst fight scenes ever filmed (the fight between Sonny and Carlo). Or my personal hero De Palma, who made an awesome cops-after-mobsters movie with The Untochables, but the fight scenes are borderline comical. Or heck, even someone, as most would think, well-versed in flashy action scenes as Sam Raimi did a rather very poor job on the fight against creeps in the alley in the first Spider-Man movie, where it looks staged from ten miles away, despite the scene having a great setup and a visually interesting setting.

All in all, I doubt Nolan will ever start filming kinetic and over-the-top fight scenes like in Undisputed films with Scott Adkins, but I don't think that means he should stop filming fight scenes. The same way Kirk Hammet isn't precise at guitar playing, especially solos, but that doesn't mean he should stop writing solos for his band.

I fucking hate when amebas criticize first fight in docks in BB.

"It's to choppy, I can't see Batman or what's happening boo-hoo-hoo".
So that basically we are as disoriented as the goons... Wait...

Holy shit! It can't be!

I think in his blockbuster/‘crowd pleasers’ I could really do without the subtle ‘heh-heh’ jokes. They’re too dry for me. That’s why I think Dunkirk’s fleet runtime and script are major virtues of that movie; letting the sights and sounds evoke everything we need to get the “feel” of the movie across. This isn’t always the case of course, the few jokes in Memento for instance are great. But like the blockbusters’ humor is not what I like about them.

All Nolan's female characters are pretty much, one of these super cliche types.


1. Femme fatale
2. Damsel in distress
3. Supposedly smart intuitive woman that at some point has to mess things up by being nosey or stupid


The ones that don't fit in there are short cameo like roles that typically serve to either give or listen to exposition in one or very few scenes.


Almost all of them with very limited character exploration and development.

Those are very broad terms but even with that Hilary Swank, Scarlett Johanson, Jessica Chastain don't seem to fit that description.

Swank's Ellie lets herself to be trapped by Williams' Finch without informing anyone where she's going, despite knowing the threat, and then needs saving by Pacino's Dormer. (Type 3)

ScarJo in The Prestige is functioning as femme fatale when she's not listening to exposition (Type 1)

Murph unnecessarily provokes her brother and almost misses her chance to get the equation as the result, and then has to burn the struggling man's farm to get back inside. The whole thing is basically a charade to give the character some irrelevant struggle and hide the fact that Murph is really just a passive character waiting to be given an equation and everything she needs to save the world by two male characters. (Type 3)

Again, going by very broad terms here if you want to categorize those three as such. You're basically forcing it to fit your narration.

Apropos of nothing, does this forum have an ignore button of some kind?