Had my second screening yesterday and now I'm finally able to talk about it!

After the first screening I was a complete mess for a few days
Constantly chatting with friends about theories and trying to figure everything out without looking at "Tenet explained" videos or articles.
The second viewing answered almost all of my questions and I wasn't that exhausted like I was the first time

TENET is an incredible movie that definitely will enjoy the same status INCEPTION has now in the future. It's so ahead of its time and I completely understand Pattinson when he says "No one has ever done this and no one will ever do it again."

The first half you are getting a fast paced Bond movie but with some scenes where you think "Whoa what was that?"
But then the movie just goes into beast-mode and everyone knows by then that this is not your typical spy movie.
I think when you go in this movie completely blind that must be one hell of an experience.

The pace is perfect in my opinion. Just the right amount of exposition between all the glorious action. (imo better executed than in INCEPTION - there were a lot of weirdly placed "silent" scenes during the final act)
Even the Nolan-crosscut in the final act between the (f***ing amazing) works really really good (looking at you Interstellar )

The action is the best cinema has to offer and even as a filmmaker myself I'm still wondering how some of the scenes were shot The sound together with the score is amazing! From the first gunshots in the opening scene where the audience is directly "calibrated", to the final "battle" where your seats are shaking, the sound is as impressive as the visuals. Of course it's loud but when you have a 27x22 meter screen in front of you, your seat has to shake when BTW I watched it with German dubb, so no dialogue issues for me even in loud scenes.
Will the score be a classic on its own like Inception or Insterstellar? Probably not. Does it serve the film as good as or even better than Dunkirk? Definitely yes!
Imo you had to have a Dunkirk-like score for this movie with that kind of relentless pace - otherwise it just wouldn't work.

Of course you don't have oscar-worthy perfomances but everyone did a great job!
Debicki and Branagh being my favorites. Pattinson is charismatic as hell and JDW as a great lead to identify with and with the classic Bond-style witt. And I don't understand the criticism for JDW - choosing a more or less unknown actor for a role where we as an audience experience the world of inversion with him, is an excellent move. You can't compare it to Inception for example where Cobb is like THE authority on dream charing, where it makes sense to cast someone like Leo.

Overall one of the best movies I have ever seen and by far the most thrilling, entertaining and fun experiences in a cinema I've ever had!
For me Inception still ranks higher but thats only because I watched it as an "innocent" 15 year old and still is the reason I became a filmmaker myself.

If I had to criticise something it would be some parts of the expositional dialogue that are little bit too "in your face" but then even less people would understand the film and the people who care about critic scores would be even more upset

It's definitely not a movie for everyone and I respect the people who say that you have to understand everything the first time to enjoy it.
But if you like being challenged and you like chatting about theories the whole time afterwards with your friends and you like to reward yourself with a second or even more viewings then this movie will definitely give you an experience you will never forget

9/10

What a time to be alive

IMAX Sinsheim Germany Dual 4K Laser
I spoke to the the projectionist and they even lowered the volume -6db to what IMAX recommends and it was still loud as hell.
Nolan and IMAX are sick humans

I've now seen Tenet 3 times - two in IMAX and one in a regular screening.

This film is absolutely superb.

The story is quite complex, but on my 2nd and 3rd viewing it all clicked out. The inversion concept is simply amazing and I love everything about it.

The action is out of this world and one of the best I've seen in the last decade. The way normal scenes play out with inverted scenes is breathtaking and Nolan's signature use of practical effects is probably the best here out of all his films. The set pieces are insane. This is all enhanced by Hoytema's stunning cinematography (probably Nolan's best looking film since Interstellar).

Ludwig Gorranson's score is another aspect which I loved. It heavily relies on electronic motives and heavy bass. This was the loudest movie I had ever seen in IMAX, but I loved every second of it. The music grips you from the opening Opera scene and never lets go.

JDW and Pattinson brought their charm and swag too and Neil was an amazing character. Branagh was also good, although a classic Bond type of villain. Debicki was superb too, although having recently re-watched The Night Manager, i can't help but to find a lot of similarities with her character there.

9.5/10 (due to small pacing issues towards the middle).

I am seeing it again in around 2 weeks and then maybe 1-2 more times as I just love this film.

P.S: I even immediately pre-ordered "The Secrets of Tenet" artbook and the "Merry-Go-Round" book after I got out of my first viewing.

Vader182 wrote: ↑

September 1st, 2020, 1:14 am

To those of you who have seen it, what % of dialogue do you think you could make out?

A friend just saw it at the IMAX I'm going to Thursday so I wanted to compare.


-Vader

There's a couple scenes where me and my buddy legitimately threw our hands like "welp I have no idea what was just said". It's in typical Nolan fashion though so I truly didn't mind. The point of the extremely loud scenes isn't to understand the dialogue, it's to be immersed in what's happening around the characters as they're speaking. I also didn't see it in IMAX unfortunately, but yeah prob only 10 maybe 15% of dialogue that I couldn't make out.

I feel vindicated for feeling like I legit had brain issues coming out of my first viewing now that I see that the audio issue is universal.

That being said, it's not a problem on repeat viewings, so it's a pity that the audio issues seem to be turning off a lot of people and making them frustrated and saying that they never want to watch it again.

Saw the film again today and audio was much better than it was at the premiere.

Saw it at a Laser IMAX. It was uncomfortably loud, yet I still couldn't understand much of the dialogue. I had zero idea what the movie was about and couldn't enjoy it unfortunately. I might try again on a smaller screen.

stanley wrote: ↑

September 1st, 2020, 11:00 am

Saw it at a Laser IMAX. It was uncomfortably loud, yet I still couldn't understand much of the dialogue. I had zero idea what the movie was about and couldn't enjoy it unfortunately. I might try again on a smaller screen.

This very interesting. Reactions are so varied.

Vader182 wrote: ↑

September 1st, 2020, 1:14 am

To those of you who have seen it, what % of dialogue do you think you could make out?

A friend just saw it at the IMAX I'm going to Thursday so I wanted to compare.


-Vader

i understood pretty much everything important

think the issue is super overblown like i think i saw a different movie than everyone else. like Law said the hard to understand parts are like... action scenes where someone will exclaim something unimportant to the plot idk

saw it in Laser IMAX

anyways i absolutely loved it and dug every second - went with two people and while i haven’t figured out a rating yet (i think i’m at a 4.5), they both immediately said 5 stars coming out of the theater. one is not a movie person and the other is, so... do with that info what you will

^ For me, there were scenes where information is being given and I just couldn't make it out. But beyond that, the movie is heavy on plotting and it moves along pretty fast. I think I just lost the thread early on. That was also my experience the first time I saw Inception, so I imagine I'll enjoy it more the second time.

Vader182 wrote: ↑

September 1st, 2020, 1:14 am

To those of you who have seen it, what % of dialogue do you think you could make out?

A friend just saw it at the IMAX I'm going to Thursday so I wanted to compare.


-Vader

I would say I could understand at least 90% in the German dubbed IMAX version.