Dobson wrote: ↑

September 3rd, 2020, 8:38 am

Tenet is not a masterpiece, not even a flawed one like TDKR. It's still a good movie though. For one, I think the story at it's core is rather simple. It's a very basic spy story. Nolan didn't took the best elements of spy movies or subverted spy tropes, he rather took the most generic elements and put them into a movie. As a consequence, the spy stuff comes across as derivative, because you literally have seen this exact same thing a hundred times:

Some bad guy wants to end the world with the help of a doomsday device. And since we never see what the algorithm can do on a smaller scale for example, the thread remains purely theoretical.

It doesn't help the protagonist lacks a personal motivation and remains fairly uncharacterized. There is an emotional story line that elevates the other stuff, but it's not at the core of the story.

What saves the story from mediocrity are the inversion mechanics. It's a novel and innovative idea and the most interesting thing about the movie by far. Everytime something related to inversion happens, the movie becomes much more interesting. There are a lot of memorable visuals tied to inversion.

The fight against the inverted soldier is great, as well is the chase when the inverted cars show up. This gets even better when the characters become inverted themselves and we see the events a second time, but backwards. I just wish the ending battle happened in the opera as well, but inverted, which would have been a perfect fit for the palindromic nature of the title and film itself, instead of the elaborate round of paint ball that we got. The ending ties everything neatly together, but there's no twist that let's everything that happened before appear in a new light.

What's also great about Tenet is the production as a whole. The direction is great, the cinematography excellent, Göransson is on fire, and the actors bring their best to the table. The practical effects are wonderful and the CGI is seamless. The action sequences are thrilling, even without inversion. The only thing I'm not perfectly happy with is the editing, the movie rushes by way too fast, with little time to build atmosphere or to absorb the setting. It feels like a lot has been cut. As a consequence the film struggles to build this globe throtting adventure feeling that it tries to achieve.

Tenet didn't leave me positively overwhelmed at the end like many of his other films. I feel Nolan prioritized spectacle over substance this time. Tenet gets saved by inversion and the quality of the production as a whole. The film is near the bottom of Nolan's filmography for me. However, Tenet still being a good film just shows what an amazing run Nolan had. 8/10

poplar wrote: ↑

September 2nd, 2020, 7:47 pm

After second viewing.
How this movie is constructed is out this world. This will age as wine.

DHOPW42 wrote: ↑

September 3rd, 2020, 4:53 am

Drewton wrote: ↑

September 3rd, 2020, 12:40 am

I’m happy if people are able to like the movie but I don’t know how anyone can really think it’s better than Inception, let alone most of his films.

I wouldn't weigh in on the matter whether it's better than Inception or not, but this is something I was explaining in other topics: at this point in 2020, I think I can enjoy Tenet more than Inception. After 10 or so viewings, the latter feels a bit heavy and really, really long. I don't think it got worst as time went on, but I like how Tenet is simpler in many ways. It's like Beethoven writing his short and fresh 8th Symphony after the monumental 7th. Now, Tenet, of course, is just as long as Inception, but I do think that Tenet's story is simpler and less complicated.

DarkChocolateOreo wrote: ↑

September 3rd, 2020, 9:00 am

You can tell there was some mandate to get the film to exactly under 2:30:00, probably by the studio. Its a 180 pg script, his longest ever. I think it was too much to edit down and I also think that Jen Lame (while great at editing smaller films) just didnt have the exp necessary for a film of this scale...maybe covid made a bad situation worse

It will never happen but I hope to god that Nolan does a directors cut on the blu-ray. This is the first time Ive really felt like so much was cut.

Pr0creation wrote: ↑

September 3rd, 2020, 4:20 pm

After my first viewing i left the feeling confused, underwhelmed but amazed at the same time. When taking the train home i was speaking to my friend and we actually pieced together bits of information that the other didn't know and only then the movie began to make sense lol.

I knew it needed a second watch and wow. The second watch is so much more satisfying having much of the information and context already you get to focus more on the thematic and philosophical parts of the story and i enjoyed it a lot more.

Directing - BOMBASTIC (Nolan's best action by FAR IMO)

Cinematography - Amazing (It's inception but dirty but clean as f***)

Soundtrack - surprisingly Great (i did not have much faith in ludwig but he actually smashed it)

Writing - Insane (such a surreal concept loved it. Convoluted plot gets in the way of thematic and character exploration could have been 3 hours or less spy exposition)

Editing - Very Good (the feat of editing a concept like this is brave as hell lol)

Sound Mixing terrible (important plot points inaudible. IMAX camera issue?)


My Nolan ranking

The Prestige 8.5
The Dark Knight 8.5
Inception 8.25
Interstellar 8.25
Memento 8
Tenet 8
Dunkirk 8
The Dark Knight Rises 8
Batman Begins 7.5
Insomnia 7
Following 7

Demoph wrote: ↑

September 3rd, 2020, 5:23 pm

Pr0creation wrote: ↑

September 3rd, 2020, 4:20 pm

After my first viewing i left the feeling confused, underwhelmed but amazed at the same time. When taking the train home i was speaking to my friend and we actually pieced together bits of information that the other didn't know and only then the movie began to make sense lol.

I knew it needed a second watch and wow. The second watch is so much more satisfying having much of the information and context already you get to focus more on the thematic and philosophical parts of the story and i enjoyed it a lot more.

Directing - BOMBASTIC (Nolan's best action by FAR IMO)

Cinematography - Amazing (It's inception but dirty but clean as f***)

Soundtrack - surprisingly Great (i did not have much faith in ludwig but he actually smashed it)

Writing - Insane (such a surreal concept loved it. Convoluted plot gets in the way of thematic and character exploration could have been 3 hours or less spy exposition)

Editing - Very Good (the feat of editing a concept like this is brave as hell lol)

Sound Mixing terrible (important plot points inaudible. IMAX camera issue?)


My Nolan ranking

The Prestige 8.5
The Dark Knight 8.5
Inception 8.25
Interstellar 8.25
Memento 8
Tenet 8
Dunkirk 8
The Dark Knight Rises 8
Batman Begins 7.5
Insomnia 7
Following 7

You're on a Nolan fans forum, yet you don't rate any of his films higher than 8,5 ?