Tenet (2020)
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Tenet Movie Review
Tenet is a 2020 science fiction action film directed by Christopher Nolan and starring John David Washington and Robert Pattinson. It’s so bad.
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“I’ll see you in the beginning, friend“
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A secret agent embarks on a dangerous, time-bending mission to prevent the start of World War III. A lot has been said about this storyline already, but I personally found it atrocious. Yes, the concept was good and it had some potential with its time travel mechanics, but the execution is downright horrendous that I quickly lost interest in deciphering what the hell was going on.
I’m not a Nolan fan. Never have been, never will be. But even I found most of his movies at least passable, but this is a rare film of his that is downright bad. He should really think about changing his style as this would be the right time for him to recognize his mistakes and address them and grow as a filmmaker. If he continues to act like this, then he is just a manchild.
This time inversion was just so needlessly complicated that it makes the viewer frustrated instead of intrigued. It’s one of those movies that make you not want to understand its plot, how annoyingly off-putting and smug it all is. There is nothing behind all of this overly complicated shenanigans. Utter emptiness. There is no level of technical wizardry and smugness that can disguise a bad, dumb plot.
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John David Washington. A perfect case of Hollywood nepotism. Previously I found him far from great in his loaded turn in Spike Lee’s ‘BlacKkKlansman’, but his performance here is even weaker. His Protagonist (ridiculous) is very bland and he is simply not charismatic enough to pull off a Bond-like hero. He’s just not that good of an actor honestly.
The opposite stands for Robert Pattinson. He continues to grow as an actor and here his performance is one of the only positive aspects of the movie. He’s great and very charismatic unlike his co-star. Elizabeth Debicki is terrific as usual. She is always a welcome presence and for a Nolan movie to feature an interesting, strong female character who does not get murdered in the end was positively shocking.
I hated, absolutely hated the villain. Kenneth Branagh is a phenomenal actor of course but this is one of his worst works. He is too over-the-top and overly annoying as this, guess who, Russian bad guy. How original! To have a 2020 movie with a theatrical Russian villain and the potential WWIII is just so antiquated that only the hardest Nolanites can excuse this. And I don’t care if it is inspired by Bond movies. This is the 21st century and this is simply not acceptable and/or fun anymore.
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Speaking of Bond movies, the movie tries painfully badly to emulate that formula, but it has none of the humor and none of the charm of said franchise. It would probably rank as the worst James Bond movie had it belonged in that canon, and that says a lot as there are so many bad Bond movies out there. Yes, the location work is good and it was visually appealing seeing all of those great cities and imagery, but the movie jumps back and forth in time and place way too often, thus feeling jumbled and structurally problematic.
The editing is good, I guess, and the VFX are outstanding. There is this one scene in Tenet that features a building collapsing and coalescing at the same time. That was a sight to behold, I have to admit. It was amazing. But none of the other scenes had that level of originality or wow factor and most of the action was utterly dull and overly extended. The dialogue is absolutely terrible. Some of it can’t even be heard due to expectedly horrible sound. People constantly tell me that his sound is terrible and yet he refuses to change that. How can you take a man like that seriously? Back to the dialogue. It’s so frustratingly full of never-ending exposition that it becomes numbing and pointless. Nolan’s direction here is just bad.
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In terms of fan favourites and just raw talent in general, director Christopher Nolan has been one of the best in Hollywood for many years. Every time he is working on a new project people immediately get excited. Being one of those people myself, I was eagerly awaiting his latest film, Tenet. Now playing in theatres in select areas of the world, Tenet is probably Nolan s most complex film to date. Normally, the complexities of his stories are what intrigues everyone and eventually have them loving it upon multiple viewings, but I believe he nearly went too far with this one. Tenet is a great example of top-notch filmmaking, but it s a lot to take in at times. Here are my overall thoughts. To even attempt to describe this plot in detail will leave people scratching their heads, so I ll simply say that this film follows a globetrotting main character (who is nameless throughout the entire film) who works his way through plots of espionage, all while learning and adapting to the new ways this world works. Playing with the reverse of time in real-time, Tenet is a very heavy movie to take in. There are scenes of expository dialogue that had me incredibly invested and understanding everything Christopher Nolan was going for, but others where I had more questions than any of his films in the past. This was absolutely a detriment to my overall experience, especially upon first viewing, but it also makes up for that in many more ways than one. The sheer spectacle, cinematography, and in-camera effects are truly what makes this film soar to its highest heights. It really was a true marvel to see how certain action sequences were moving both forward and backward in time. I m not even sure how they pulled off some of the scenes that they did. Although the complexities took me out of it a little, I was still blown away watching many of the scenes unfold. If only the movie as a whole was even slightly clearer, I might have said I loved it. That said, it s also the kind of movie that I can see myself loving in a year from now if many more viewings assist in my enjoyment. It goes without saying that a Christopher Nolan film will make you think very hard about what you re watching and at least be enjoyable to a fault. For that reason, I wasn t surprised at all that I liked this film. I was more looking at everything else in the film. From the very good central performance by John David Washington to the always welcome screen-characters by Robert Pattinson, this cast is littered with talent in front of the camera. It was also nice to see Nolan switch up his composer from Hans Zimmer to the likes of Ludwig Goransson. I thought his work here was very inspired and became a character in its own right as the film progressed. In the end, Tenet is a visual masterpiece that did leave a bit to be desired by the time it reached its conclusion. I was both blown away and puzzled throughout the majority of it, which is why I find it very hard to recommend. It s a very, very well-made film that I absolutely think filmgoers should seek out whenever they can, but be prepared to watch it more than once as well. This is a movie that requires a lot of your time and a lot of your attention in order to win you over. I m very pleased with the final result, but also scratching my head a day later after watching it. Tenet is a great film that I m still trying to grasp.
Thanks for the comment/review!