TENET

[Stringer]

The sound issues weren't as prominent for me watching on HBO Max. I still enjoy this movie a great deal, it's actually improved a bit for me on repeat viewings.

 

[Gothamsknight]

I've seen this movie about 3 times and I plan on rewatching it again soon. It's definitely better on repeat viewings, even if it's not in my top 3 Nolan films

 

[BatLobster]

Yeah I'm certain it's not in my top 3 Nolan, but it's also one that I'm most curious to see how my relationship with it evolves over time. Just the sheer audacity of the this movie, and how lightyears removed it is from 99% of the crap that Hollywood is churning out these days. You have to at least admire it. It's simultaneously Nolan's most "generic spy action thriller" and also his craziest and most mind-bending concept to date. Like all his films, it kind of takes on a life in your head after you watch it (at least for me) whether you want it to or not.

 

[elgaz]

I loved the movie overall, and love the concept of it. It's good to see something original still getting made in Hollywood.

With that said, even as a huge sci-fi fan and especially a fan of time travel movies, it was difficult to follow in one sitting. So I wonder if that harmed the perception of the movie amongst casual movie goers and general audiences who aren't into sci-fi quite as much. I know some people who still don't quite get the Matrix, never mind this!

 

[Gothamsknight]

Yeah I'm certain it's not in my top 3 Nolan, but it's also one that I'm most curious to see how my relationship with it evolves over time. Just the sheer audacity of the this movie, and how lightyears removed it is from 99% of the crap that Hollywood is churning out these days. You have to at least admire it. It's simultaneously Nolan's most "generic spy action thriller" and also his craziest and most mind-bending concept to date. Like all his films, it kind of takes on a life in your head after you watch it (at least for me) whether you want it to or not.

Agreed entirely. just rewatched it in 4k this morning, and yeah, it's a damn good film and while it's not perfect, it's ambitions are insane. I was thinking while watching how rare it would be for a director to be allowed to make a movie like this.

 

[kguillou]

I’m halfway through this now and lawd i have no idea wtf the plot is and how scene A connects to scene and C are connecting with each other.

But the cinematography and score are lit though. Those are keeping me watching lol

 

[OutOfBoose]

My rewatch attempts ended after 20-30 minutes. Even Interstellar isn't this bad.

 

[TheVileOne]

Yeah I'm certain it's not in my top 3 Nolan, but it's also one that I'm most curious to see how my relationship with it evolves over time. Just the sheer audacity of the this movie, and how lightyears removed it is from 99% of the crap that Hollywood is churning out these days. You have to at least admire it. It's simultaneously Nolan's most "generic spy action thriller" and also his craziest and most mind-bending concept to date. Like all his films, it kind of takes on a life in your head after you watch it (at least for me) whether you want it to or not.

I mainly admire it from the sense of Nolan makes the movies he wants to make and tells the stories he wants to tell. And he's largely doing films that aren't sequels or franchise films or remakes ever since Dark Knight Rises. That's mainly what I respect.

 

[kguillou]

Nolan tries to have his cake and eat it too: you can tell the guy has a lot of arty-high concept, against the grain ideas and yet at the same time he does want to entertain people. Nolan’s movies—Tenet including—are out to give people blockbuster thrills but do it while challenging the audience. Not unlike the Watchowski’s who largely made big action films that were intended to titillate and challenge people.

But, also like the Wachowski’s, Nolan I think is starting to get lost in his own high concepts.

 

[TheVileOne]

Nolan tries to have his cake and eat it too: you can tell the guy has a lot of arty-high concept, against the grain ideas and yet at the same time he does want to entertain people. Nolan’s movies—Tenet including—are out to give people blockbuster thrills but do it while challenging the audience. Not unlike the Watchowski’s who largely made big action films that were intended to titillate and challenge people.

But, also like the Wachowski’s, Nolan I think is starting to get lost in his own high concepts.

I think he succeeds sometimes and fails at others.

The Wachowskis largely fail at their endeavors.

 

[moviedoors]

I got my third watch in, first time at home, and having the subtitles on and being able to rewind it so I can parse what's being explained better worked like gangbusters this time. I liked it a lot but thought it was lesser Nolan when it first was released but I wasn't sure how it was going to age. Turns out I think I ****ing love this movie.

 

[kguillou]

I’m not sure how I feel about the i inverted action scenes. Action is all about forward movement and connection: a fist to a face, a head to a wall, a body to the ground. When you invert all that, you lose a visceralness to it all and it doesnt quite work. Like when Protagonist was fighting himself, I couldn't quite get into it but it was kind of impressive to watch.

But i highly credit Nolan for trying and for going to painstaking effort to choreograph that instead of taking the “easy” route and just filming it normally and inverting the footage in post.

 

[BatLobster]

I mainly admire it from the sense of Nolan makes the movies he wants to make and tells the stories he wants to tell. And he's largely doing films that aren't sequels or franchise films or remakes ever since Dark Knight Rises. That's mainly what I respect.

We're very short on those types of films right now, when it comes to large-scale filmmaking, so I'm grateful for it. We'd be on Inception 3 or 4 by now if he wasn't the type of filmmaker he is. Heck, look how many people were convinced Tenet was going to be a secret Inception sequel.

I’m not sure how I feel about the i inverted action scenes. Action is all about forward movement and connection: a fist to a face, a head to a wall, a body to the ground. When you invert all that, you lose a visceralness to it all and it doesnt quite work. Like when Protagonist was fighting himself, I couldn't quite get into it but it was kind of impressive to watch.

But i highly credit Nolan for trying and for going to painstaking effort to choreograph that instead of taking the “easy” route and just filming it normally and inverting the footage in post.

I feel you. It's a very counterintuitive approach to an action scene. Confounding to watch, but interesting to think about. I can only imagine the brain aneurysms on set.

 

[TheVileOne]

The awful sound mixing and quality didn't help a lot of the action scenes.

 

[weezerspider]

He'll be okay no matter what, but I understand the decision if that's the case. I think he would probably see it as a violation of trust thing. The fact that they made the move unilaterally without discussing it with the filmmakers' whose films they were using to promote the launch of HBO Max. If they're willing to do this once with 0 warning, who's to say they couldn't do it again? That sort of thing. I think it has absolutely nothing to do with how he feels treated personally (they treated him well and he's acknowledged that he/Tenet wasn't impacted by the HBO Max thing) and everything to do with the type of studio he wants to do business with moving forward. I also think a lot of all of that has to do with AT&T and new leadership calling the shots.

Not to mention, there are other factors that we may not be aware of. For instance, I did see some rumors that Nolan actually wanted to push the release to 2021, but WB was the one that made it an issue of "this year or straight to streaming", resulting in a less-than-ideal theatrical release. If that is indeed true, I could see that being an additional source of frustration.

I see a lot of people acting like just because they released the movie in 2020 that Nolan owes the studio something and should just fall back in line. Ehh. I mean, if he doesn't have confidence in the new leadership at the studio, feels he has a better offer/opportunity elsewhere and feels ready to move on, that's how careers go. And it doesn't negate the fact that the way they handled the HBO Max rollout was very sketchy and broke a trust with the filmmakers, which Nolan was the most, but certainly not the only one outspoken about.

I say all this hoping things work out, because overall I'm a fan of WB as a studio-- their body of work, and Nolan's place in that. But I think both parties will be fine if this is indeed the end of the line. It was a great run.

FWIW, based on some other circumstances I know of with WB from my job, this seems to be true.

 

[BatLobster]

FWIW, based on some other circumstances I know of with WB from my job, this seems to be true.

I can't remember, it's possible you might be the source of why I thought that in the first place? I really can't remember where I even heard it.

Anyway, thanks for sharing. I take it all with a grain of salt, but if that's the case I think clearly the internet aggressively ran with a semi-false narrative last year.

 

[Closerframe]

I attempted to rewatch this over the weekend and stopped 40 mins in, I just didn’t care about the protagonist or the plot—even with closed captions on. In theaters, I gave it a chance because I hadn’t seen a film in theaters since COVID started so I was in desperate need to watch something again, but Nolan just drops the ball. It’s kind of ironic that his other films are littered with exposition regarding how certain technologies work in relation to moving the story along but here, it’s presented as a narrative tool that the audience is just supposed to accept.

I hope he makes a smaller film (ex. The Prestige) next and gets his head out of his a** about working with a streaming service cause clearly that hasn’t stopped his idols Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese.

 

[Lasirius]

It was originally such a chore to watch in theaters last year that I bought it once it came out but have not even tried to watch it. Just exhausted at the idea.

I will try this weekend.

 

[DarkKnight88]

I hope he makes a smaller film (ex. The Prestige) next and gets his head out of his a** about working with a streaming service cause clearly that hasn’t stopped his idols Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese.

He doesn’t need a streaming service to make a smaller film. It depends what he writes and wants to tell and I’m sure WB will write the cheque. I’d rather he stay on the big screen. Scorsese is only doing streaming because they’re offering him the budget he needs, but he left Netflix for Apple since they offered him a theatrical window.

 

[kguillou]

I attempted to rewatch this over the weekend and stopped 40 mins in, I just didn’t care about the protagonist or the plot—even with closed captions on. In theaters, I gave it a chance because I hadn’t seen a film in theaters since COVID started so I was in desperate need to watch something again, but Nolan just drops the ball. It’s kind of ironic that his other films are littered with exposition regarding how certain technologies work in relation to moving the story along but here, it’s presented as a narrative tool that the audience is just supposed to accept.

I hope he makes a smaller film (ex. The Prestige) next and gets his head out of his a** about working with a streaming service cause clearly that hasn’t stopped his idols Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese.

I really wonder what the audience wom would have been for this pre-covid. I feel like people would have been so utterly befuddled by this movie.

 

[Filmfreak]

I personally feel covid didn't help the movie at all. Just by being a Nolan film it was extremely hyped from the beginning, but all these delays, all the drama of pushing for a cinematic release during the pandemic and being the first tentpole film after so long, it skyrocketed expectations. I've heard many complaints, some legit, some unfair and exaggerated, and I can't help but think that a big portion of the audience was looming to tear it apart.

 

[BatLobster]

I tend to agree to a point. At the same time, Nolan is just at a level at this point where whatever he does is bound to be scrutinized and divisive to some degree. He's a big filmmaker who aims big. Puts a bit of a target on his back. It comes with the territory though. It's not like the heavyweights that came before him- IE Spielberg, Cameron, Lucas, Scott, etc. didn't have their share of detractors in their prime. Even Dunkirk, which possibly garnered the most critical acclaim of his career, still left large portions of the audience cold. When you're aiming for such a wide audience- from cinephiles to the average moviegoer, and an international audience-- it's a tricky balance to make everyone happy. What I appreciate is the fact that I always can buy into the fact that he is genuinely passionate about the films he makes and he explores ideas that fascinate and challenge him at each phase of his career.

So, even without Covid there would still be some negative backlash. But I will say, I do kind of feel like...because I never saw this on an IMAX screen with a packed theater, feeling that energy...I feel like I never really got to experience this movie the way it was intended. Which is a shame.

 

[The Shape]

My ears are still ringing from seeing this in theaters. It was LOUD.

 

[souvlaki]

I attempted to rewatch this over the weekend and stopped 40 mins in, I just didn’t care about the protagonist or the plot—even with closed captions on. In theaters, I gave it a chance because I hadn’t seen a film in theaters since COVID started so I was in desperate need to watch something again, but Nolan just drops the ball. It’s kind of ironic that his other films are littered with exposition regarding how certain technologies work in relation to moving the story along but here, it’s presented as a narrative tool that the audience is just supposed to accept.

This was actually one of my biggest issues with Tenet. My wife made a joke before we started watching it about how she never understands what is going on in Nolan's movies, and I told her that I never had any issues because he usually stuffs so much exposition to explain things almost to a fault. This one definitely had the opposite effect on me, and I definitely came out of the movie not sure what was going on for parts of it. Usually, especially with Nolan, that can be a good thing, but I wasn't really drawn to the characters or story the same why I usually am with his movies so I'm not sure that I care enough to rewatch the movie and fill in the blanks that were lost due to lack of exposition or dialog being almost impossible to understand at times (which once again is a pretty common issue for Nolan and his films).

Such a bummer for me too, because I actually enjoyed Dunkirk more than any movie he's done since the Prestige, and have more or less enjoyed every film he's done.

 

[C. Lee]

I watched it off of HBO a couple of days ago and then rewatched it the next day to try and catch some of the stuff I must have missed. Now, reading the comments in here, I see I wasn't the only one not getting it. It had some good stunts and action....but that's it.