Tenet (Christopher Nolan) *spoilers from post 475*

The Black Oil

Tenet's quite watchable, including its cast. It does have heft, however I did think it lacked jeopardy at times and this wasn't up to Nolan's usual standard - some of the visuals and set pieces felt similar 'ah, he did that before'. As to not being able to hear some of the dialogue, I found the same in some scenes. I did like the closing act, though at point it felt rather Inception and Skyfall ish. So yeah, I saw it after a night of bad sleep and found it a little bit of a mixed bag. The word that came to mind was indistinctive.

The Black Oil

The Black Oil wrote: »

Tenet's quite watchable, including its cast. It does have heft, however I did think it lacked jeopardy at times and this wasn't up to Nolan's usual standard - some of the visuals and set pieces felt similar 'ah, he did that before'. As to not being able to hear some of the dialogue, I found the same in some scenes. I did like the closing act, though at point it felt rather Inception and Skyfall ish. So yeah, I saw it after a night of bad sleep and found it a little bit of a mixed bag. The word that came to mind was indistinctive.

I just found it to be an unsatisfying movie overall.

The opening was good but then followed too much exposition and subsequently underwhelming and convuluted set pieces that left me cold.

It was worth a watch but not much more and will not be remembered as a great or even good film imo.

Busi_Girl08

Saw it last night in the Stella Cinema. It had some great moments, but I just wasnt sold. It was just overly complicated and between the oxygen masks and the background noise I couldn't hear half of the dialogue.

I might give it another watch some time and hopefully it will click better. This time with subtitles.

Hollyworth

Does anyone know why the woman, the main female in the film, didn't have to wear the oxygen mask on the yacht? Maybe I missed something.

GooglePlus

Hollyworth wrote: »

Does anyone know why the woman, the main female in the film, didn't have to wear the oxygen mask on the yacht? Maybe I missed something.

Editing with spoiler tape.

I think when they invert, they go backwards in time and with that, back to the past. So when they inverted her to save her life and again to go back to the time of the underground blast, they did have to invert but they then revert to forward moving time but in the past. So no need for the mask then.

I could be way off but I hope not and if I am, I may go back and watch it again

heebusjeebus

Ya, you only need the mask when travelling back through time.

Bowlardo

Visually amazing
Good performances but not sure what was going on and hard to care too

johnny_ultimate

The rare interesting box office report given the circumstances - but the film is looking like a hit in the UK (presumably encompasses Ireland). Seven million not shabby at all considering socially distant screens and what you’d imagine is a more hesitant audience than usual. Not far off Interstellar’s opening weekend, for reference, although not sure if there’s an extra few days in the mix for Tenet.

https://variety.com/2020/film/box-office/tenet-box-office-international-christopher-nolan-1234753966/

Am I correct in saying there is literally nothing else new to see?

johnny_ultimate

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Am I correct in saying there is literally nothing else new to see?

Nope, there are a few new films out there, although obviously not all cinemas showing them. Have seen Babyteeth, Saint Frances, Proxima and A White, White Day since cinemas reopened... all new releases (and preferred all of them to Tenet to varying degrees!). The New Mutants, Pinocchio, Unhinged and Away are also screening around the place.

Coybig_

Nolans worst movie by a huge distance.

The plot is wafer thin, the characters are spectacularly underdeveloped. The set pieces are extravagent but convuluted and confusing. Plenty of loose ends which lead nowhere. The dialogue was on a level worse than any Nolan film. The bit where yerwan was being told

about the world ending and she said "and my son" was actually hilarious. Who even is your son, we've never met him and we don't care.

Which was another problem. In Inception, you are rooting for Cobb to get back to his daughters. You also have the backstory with Mal. There is no emotional core to this movie. The protagonist (literally his name, LOL) is a blank slate.

The "love story" was absolutely absurd. We are given no reason to see why

the protagonist cares so much about Branaghs wife.

The sound mixing was utterly dreadful - this is a problem Nolan has had in the past (most famously with Bane being borderline imcomprehensible in test screenings). Half the time you couldn't even make out what was being said.

Who are they even

fighting at the climax? Not explained at all. I presume it's Branaghs henchmen but would have been nice to know!

I think that this guy makes some sense

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDpgve_RC68

weemcd

I would almost go as far as to say I hated this.

After some early promise, once we had got past about the first third I really couldn't give a fùck. I wanted it to be done.

Nothing in the way of character development for me, some very thin dialogue and that's before you get to the sound quality and for large portions of the film, an incoherent story.

I don't even want to see it again to try and figure it out. My friend's a far bigger cinema nerd than me, and a big fan of Nolan, but he had similar thoughts to mine.

Banjaxed82

You can't still be dishing out exposition 2 hours into a film. Not at the level Nolan was.

Too much plot to engage. Too much yapping. Like a lot of Nolan's films, emotionally cold (which I have no problem with) but seem like he wanted us to engage in this love story (???) aspect. By the time the final act came round... I was still unsure as to what was 100-percent going on which in turn made me not really care about the characters.

"Show don't tell" is usually a good mantra for a well made film. Nolan seemed to invert that too.

facehugger99

Didn't hate it but am left somewhat disappointed.

It's definitely too long and could have been significantly tightened up - particularly the first hour after the opening sequence.

The plot isn't all that complicated, the mumbled dialogue is the biggest hurdle to overcome when trying to figure out what's happening.

It's not as clever as Inception, has nowhere near the emotional heft of Interstellar and isn't as tight as Dunkirk.

Having said all that, it's nice to be back in the cinema and there are some great action set pieces. I was never actually bored during the movie but I was frustrated and annoyed at times.

As I've come out of most of his other movies, I've always been really looking forward to a re-watch - with Tenet, I'm in no rush to sit through it again. Perhaps in time it will grow on me a bit more.

Wildsurfer

How do ye rate Washingtons performance in Tenet, will he be as big a star as Pops?

Wildsurfer

Wildsurfer wrote: »

How do ye rate Washingtons performance in Tenet, will he be as big a star as Pops?

His physical work was impressive but he is lacking in presence/charisma imo. Every time Pattinson was in a scene, I didn't even notice JDW.

He's also a short arse at 5"7. Tom cruise did it but not this guy.

sirmanga

This film accomplished something I've never seen before. That is, its plot was both overly convoluted and boringly threadbare at the same time. I'm not sure how that is possible, but it is.

At times during the film I began to question whether or not I knew what was happening, and felt a bit stupid, but then I realised that I did, in fact, know what was happening and it was the film that was stupid.

I had a light bulb moment where I realised that the film was presenting itself as convoluted to make up for the fact that the plot was silly and wafer thin.

A dud. Skip it!

Wildsurfer

Wildsurfer wrote: »

How do ye rate Washingtons performance in Tenet, will he be as big a star as Pops?

Complete dud. I felt like I was playing a bad video game with the weak lead, massive exposition dumps and loosely connected forced set pieces.

Goodshape

Didn't realise that was Denzel's son.

Not sure that I'd judge his talents on this performance though. There was very little to go on in that script.

Penfailed

IrishJedi75 wrote: »

Will mean less money for the movies box office takings though.A film that would have grossed a billion dollars six months ago will be lucky to make half that amount now.

Just found this thread today after seeing this on Friday night. I'm going to go and see it again tonight!

Stone Deaf 4evr

Saw it Friday night, was still running it through my head by saturday evening, trying to line up all the moving pieces in my head.

I loved it, no audio issues for me either, so I've a feeling its more down to sound profiles at individual cinemas.
Looking forward to seeing it again when its available at home, as there are a few items I'm keen to keep track of.

namely

The protagonist hanging out in the windmill - i assume he was inverted here and travelling backwards through time, and also, the whole 'recruitment' section after he takes the cycanide pill - am i right in thinking, when he got out of the opera house and into the van with Neil, neil put a gun to his head, and told him he'd got the wrong one, before it quickly cut away, what was that all about?

cdgalwegian

First things first; sound quality in IMC Galway was fine. Only about 16-18 people in the whole theater, 19.00.

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It was obvious from the start that understanding what was going on was going to take some time, and that the pieces would (hopefully) fall together, both forward in time and backward of course.:) This was an audacious film; straight after the first action set-piece, we had the "concentrate, here comes the science bit" scene, where the Protagonist is advised by the one in the lab coat not to think about what is happening- let intuition (instinct) take over. That was aimed at the viewer as well; I mean, while having to grapple with the plot contortions, additionally/simulataneously there was having to get a handle on the Einsteinian time relativity/perspectival aspect. I took the advice and ran with. I enjoyed it immensely. I enjoyed the what-the-fcuckery in some scenes for the sheer balls it took for Nolan to put it on screen in such an anticipated big film. There was no time for character development, heavy exposition in parts etc; I hardly noticed it at the time. I was enjoying myself too much.
Got enough of the gist of how it all works first time round, so a far more critical eye the second time around. First impressions though: Nolan's chutzpah had the wow factor for me. Most definitely will watch it again to understand it better, and pick out the flaws of course.

serfboard

Coybig_ wrote: »

In Inception, you are rooting for Cobb to get back to his daughters. You also have the backstory with Mal. There is no emotional core to this movie. The protagonist (literally his name, LOL) is a blank slate.

The "love story" was absolutely absurd.

Banjaxed82 wrote: »

Like a lot of Nolan's films, emotionally cold (which I have no problem with) but seem like he wanted us to engage in this love story (???) aspect.

In Inception and Interstellar there was an emotional core to the film. In this one, the emotional part felt badly "bolted-on" to me.

Penfailed

Penfailed wrote: »

Just found this thread today after seeing this on Friday night. I'm going to go and see it again tonight!

Caught up with this from the start today. I'm glad that I wasn't the only one that had issues with hearing the dialogue at some points throughout the film

mainly early on when they were wearing masks and again later when Sator had a gun to his wife

. Despite that, I really enjoyed it. I can't say the same for my wife and the other couple who we were there with at the cinema. The general consensus from them - "shíte!"

Stone Deaf 4evr

Is boards doing a Tenet tie in today? every time I check in, I'm looking at yesterdays posts.

johnny_ultimate

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

Is boards doing a Tenet tie in today? every time I check in, I'm looking at yesterdays posts.

?tuoba gniklat er'uoy tahw wonk t'nod I ,etis eht htiw gnorw gnihton s'erehT

cdgalwegian

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

?tuoba gniklat er'uoy tahw wonk t'nod I ,etis eht htiw gnorw gnihton s'erehT

In principle that's funny, but if I'm dogmatic about it, I believe I would rule it out as opinion.

cdgalwegian

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

Is boards doing a Tenet tie in today? every time I check in, I'm looking at yesterdays posts.

Don't use the mask when you check in.

TRANQUILLO

I loved it but haven't a breeze . No idea where the time machine even came from.