I honestly think this movie might get higher ratings in non-english-speaking countries for one simple reason: subtitles! I watched Tenet yesterday (english with german subtitles) and while I did't get most of the spoken dialogue (despite lot's of experience with english movies and series) I could easily follow the plot thanks to the subtitles. And once you actually understand what's happening on screen, the movie becomes a pretty cool experience! I think the inversion concept is very well thought out and (judging from my single viewing) seems plausible and coherent within the movie-world. It certainly makes for some jaw-dropping action scenes that I haven't seen on screen like this. When you wrap your head around the intermingling time-lines of the different characters, it doesn't feel like a simple, lazy time-travel story but it is actually quite impressive how much complexity (yes, maybe a bit too much) Nolan squeezed into the runtime. The concept becomes even grander when you google the Sator-Square, an ancient latin palindromic word-square, which definitely served as a huge inspiration and (in an abstract way) pretty much sums up the story of the movie. The movie has some flaws: yes, you should be able to understand a movie without subtitles. Some of the editing seems a bit botched, scenes sometimes feel disconnected. I couldn't help but feel that the movie might have worked better as a mini-series, but then it probably would have felt like an action rip-off of Dark. In the end I got what I expected from Nolan: a grand, over-conceptualized, over-complex mindf*ck of a story, amazing cinematography, really well-made action scenes, a blasting score and people mumbling through various breathing devices. 4/5
thank you for the first comment here that makes a strong case for rewatching with insight. I'm still skeptical that there are any characters -- more like cardboard caricatures in service of action and a concept -- or that most of the movie doesn't rehash other action movies, yet this is at least a model for how to interact with us on TH-cam.
@@LearningaboutMovies Thanks :) Yeah, the characters will still be flat, I guess it's not one of Nolan's strengths to write emotional depth into his roles. I also don't think it's the best Nolan movie, but certainly more entertaining than 1.5 stars imo ;) Without any of the Sator-Square stuff I probably would have given it 3 or 3.5 max, but that part is actually some of the most creative and interesting symbolism I have seen lately, especially for an a-list action movie.
@@LearningaboutMovies a movie should tell a story characters are less important especially in a action movie and I believe everyone has lost sight of this. It's a story not an autobiography.
In the first half of the movie I was thinking I have no idea what’s going on. But then, in the second half of the movie, I had absolutely no idea what was happening.
@@Mike_v_E lol no. It's Nolan's juvenile attempt to reassert that she cares about her son above all else. She literally repeats how much he is all she cares about throughout the movie. It's bad writing. When she meets protagonist for the first time, she tells him her sad and deeply personal story after knowing him for all of 2 minutes. It's bad writing
Watching this movie is like watching two people asking each other questions back and forth. Asking the next question before the person is even finished asking it.
I borrowed it from the library for free and just finished it and for some crazy reason I’m telling myself I’m going to watch it again tomorrow to understand it 🤪.. this was the only movie playing in theaters for a while and I’m glad I didn’t go see it .I was hoping to find a “everything wrong” video on this but he must be confused to
heh. I suspect the males who love this movie aren't bringing dates. If my wife saw this, well, we probably would've left pretty early on (and she's has liked most Nolan, especially Dunkirk.)
A couple people walked out in my theater.. I thought the movie had some really entertaining parts, great visuals and technical achievements.. But it's simply not that engaging.. Gets tedious and confusing.. people should definitely have a big dose of caffeine before watching it 😷
Ok it’s not a film to take your wife too. Audio quality could have been better but the highlight of the movie. All of Nolan’s films are based of a single concept. This one is inverted time all of the plot points can be figured out if extrapolate from this concept. Plus maybe the domestic sub-plot is why you guys didn’t enjoy it coz it gets deep. Same reason watching breaking bad with my dad was hard it has some themes that are uncomfortable
Entropy , high sea levels , how he was the one working from himself , and how i think it may have a sequel. For a prequel (if we are talking in TENETs term) . Man it is so easy for me to nerd out after this movie. Just because you didn't understand it , doesn't make it bad . Same goes to making a youtube video( doesn't make it true). Dont worry even my friends didnt get it the first time around. Slowpoke
That's the purpose to not let u know whats going on. Watch the twist in the middle of the movie when they visually start explaining things better. You'll get it. I bet you only watched rhis movie once. 😄
@@LearningaboutMovies your audience is pro you hence the agreement, dont for a second think they are objective. This film was awesome. It had me following every scene every moment. I was looking for clues. I hope every CN film going forward keeps up with the frantic pace. Merry Christ mas
This screenplay is the equivalent of a heart surgeon thinking angioplasty is too simple during an angioplasty and inventing a new procedure in the middle of it without telling anyone what the new plan is.
Tenet is a spectacle movie for pseudo-intellectuals. A time travel movie which genuinely explored themes such as entropy, t-symmetry and time paradoxes would be fascinating. This instead is a popcorn movie that goes crush, boom, bang at obnoxiously loud volumes and occasionally throws around buzz words in a lame attempt at exposition.
AHEM! I would like to take a brief moment. To step down from my "Tall Stallion" to say If you don't like the film because of its plot holes, or lack of character development, or if it is, because you just didn't quite understand it. What ever your reason is, cool man. But there's no need to throw shade at people who enjoyed the film, for what they saw. We all can bask in the sweet stench of our own opinions. but I can't force anyone else to smell my own. If you know what I Mean. Well that's all from me. HYAH Gideyup, Icarus!
I completely disagree with this; while Tenet is no intellectually intense movie, its concept and application really helps seeing time as a dimension rather than a directed continuum. And I think that that in itself is reason enough to watch the movie; it alters your perception of time and allows you to see your experience in time as a point on an axis, and opens up the possibility of considering the very concept of moving backward in time. I personally found the experience mind expanding. 🤷♂️
@@lukebyrne5188 I agree... If you don't like a film because of it's plot holes, or lack of character development, or because you are unable to hear what the characters are saying, or because the story makes no sense... ahhhh.... or because you are unable to empathize with the nameless protagonist, due to the protagonist having no story for you to empathize with, including even a name... uhhhmmmmm.... or if ... Okay, I can't do this anymore. I don't know about you Luke but my check didn't clear. A well made bad movie is still a bad movie, and Tenet is a bad movie. Likely one of the worst I've ever seen bar none.
It's Nolan being enamored with a concept then doing ZERO legwork to make it make ANY actual sense It has a thin veneer of 'sensibility' but that is all. If you think about it AT ALL it utterly falls to pieces and is so insipid that it's almost insulting. In fact, I will say that it IS insulting because the movie goes out of its way to tell you at one point not to think about it...which is the hallmark of a dumpsterfire of an idea.
pey I listen to rather loud music and have gone to rap concerts, and the gunshot sound effects in this movie were louder than both and had my ears ringing.
The movie says “don’t try to understand it, just feel it.” But there is nothing there to feel. No genuine emotion, wooden dialog that was hard to hear and follow.... I understood the plot just fine, I just didn’t give a crap about it.
I can't get over the fact that the protagonist has no reasoned motivation until the end of the film. For two hours I'm just sitting there going "why is he doing any of this and why should I care?"
@@spacemann1425 Maybe I missed it but, no one mentioned working for CIA, and he was told specifically that he needed to stop something "worse than WW3."
Another time travel movie recommendation I’d add to your list is Predestination with Ethan Hawke. It successfully uses a lot of themes and tropes that Tenet fails at, and it’s very entertaining!
I actually left the theater legitimately pissed off. I couldn't hear any of the dialogue, and had no idea what was going on because of it. I'm not a stupid person, and it made me feel like an idiot, because I couldn't tell you how one scene connected with any other. I understood Inception no problem. This was a mess.
Same here! I thought I may have had a bad position in the cinema for sound so I'm glad to hear it wasn't just me! I considered walking out an asking for a refund at one stage. I think his is the closest I have ever come to walking out of a movie.
@@walsie435 Absolute trash movie. Havnt ever wanted to walk out like i did during this garbage. James Bond wannabe filmed in reverse with little to no explanation for it.
Thank god it's not just me. I came out of the movie doubting my intelligence. Thanks for confirming that the sound quality was bad i.e. couldn't understand dialogue and I didn't care about the characters.
the single boys come around here to insult our intelligence, but really Tenet is the unintelligent movie that pretends to have it . The movie is understandable, but once you know what's going on, you say: 1) that's cliche, 2) that's it?, and 3) why should any audience member care about any of these characters? basically, this movie gives psychopaths license to mock other people for stupid reasons, as the comments section and my ban list shows.
@@LearningaboutMovies thanks a lot, I thought the same walking out the theater. Great number of people claims the movie is both highly intelligent and innovative. I might agree the second but not the first. But the number is so high that I started doubting my own intelligence... but second reading the plot convinced me they are wrong
@Meta Man you convinced me to watch it again. I will watch it in another language and with a cup of coffee, so may be it will work. At least they say War&Peace must be read three times per one's lifetime (at the ages of 20,30 and 40) to perceive all the layers of the work. So why this tenet mustn't be interpolated to the Tenet? :)) I'm going to do it at this weekend hope to give you a feedback soon
There was an edit in the movie where Patterson says “get some sleep” and then it just insta cuts to him sitting on the bed... I was like wow that was awful
This was the first Nolan movie i had to actually try to focus on to understand. I wasn't sure if it was convoluted or if I missed something that was critical to the plot.
It's the definition of convoluted. The plot is to stop a world altering event. Simple enough. The aim is to find a speical device. Simple enough. The twist is that you can reverse yourself. Not quite as simple but relatively simple if explained cleverly and concisely within the rules of the world. This was not the case. Nolan has a habit of taking these ideas and loading them with bells and whistles, turning them upsidedown, shaking it, all whilst filming it with poorly orchestrated action, muffled audio, disjointed plot progression and bland characters. The movie lives and dies on how well the concept is executed and here I feel like I have to spend more time analysing it than I did watching the bloody thing. It seems to be the Nolan way. That the fun of a movie is figuring out what just happened rather than enjoying what is happening.
@@kevtb874 you’re not watching it right. The movie is made to be watched twice at least. First is, like you said, to understand it. Second is to enjoy what you already know. Every other watch just makes it more and more perfect until you finally see how this movie is a masterpiece
@@doge8825 if youre bored out of your mind an hour and a half into the film it fails to entertain and objectively sucks. Didn’t finish this film and never will,
yes, as I said, had the movie considered the effect of time inversion on actual people, instead of cookie-cutter action-movie characters, that would have been fascinating. Sort of Philip K Dick's Counter-Clock World or "Wait for Last Year." I sensed that the idea served the FX, not vice versa.
Learning about Movies how do you know the movie isn’t going to? How can you judge a plot for a movie that’s being told backwards and isn’t done being told. I honestly think you’ve missed some things
I completely understand this point of view, but I absolutely enjoyed the ride during the movie and AFTER the movie where I was playing back in my head some scenes thinking "holy crap, that's why this scene was there." etc. The movie is meant to be understood in the TENET-non-linear way just like Memento. Stopping at the traditional storytelling POV to judge this movie is like a 3-dimensional being criticizing its 4-dimensional buddy his story doesn't add up
After watching it a second time, I had to honestly assess how I was feeling, I think I might have genuinely been mad to some degree. But I do absolutely love Nolan for his ability to inspire child-like wonder in his audiences. With Tenet however, I think it's a movie that is being way too heady for the sake of being heady.
@Meta Man I appreciate that lengthy, measured and thoughtful response, and I do agree with most of the points you made. I love Nolan, as I stated in my original post. And with having viewed Tenet a grand total of 3 times, including just as recently as a week ago, I'm still fairly at the same place with how I originally felt about this film. What I have discovered in the months since my first viewing are several amazing converging elements that makes this movie (TENET) the palindrome that it is, and I love Nolan for his love of creating detail rich pieces of art. For me however, even being someone whose initial intention was to love this film, I just couldn't fully get there. I honestly feel that Tenet is a passion project for Nolan. I felt while watching as if though I was traveling through the neural network of Nolan's brain, and I'm not too keen on getting that intimate with the most deepest recesses of someone else's mind. I totally agree with you that sometimes it's healthy to take in art that is challenging, making the experience that much more enriching, and rewarding, and even possibly conscience shifting. However, at least to some degree there also has to be a balance of an entertaining story. Tenet is an absolutely gorgeous looking film, but the story just doesn't do it justice. I would consider 2001: A Space Odyssey to be a challenging film that did render me a bit confused and a lot curious after my first viewing, but not frustrated like I felt after Tenet. I will say, Tenet is absolutely the perfect 2020 movie, unnerving, complicated and bewildering. The only truly redeeming thing about this film (for me, and I honestly have no qualms about anybody that does love this movie), is the theory that the little boy Max in the final frame of the film is Neil. I totally believe that's true and I think that is a pretty cool way to loop everything, and it works for me.
@@AttilaTheHun333333 Oh, I hadn't noticed. Well, hopefully he sent the same note to Stephen Colbert, because his opinion of Tenet is in the negative as well lol. Honestly though, it was very fitting for Tenet to be released in a year that was also very difficult to make any sense of.
@virtue It was inserted ONLY to drive home that point because otherwise it's not in the film. We get one ridiculous scene where the 'protagonist' gets to the dinner only so the oligarch can tell him that he is a rich, obnoxious and grumpy asshole who likes to torture people. When he is done with his text the protagonist leaves. Then we get a pointless scene of beating the wife because... nobody wants to sympathize with a wife beater. Same reason they made him Russian - Germany is not a class enemy anymore and in China the cinemas better show the film. So nothing more effective than telling an American audience that the bad guy is Russian. Because. So... artificial. So lazy. Slow clap.
@@LearningaboutMovies the other argument i usually heared from Nolan's fans are: "You don't get it. Watch it again!" (...i've heard this kind of arguments since Interstellar come out) Which means thats a sign that Nolan's branding make people will feel special WHEN they understand the movie. OR.... show the main flaw that Nolan's is a good moviemakers, but not-so-good storyteller. P.s: sorry for my grammar. English is not my 1st language (nor 2nd nor 3rd actually.lol)
you're English is better than most native English-speakers. Yes, I am now seeing that argument here. Most viewers like that don't realize that some people can well comprehend an entire movie on first watch. I'm confident I can, and it's not easy.
When I heard Pattisons character start explaining paradoxes, I was like so the whole plot is going to rely on the grandfather paradox? Lol. Which is basically whats happens.
It's just not. It's not even time travel and it was one of the first things we learn. Even from the trailer. And the grandfather theory was mentioned once in the movie to explain a detaile.
@Meta Man idk on the first viewing i felt like i got all of the “feeling” aspects i was meant to feel; the action is kinetic & for the most part more readable and purposeful than the average nolan movie, the soundtrack is suitably overbearing and keeps the pacing tight, i liked the locations and costumes, etc etc. that being said watching it again anytime soon feels like a bit of a chore when so much of the runtime is dominated by dialogue that is half incredibly on the nose and obvious and half incredibly opaque and contrived. if nolan was committing such a stroke of interpretive genius we wouldn’t have to sit through these exchanges that add nothing to the film. if i recall correctly dunkirk had very little in the way of dialogue or character & nolan clearly embraced that & made up for it in other regards. in practice the time manipulation of this movie isn’t really that complex, save for the final siege it’s easy to follow what’s going on. if we just spent the whole movie witnessing the effects of this movie’s premise & it’s world ending implications without having to stumble over clunky exposition & weak character motivations i would’ve jumped back in as soon as possible. the actions scenes are really clever & fun to think about as is, feel like the story elements could’ve been trimmed & blended much more smoothly.
@@colinjensen8303 not at all, I’ve disagreed with him before as well, it’s just very good interesting that this particular video got so much hate, especially given the fact that we all know Nolan has a cringe fanbase that holds him way too high.
It was definitely a fun experience watching it in the cinema with only one other person, but I had no idea what was going on 😃 and could not tell you what happened afterwards
@Meta Man The movie does have some references to movie making itself, like Inception clearly also had. But I don't think it's genius, a good idea doesn't make a good movie by itself, and I don't dislike the fact that they tried to put you into action right away, what I don't like is the delivery of that.
The dislike ratio shows how loony Nolan fans are. How about this for a plot... Durt: A Nolan movie where a turd coming out of a butthole plays in reverse. The point made in this review sums up my entire problem with this movie. The characters are so damn unrelatable and their problems even more so. I had no clue what the stakes were or why I even had to care. And lord the fucking dialogues! One pile of horse shit stacked on top of the other with the music dialled to a 11.
the best "time travel" effect was seeing yourself come out of the inverter before you go in. The eye contact that the split character was able to make with themselves was interesting.
@Meta Man I'd forgotten about this movie already. That's the deal though, everything you mentioned he'd already done with Dunkirk. When we look back at the dark knight rises we can't get over the bad sound mixing for bane. Same thing with Cooper in interstellar. Great movies but damn that shit was bad. And that's where it's kinda stupid, you got this great movie being hindered by other bad choices and Nolan keeps calling it an artistic choice. Bro, no hahaha. We can't hear the goddamn heartfelt words Cooper says to Brand as he detaches into the beautiful black hole Nolan and Kipp Thorne built. That's not an artistic or stylistic choice, it pulls you out of the movie completely. Just like the editing and mixing in Tenet too. Like I said, it's a spectacle but not much else. Probably is cooler seeing it a second time but after the headache inducing editing the did for this movie, I almost don't wanna see it a second time. Even if I understand the cuts, there will still be too many of them. There's no room to breathe. Mad Max feels like a thrill ride also but it gives you time to breathe and take in the beauty of its cinematography, editing and etc. As a chef, you don't garnish a dish with fart spray and call it a stylistic choice. I mean it is, but it hinders the experience of the consumer and if that's what you're after, you done it
So many people here acting high like they understood the film. I managed to get a hold of it after watching all the explanation videos. All, cause watching one of them is not enough.
@@LearningaboutMovies i gave up trying to understand it after the first explanation video because i just didnt care anymore, not wasting my brain power on it. I pride myself for getting complex plots and stories and guessing most plot points but i just didnt get it. This movie is in too much in love with itself.
I've seen this movie four times now and can say confidently that it becomes less disjointed and more enjoyable everytime. I had a vague idea of what was going on my first time in the theater, but still enjoyed it a lot. To me it's effective on every level, yet another great addition to Nolans filmography. Bravo sir !
Thank you. I subscribed. You do NOT know how hard it's been to find just ONE intelligent negative review. After watching Tenet last night, shocked by how horrible it was, I did a TH-cam search and skimmed over 30 reviews, all of them either (A) attempting to gaslight me into thinking i need to rewatch it and that I'm dumb, or (B) saying that THEY (the reviewer) didn't really like it or "get" it because THEY are dumb. So thank you for respecting the audience and my intelligence by articulating that this was a poorly written script by an auteur who just doesn't care all that much about emotional impact and character growth.
you're welcome. A critic's judgment is the least interesting part of a review. If I can help you to observe and think through what's in a film, we can wildly disagree and yet you can gain something valuable.
Thanks for a review that perfectly articulates what I suspect many of us felt about this Nolan movie. Tenet not only is the worst of Nolan's films, it somehow manages to step into the past and cheapen his previous works. It felt like I was watching a parody of a Nolan film. And what is with Nolan's inability to make dialogue audible? Beginning with The Dark Knight, audio tracks have been de-prioritized over the music and sound effects, compounded by actors who are often wearing oxygen masks.
The main character did something I thought was interesting... when he used the word “Entropy” I remembered that his dad Denzel Washington said the same word when asking for an explanation of... you guessed it, Time Travel mechanics in the movie “Deja Vu”. Which is actually a way better overall film than Tenet haha
Yo, I just watched this movie today with my friend and on the way home I told him the movie Deja vu where the main actor’s dad stars is a much better film than the Tenet. Hahaha
Deja Vu is one of the stupidest time travel movies, it's innovative I give you that, but silly and still with a silly concept manages to be more engaging than Tenet.
I think the biggest problem with Tenet is that you have to push through about 2/3rds of the way before the initial part of the movie makes any sense. Once that switch is flicked it actually becomes very satisfying. I rememeber coming out of the theatre and bitching about it, but then I found myself kinda working through it all day and eventually decided it's Nolans best - easily. The reversed linearity thing is a cool concept that really hasn't been explored much in the last few decades and the concept of a temporal pincer movement is super intriguing. Then you add in all the stuff you would have initially missed in the film and it becomes pretty cool. I like the fact that 80 percent of the movie occurs within two 10 minute chunks.
It took me a few months to get around to watching it, but I thought Tenant was a mess! My wife asked me repeatedly what was going on, but I only had a vague idea myself. To me Looper would be a better movie to watch instead.
I thought Looper was poor as well. It didn't do time travel good at all. This was about as bad as this. It was ok to watch but I walked away disappointed. The Netflix series Dark is much much better time travel experience. Is hard to follow but all makes sense and everything is there if you want to piece it together. Tenent you have to start making massive leaps and assumptions about what you don't see.
Just a jarring experience. The audio fights against the dialogue, the exposition fights against the pacing, the concept fights against character development. Everything was at war with itself, and although I won't give my review up until I watch it a second time with subtitles, in my house... It wasn't the same sense of understanding I had leaving Inception, it just felt frustrating. Should of added another hour or so to the movie.
@Nik Kingman 👍, you’re right, maybe I just lack big brain Nolan fan IQ and should chalk up similar overall criticisms of this movie to the viewers just being dumb. I got the movie, It’s pretty upfront in what it is trying to say, the mix and the pacing just sucks.
Yes, her character was just excruciating. Really hoped she would die after getting shot in reverse, which was supposed to be like a super awful and lethal thing. But instead it did fuckall because plot convenience.
I admit, I am a huge Nolan fanboy, but a lot of your criticisms are true. I just got home from the theater. There were several scenes where I literally could not understand what the characters were saying due to the sound mixing. Also, your criticism of the characters is also valid - impersonal and flat - the only lively protagonist was Pattinson imo. I felt the film was also off in its pacing - the first half of the film kind of drags along but at the same time they're jumping around from location to location meeting all kinds of new characters and there's very little introduction as to who these people are and why they're important. Even with all of my criticisms, I felt the second half of the film was a big pay-off. You gave it a pretty bad score. I'd give a 4 which is like a B (which is what I would give a lot of movies: I liked them but they're not the best of all time). I found it enjoyable and will rewatch but it's definitely not one of Nolan's best movies. I'm probably giving it a half star more than it deserves bc its Nolan and I just saw it.
I feel that a rewatch of Tenet is necessary. After I have allowed the film to simmer a bit in my mind and also to try and piece together some of the more confusing aspects of the film (or try to make out the parts I literally could not hear).
probably this is a fine watch-it-on-a-plane to pass the time movie. that way not hearing dialogue is excused. would be happy to read your additional thoughts.
@@LearningaboutMovies to be honest, the sound mixing was inexcusable. In particular, for me, the scene following the car chase where the antagonist is talking to the protagonist from behind the glass, I could not understand a single word that was said. It was confusing bc I wasn't sure if it was just muffled or if their speech was in reverse (bc of the time element). I thought maybe it was just me bc I can be hard of hearing sometimes but as I see more people mentioning it in reviews, it seems to be a major flaw in the film. As for the dialogue being lots of exposition, I felt at times it was necessary bc once the time travel element comes into play, the pace really picks up (probably too fast at times). I think the film could have benefited from being longer bc it feels like a lot of story is crammed into 2.5 hours - this would allow them to flesh out characters more and allow us to absorb & process some of the more intense time travel logic scenes. I think a rewatch of the film is necessary to see how it ages.
although Sator only had the modest goal of destroying the Earth. Thanos was all in on blowing up half the universe. When you are collecting MacGuffins to cause total destruction, go big.
@@majimasmajimemes1156 It was called that in the theatrical release... but the studio meddled and renamed it for the DVD release. I found an article about it: www.slashfilm.com/why-edge-of-tomorrow-got-retitled-live-die-repeat/ It initially confused me, too!
The sound mixing was not good at all. I thought it was the theater I was in but every video and person that has seen it so far has said the same. It did not do the movie well at all. I had no idea what I watched when I finished it...I love Christopher Nolan films but I was disappointed that it was so confusing. I will give it another watch. The ending was interesting with Neil and The Protagonist. But I felt like it was more about the visuals than anything.
I completely agree, sorry you're being hammered on the downvotes. I am a time travel fiction obsessive and love Nolan's other movies, but this was just incoherent gibberish aside from a few scenes.
HξζΙΧ the movie wasn’t hard to comprehend, it was hard to follow. i’ve seen it three times now and have read plenty of different takes on the film. i understand every little intricacy of the plot and themes, this movie just isn’t that deep, it’s unnecessarily convoluted, filled with needless exposition, and fails to substantially develop relationships between any of the characters. Maybe you’re the one who doesn’t understand it and that’s why you find it so fascinating, dig deep and you’ll find there wasn’t much to understand in the first place. it’s pointless. And I like the film quite a bit LMAO i personally find the experimental narrative structure interesting to an extent but your comment is just plain stupid.
Nolan loves doing fancy stuff, that makes his fanboys go crazy. To understand him you really only need to watch The Prestige. He is the "magician" that wants to awe his audience, even if almost all of it is just cheap party tricks, and Tesla is nowhere to be found. Tenet is basically just a spy movie (he loves the Bond movies), with lots of unnecessary time travel garbage piled on top of it.
The characters are relatable, because they are trying to save the world and put their own lives at risk - other than that, there's not too much. The woman of course has motivation to be with her son, but they didn't show much of that relationship at all. Also the Protagonist doesn't see much of it, so I totally get that it's a bit unbelievable how much he cares - I think they should have developed that better. But I think the reason why the backstory of the Protagonist is missing is because of the ending (not gonna spoil it here) so I was fine with that. I mistrusted Robert Pattinson's character at first, because of what happened in the hallway, but later on I realised I was in the same situation the Protagonist was: ignorance is part of the whole deal. I really liked the ending scene by the helicopter and felt the emotional impact. I love the idea, I love how it got me hooked from the first time we saw a bullet fly backwards - I have to add: I went in with zero expectations in terms of plot, I saw a teaser once but forgot about it and avoided the trailers successfully. I think it is definitely worth watching - I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy it.
"Trying to save the world" is not characterisation. It's plot. Characterisation is "okay, but WHO is this person trying to save the world? WHY are they specifically trying to save it? Why should I care about them as people?"
casbyness As I see it, Nolan relies on our human nature. We naturally care about our fellow men, as we are social beings. It was enough for me to care for the characters. Besides, I think we have forgotten to see art as such. Did we always have multidimensional characters and character development in historic literature that is nowadays considered to be good? No...
@@imansolms6609 Meh, pop psychology apparently doesn't work for most people in the real world, if you don't develop you characters it doesn't matter how great you say they are. The movie talks about "feeling it", but it certainly doesn't "feel" they are saving the world, Princess Bride did a much better job at that. And that is reflected by the reviews, if people liked the characters or engaged in the story, people wouldn't say they don't like it because "it's hard to understand". Memento was praised and much harder to get than Tenet. Tenet has a very chice-ridden plot once you've seen a couple of time travel movies, so you know what to expect as the guy in the video said: the twists are that the movie tries to play obvious things as twists hah
I absolutly agree with your assessement. And the sound editing was awful, everyone whispers pseudo-meaningful dialogue and than BOOOM loud Soundeffects!
Just saw it, and the whole time I was thinking, my soul for some closed captions. I could barely hear the words, I had no idea who they were, where they were, when they were. Most characters have a Europia accent and mumble, so it was super confusing. I saw Inception in theaters and kept track of reality and 4 dream levels, but this was a jumbled mess. 3/10
yes, exactly, Inception and even Memento are comprehensible to anybody willing to engage with them. Part of the reason is strong enough character development and clear answers to the questions of why the characters are motivated, things which Tenet lacks.
@@LearningaboutMovies Memento is one of my all time favorites, but inception was similar garbage to this one imo. It was trying to be deep too much and made the experience worse. Even south park made fun of it. 😆
Great review. I felt the same way about all the points you mentioned. - too much verbal exposition - not enough character development - cringed at the mention of grandfather paradox - the mention from one character to another which was meta-communication to the audience ("sit back and don't think too much about it.) They almost made it seem like a non-traditional time travel movie by mentioning physics and how the bullets worked. Then it just became a time travel movie. With convenient physics added in as plot armor for the protagonist. Like fire behaving like ice. That wasn't needed.
Idk why you got so many dislikes. I loved the movie but all of your critiques are 100% valid. It’s as if someone can’t have a different opinion. Anyways great review.
it's just typical barbarians and psychopaths. I am hand-curating a blocklist of them. Hopefully, dating services are also banning them, lest they reproduce.
@@ForceOfLightEntertainment That pseudo intellectual baffoon wanted to insult you for his lord Nolan because you have an opinion that shatters his illusion. Ignore him.
Tenet was a terrible movie to watch. I really disliked it for all the reasons you stated. Problem with Nolan is that it has crazy fans defending it as if it’s their first born child.
I have no degree in quantum physics, but thanks to a film called "Amici miei" in english "My friends" I can recognize a supercazzola. Now I explain what a supercazzola is. Supercazzola in Italian means: Meaningless sentence pronounced with conviction in order to confuse the interlocutor. In speech you can also use made up words that mean nothing, but you must do it with absolute conviction.
The funny thing is, I kinda liked the idea of infusing things with tachyons would reverse the timearrow.... but relating it to fission was bull. And well, the rest was also bull.
The main character wasn't good in his role either. He tried to be suave and capable but he was neither. And watching him beat up big strong men 1 foot taller than him just wasn't believable.
I watched it a few weeks ago and did not like it. I love most of his movies. One of the things I like about his style is he tries to make you feel the concept of the film. Memento for example has you feeling like you might have short term memory loss. Insomnia had me feeling like I've been up for three days. I think maybe this is what CN might have been going for but to a detriment. The segment of the film I did like was when the protagonist is being educated on what reverse entropy is and I kind of wanted to know more, but the film just unveiled into an awkward action movie. It was a disappointment. BTW, have you ever seen Time after time. HG Wells chasing Jack the Ripper through time. Liked that better than this, and I'm not a big fan of time travel movies.
right. Dunkirk makes you feel claustrophobic. Batman Begins makes you feel paranoid and suffering delusions. (The seed of Inception is in Batman Begins with what Ra's Al-Ghul and Scarecrow combined are doing to Gotham). No, I haven't seen that! Good recommendation.
Thank you, i actually did turn to my friend after about 30 minutes and say “I have no idea what’s going on.” I have never hated a movie as much as I hate this one. I was actually angry after seeing it it was so bad. Not engaging or entertaining or understandable at all. I was bored to tears, bored to anger the entire time. Couldn’t even get my phone out to look at memes. I felt like Elaine watching the English Patient the whole time: I HATE IT!!
I am going to guess you are a female. not that your comment couldn't come from anybody, it's just that this review has triggered a social experiment, where it's clear that young males and isolate adult males who loved this movie and attack everybody else as "dumb" for not loving it show that they do not sufficiently understand anyone but themselves. I know that almost everybody I know would simply not care for this movie, and I would bet money on it. This review is for them, and by extension normal people like you. thank you.
I just saw it and I literally decided to go to sleep because I was so fucking lost fam. I woke up to the sound of a building exploding. The sound mixing is even worse🤢🤢
I think the one-note aspect of the characters was an intentional characterisation considering the main character has no name and calls himself the “protagonist”. Considering Inception may have been about filmmaking itself, Tenet might have similar meta textual themes, which in my opinion justify some of the aspects that you criticise as actually being clever and interesting. Also, I’m not sure the film’s time travel element are so easily dismissable. I mean Nolan did consult with a group of actual physicists after all, though I’ve got no scientific expertise to be fair
this is all possible. The question is why name that character the Protagonist, right? In what way is the movie a comment on stories or protagonists in general? Given that it involved so much action, and repetition of scenes, I'm not sure it really was. Perhaps the "meta" hints are just MacGuffins. But, I await an analysis that makes sense of that question.
Learning about Movies that’s completely fair. I guess its all about how much you’re willing to trust that Nolan wasn’t just blowing smoke with this one. I’m awaiting such an analysis myself, but I’m definitely not the guy to do it, one of the main reasons for that being that I also had major audio issues with all the whispering and that. There’s probably gonna be a lot of armchair philosophising about the film though so we’ll have to carefully sift through that which isn’t gonna be fun haha
Learning about Movies by the way I appreciate you taking the time to respond in the kind way you did! I want to say that I respect your opinion. Contrarian voices on Tenet are appreciated
I saw the one-note aspect as one of many callbacks to the classic Bond formula - sure Bond has greatly evolved/was given backstory in recent years but until Craig, we never really knew his personal history.
After watching this movie, its almost like Christopher Nolan played The Mirror Universe side quest from the game CONTROL, and decided that should be a movie.... That mission story line is almost identical.
I'm new to this channel, but I'm hooked. You nailed this review and now have me thinking I was too generous (I ripped the characters, maybe landed at like a 6/10 which is low for me). Nolan was huge for my cinefile development but this was just such a mess. I'm very happy you brought up Primer. IMO it's easily the best time travel movie and just so so so so good at everything it does. Tenet is huge and Primer is so reserved and compact. And talk about a movie that doesn't think it's audience is dumb!
6/10 is reasonable. I say stick with Nolan; I'll still be at the premiere of his next movie. Thank you for subscribing and I hope to keep hearing from you.
@@LearningaboutMovies Oh, I watch too many movies to give up on him entirely haha. I also loved your review on I'm Thinking of Ending Things. Very sharp stuff.
@Meta Man I admire his originality and desire to push cinema forward. And I am planning to rewatch it when I can and see if my thoughts change, and they well might. At the end of the day it really comes down to what one wants in a movie, and Tenet didn't deliver much of what I wanted in a movie. But maybe with subtitles it will be better.
This is a great review. No bullshit... all unfiltered opinions u had watching the movie... I was contemplating whether it was a good movie or not, which itself shows how much of a mess this movie was... Dunkirk at least made use of the visceral experience more skillfully than Tenet (which justified the use of blaring sound effects, the shaky camera and distorted time periods based on the setting). This film is uncompromisingly Nolan but felt more like a chore to get through rather than an exciting experience...
Could not hear the dialogue. Watched it in a Dolby cinema with extremely good sound system but dialogue was drowned out by the movie soundtrack. I found it impossible to care about any of the characters or figure out what was happening while I was watching it so there was no dramatic tension to any of the big fight scenes, just a lot of noise and explosions. Worst movie Nolan has made by far.
You should check out "Timecrimes", a Spanish movie from 2007. It's pretty brilliant. Does what Tenet thinks it's doing but with a fraction of the budget and interesting characters you actually care about.
well articulated, thumbs up and a sub! I think the visual is enjoyable but narrative is a mess, also funny side note, no one in my country talks about background sound louder than dialogue, because we watch movie with sub, and I didn't notice that myself when I watch it aswell!
I watched the movie at home with subtitles as English is my second language. I had to change the volume about 30 times during the movie cause it was either too high or too low. It definitely made the experience even less pleasurable.
Its a good point you made......imagine Inception with zero Leo backstory, or Interstellar with zero Matthew backstory, and those films become bad films really fast.
exactly. Plus no emotional tension for the main character, like Interstellar and Inception have. We don't have any good reason to believe the Protagonist has a care about the female lead in this movie.
I can't express how much I hated this movie. Allow me to save you 3 hours and $14. TENET is about four very bored people with no names, expensive clothes, and blank expressions who run backward, drive backward, and spend LOTS of time on boats. Michael Caine pops in for lunch and things blow up, but you won't understand why...or care. The End.
Hey, I think your review is on point. The story is built entirely around its high concept and is basically an excuse to display on screen some (supposedly) mind-bending action scenes. Problem is: 1/ the time reversal shown to us doesn't really make sense; 2/ Nolan ignored everything else: characters, themes, etc. So we end up with an overly serious movie that has nothing interesting to say about anything.
I think Tenet sucked for multiple reasons. I bought the Blu-Ray and consider it a waste of money. Muffled dialog and turning on subtitles reveals simplistic exposition and little actual story. I sincerely hope he doesn't/didn't fuque up Oppenheimer with his "I know what their saying" attitude!
After seeing it... yeah, I’m with you. First half was unforgivably boring and convoluted. Second half had no stakes, and I feel they didn’t do nearly enough with the gimmick.
I could be wrong, but I just wanted to see more backwards stuff in the early parts of the movie. Could it have been rescued if they went back to the past early in the movie? Not sure, but it took them 100 minutes to finally do that.
You should understand that there's only so much you can show of the "gimmick" and for them to squeeze it in the film while trying to move the plot, when they are literally showing you people travelling back through time, unlike every other time travel movie which shows you people "poofing" from future to past and vice versa, which obviously saves a shit ton of time. Not really hard to understand.
It was such a stupid, boring, convoluted movie. At the end of it me and my brother were like "wait a minute; was this whole movie TRYING to waste our time and insult our intelligence?" . Honestly this is the same feeling I get from every Nolan movie (almost every movie.. some aren't as treacherous).. It feels so pretentious and overcomplicated and it treats you so stupidly that it feels like there's something your missing, like it's trying to subvert your expectations, but no, it just thinks that your dumb enough that the "fantastically intelligent" science-y stuff is going to blow your mind... Absolutely NO room to make fun of itself.. at all. No humor; incredibly self-serious... That said, I DID love Batman 2 (the joker one) when it came out when I was about 18.. and loved it for years.. (but now, going back to it, although the opening scene and first third or so are excellent, it gets dumb and unwatchable and cliched by the time you get near the end)... I also liked Interstellar a lot at first but going back I had the same issues... I didn't MIND Oppenheimer... But again, it was overcomplicated, NO HUMOR and all the other issues to varying degrees (talk about exposition... no pun intended).. I hate Nolan. Maybe I wouldn't hate him so much but the fact that everyone LOVES him, both the audience, the critics, and the industry, makes me feel a responsibility to make it explicit how distasteful I find him.. I mean c'mon, if you could at least make fun of yourself A LITTLE bit it would be helpful... I tend to not like spectacle movies (although some that you might call spectacle are very enjoyable to me...I liked Dune 2.. and like Denis.. although I do have problems with him too, ones which you've mentioned too) and I especially dislike Nolan because he is often spectacle masquerading as Cinema.. I don't want our resources going these people. Thanks for coming to my talk.
The entire climax of the movie I was asking myself, who put together this gargantuan teams of Call of Duty reject? Why is half inverted, why was that needed? Who they were fighting against? And most importantly, why would everyone die if the main bad guy died even by natural circumstances?! What a goddamn mess of a movie.
exactly. has anyone figured out that final battle army? probably but because it is so unclear to the audience, I don't find it successful even if the esoteric nature of it is explainable.
I think they're fighting against crumbling buildings and maybe time itself? I had a similar reaction to Mockingjay Part 2, another stinker. If the imperial army is so much more powerful than the rebels, where is it and why do they rely on the weirdest traps that destroy the city further?
There's a saying, the cunningly concealed is better than the wholly revealed. Its a film that is meant to make you think but a lot of the time they didnt cunningly conceal stuff from you, they just threw a whole lot of stuff at you. And some stuff they only show you for a half a second but its essential to the story. And when they throw a lot of unnecessary stuff on top like sometimes calling the weapon, plutonium and sometimes the algorithm so you never really know what the threat is and how it works. Having said that i have watched the film a few times to see how it knits together or is supposed to knit together. In the end its a film you can argue about and discuss endlessly about so many things in it. So its a bit of a love/hate film for me.
4 ปีที่แล้ว +16
the reversed walking and running made me laugh so many times that i couldnt take this movie 100% seriously
Just watched it last night and as much as I don’t want to say it, you are right in many aspects about this movie. Christopher Nolan directed Interstellar which is one of my favorite movies of all time and it was really disappointing to see one of my favorite directors swing and miss so hard. Shame.
Omg!!! Thank you for this honest review. You articulated exactly what I felt after watching this movie. It made no sense at all and the background sounds and music were annoying af. Highly disappointed. Do not recommend.
Just watched Tenet today; I must say this is a super accurate review of the experience....totally shared same feeling about this particular movie while still loving Nolan’s previous work.
thank you. I think this movie has proved successful with a narrow young-male demographic interested in action and concepts. I get that, and if I were 16, I would be right with them. (in fact I was, once.) and yet, I don't think this movie is good art.
Movie was so bad, so many scenes seemed unnecessary, he met R Patz, to meet an Indian woman, to meet Michael Cain to meet the wife character. Couldn’t all that exposition be given 1 or 2 characters rather than 4 back to back. Conversations seemed unnatural.
As someone who loves time traveling movies (12 Monkeys, Predestination, The Jacket, Looper, About Time, Edge of Tomorrow, Back to the Future, and possibly my favorite one being Primer), I enjoyed Tenet and felt like it brought something new to the Time Travel genre. Rather than just going back in time and doing something (as with most time travel movies), you have inversion instead, where time is flowing backwards for inverted objects or people. The plot itself wasn't overly complex because they explain a lot of what happens before the end of the movie, and you got the general idea of it. It's not the antagonist who is sending himself weapons, it's hundreds of years in the future, a group of people sent him some gold and instructions on how to make one of those Inverter machines and assemble an apocalyptic weapon with the 9 relics. When something is inverted, it flows through time backwards to you or me, but if a human is inverted, they view the world as going backwards, because they are flowing backwards in time. This is the "time travel" aspect. It's not a walk through a time machine and end up in the past, it's walk into a machine and the rest of the world flows backwards for you. You still age, the rest of the world just gets younger, and this lets people "travel back in time." It's similar to how Primer handles time traveling. So, if you see something moving oddly, such as things "falling" up, then something is about to get inverted. The movie focuses on these moments pretty often, so when you see rubbles of concrete rumble and move upwards, then it's probably part of an inverted explosion that's about to happen. That's the "feel it" part. I'd agree on not being able to hear a lot of dialogue, but I've always watched movies with subtitles so that probably helped a lot. Also, I didn't felt much for the characters other than Neil. Lastly, no offense, but if you thought that this movie had a difficult plot to follow and the time traveling aspect was confusing, then I'm pretty sure you don't really understand Primer's timeline. Most people think they do the first time around, but they really don't. I've always felt that Primer, by far, has the most difficult to understand plot and timeline as most of it is happening off screen and you have to make a lot more assumptions and connecting the dot. Tenet is somewhere closer to Predestination in terms of complex time travel plots.
excellent. thank you for engaging with what the video actually said. I have responded to your points many times elsewhere in the comments. just know that I appreciate very much your thoughtfulness.
I love this movie from the first minutes, but I do understand that entropy is not for everyone to enjoy. I think in order to enjoy the movie, you have to understand the physics behind it. At least the general concept of entropy and its relation with the flow of time. I'm no scientist but I'm always fascinated with time. I've been wondering what it was like to be a positron, how the world would seem like. Now someone made a movie about it, and I was blown away. Although it's not so scientifically accurate, like: how can you see anything if you're inverted and the photons moving away from you? Or worse, shouldn't your atoms get annihilated the first time they're in contact with inverted matter?
Yes, I agree, and Tenet is not a bad time travel movie, if you are a fan of the genre you probably have seen much worse, most are. But it's not good, and people expecte more from Nolan, but should have known better after Inception and then Interstellar which were steps down from his previous work. Interstellar itself has very bad space travel physics, it fails at basic stuff like not understanding what a slingshot maneuver is, but people pretend "IT'S SO ACCURATE" because it replicated a scientific rendering of a black hole and used a real star database for their backdrops.
This movie is awful, the best thing about it was the music. And I say this as someone who loved many Nolan movies (Memento, Interstellar, even Insomnia etc.)
Nolan made a complicated movie that solely relies on the characters explaining what's going on through their dialogue, but decided to suppress the dialogue track and make everything else in the movie loud as f**k. I mean why even bother making it, unless it's a cheap trick for repeat audience. Ridiculous. #FireTheSoundGuy
it is completely perplexing why the sound has to be this way. Should be perfect -- there's no excuse for anything less than that. Perhaps it will be different if I watch it with headphones, but that's not what ordinary moviegoers experience.
Thanks for your well-articulated review. I saw Tenet in a non-IMAX theatre and, apart from the aerofoils scene, I didn’t face issue with the sound mixing. After two rewatches, I think one of the best ways to approach this film is to treat it like a giant crossword puzzle that is set in the spy-fi realm. This way, I intentionally didn’t care about the characters because I knew I had to treat them like pieces within the puzzle. This enabled the ‘inversion’ concept to act as the true star of this film, with every character facing different consequences upon interacting with the turnstile. That’s just my take, but I appreciate the level of detail you went into with this review.
I’m not really a movie guy myself but this is one of the worst movies I’ve seen in quite awhile. The movie is trying to tell a complex narrative involving a time loop and that never goes well imo. The music blocking out the words of the characters also makes the narrative needlessly hard to follow. I turned my head towards my friends to ask them what was going on and they didn’t know because of how little sense the movie makes. I also never got why the protagonist was so fixated on the women and why he cared so much for her. That seems pretty forced in. Also apparently the British dude was her son? You r supposed to be able to tell because of the key chain but they make no attempts to draw your attention towards it till the end. I feel like you took my problems with the movie and expressed it pretty well. I really felt like I wasted money on this movie.
I'm sorry they wasted your money. It stinks, and I wish these movie studios would allow refunds in good faith, as pretty much every other corporation selling a product does.
Insomnia, Memento, and following are the only Christopher Nolan films I like. Dunkirk looks great but it's boring, and all of his other films look ugly for me. I dont know why but films like Interstellar and Inception just look ugly to me. I suspect it's the greyish color pallette. My second major problem with Nolan films is that I feel they're just pseudo-intellectuals. They put on a pseudo philosophy that give the appearance of depth when there really isn't much.
Just watched it. Agree 200% with you. In fact, my partner just said it’s scary how much of what you said is what I was complaining on our way back home. I feel validated 😌
I honestly think this movie might get higher ratings in non-english-speaking countries for one simple reason: subtitles!
I watched Tenet yesterday (english with german subtitles) and while I did't get most of the spoken dialogue (despite lot's of experience with english movies and series) I could easily follow the plot thanks to the subtitles. And once you actually understand what's happening on screen, the movie becomes a pretty cool experience!
I think the inversion concept is very well thought out and (judging from my single viewing) seems plausible and coherent within the movie-world. It certainly makes for some jaw-dropping action scenes that I haven't seen on screen like this. When you wrap your head around the intermingling time-lines of the different characters, it doesn't feel like a simple, lazy time-travel story but it is actually quite impressive how much complexity (yes, maybe a bit too much) Nolan squeezed into the runtime. The concept becomes even grander when you google the Sator-Square, an ancient latin palindromic word-square, which definitely served as a huge inspiration and (in an abstract way) pretty much sums up the story of the movie.
The movie has some flaws: yes, you should be able to understand a movie without subtitles. Some of the editing seems a bit botched, scenes sometimes feel disconnected. I couldn't help but feel that the movie might have worked better as a mini-series, but then it probably would have felt like an action rip-off of Dark.
In the end I got what I expected from Nolan: a grand, over-conceptualized, over-complex mindf*ck of a story, amazing cinematography, really well-made action scenes, a blasting score and people mumbling through various breathing devices.
4/5
thank you for the first comment here that makes a strong case for rewatching with insight. I'm still skeptical that there are any characters -- more like cardboard caricatures in service of action and a concept -- or that most of the movie doesn't rehash other action movies, yet this is at least a model for how to interact with us on TH-cam.
Do you know about palindrom? I dont think so. Y hablo inglés and also speak english
@@LearningaboutMovies Thanks :)
Yeah, the characters will still be flat, I guess it's not one of Nolan's strengths to write emotional depth into his roles. I also don't think it's the best Nolan movie, but certainly more entertaining than 1.5 stars imo ;) Without any of the Sator-Square stuff I probably would have given it 3 or 3.5 max, but that part is actually some of the most creative and interesting symbolism I have seen lately, especially for an a-list action movie.
@@LearningaboutMovies a movie should tell a story characters are less important especially in a action movie and I believe everyone has lost sight of this. It's a story not an autobiography.
In egypt we had Arabic subtitles
In the first half of the movie I was thinking I have no idea what’s going on. But then, in the second half of the movie, I had absolutely no idea what was happening.
we still don't know what army was fighting back, in the end.
You are a hero for me 15 minutes was to much
Me ....i still dont!
I watched 2 different plot explanations and still don’t know what was happening and why.
@@LearningaboutMovies the blue team
Him: If this happens everything and everyone on earth will be gone!
Her: Including my son?
She asks that becausr its Sators son too, and she doubts that he will kill is own son
It’s Mike exactly. That’s why when they were on the boat, she asked him why he’d kill his own son
@It’s Mike Yep, because there is a scene that establishes that he wouldn’t kill his own son
when you're a Russian oligarch weapons dealer with a temper, sometimes you don't use logic.
@@Mike_v_E lol no. It's Nolan's juvenile attempt to reassert that she cares about her son above all else. She literally repeats how much he is all she cares about throughout the movie. It's bad writing. When she meets protagonist for the first time, she tells him her sad and deeply personal story after knowing him for all of 2 minutes. It's bad writing
Watching this movie is like watching two people asking each other questions back and forth. Asking the next question before the person is even finished asking it.
that would be a screwball comedy, but this is not that.
And I don't believe that is Nolan's goal. If it was then he would have sort of succeeded, but as you said, that's not what this movie is.
I used to do that when i was high on pills lol
The only thing I loved about Tenet was the fact that I waited to rent it for $5.99 instead of $19.99.
we have to hedge our bets this way, because movie studios, unlike just about every other business, do not issues refunds for crappy products.
I borrowed it from the library for free and just finished it and for some crazy reason I’m telling myself I’m going to watch it again tomorrow to understand it 🤪.. this was the only movie playing in theaters for a while and I’m glad I didn’t go see it .I was hoping to find a “everything wrong” video on this but he must be confused to
Joke’s on you I got it with prime
That’s a lot I thought Redbox was $2 for a Blu-ray
Thank you for saying how my wife and I feel. We left the theatre thinking that English wasn’t our first language
heh. I suspect the males who love this movie aren't bringing dates. If my wife saw this, well, we probably would've left pretty early on (and she's has liked most Nolan, especially Dunkirk.)
Learning about Movies my girl loved it even more than I did 😂 lol
Me and my wife walked out to😅
A couple people walked out in my theater.. I thought the movie had some really entertaining parts, great visuals and technical achievements.. But it's simply not that engaging.. Gets tedious and confusing.. people should definitely have a big dose of caffeine before watching it 😷
Ok it’s not a film to take your wife too. Audio quality could have been better but the highlight of the movie. All of Nolan’s films are based of a single concept. This one is inverted time all of the plot points can be figured out if extrapolate from this concept. Plus maybe the domestic sub-plot is why you guys didn’t enjoy it coz it gets deep. Same reason watching breaking bad with my dad was hard it has some themes that are uncomfortable
Wow thank you for reassuring me that I wasn't crazy. I saw this last night and I am still baffled as to what the heck was going on.
no problem. I'm confident I speak for a lot of people, as many commenters here have shown. thank you.
Entropy , high sea levels , how he was the one working from himself , and how i think it may have a sequel. For a prequel (if we are talking in TENETs term) . Man it is so easy for me to nerd out after this movie. Just because you didn't understand it , doesn't make it bad . Same goes to making a youtube video( doesn't make it true).
Dont worry even my friends didnt get it the first time around.
Slowpoke
@@jaswantgogoi7640 ugh.
That's the purpose to not let u know whats going on. Watch the twist in the middle of the movie when they visually start explaining things better. You'll get it. I bet you only watched rhis movie once. 😄
@@LearningaboutMovies your audience is pro you hence the agreement, dont for a second think they are objective. This film was awesome. It had me following every scene every moment. I was looking for clues. I hope every CN film going forward keeps up with the frantic pace. Merry Christ mas
This movie made me feel crazy. I was really hoping i wasn't the only one in the theatre that didnt have a clue what was happening.
I predict yours will be the majority experience.
Haha, I was so lost for the first hour, then it all started to come together. I loved it. Gonna see it again tomorrow
I was confused to. You probably have got to watch this movie more than once.
No, I don’t think your the only who doesn’t get what’s happening. This movie is emotionally distant
i didn’t get it at all lmao
This screenplay is the equivalent of a heart surgeon thinking angioplasty is too simple during an angioplasty and inventing a new procedure in the middle of it without telling anyone what the new plan is.
I hope my heart surgeon never gets such a wild idea.
Best comment ever!!! :D
Pefectly put!
Tenet is a spectacle movie for pseudo-intellectuals. A time travel movie which genuinely explored themes such as entropy, t-symmetry and time paradoxes would be fascinating. This instead is a popcorn movie that goes crush, boom, bang at obnoxiously loud volumes and occasionally throws around buzz words in a lame attempt at exposition.
someone should try to make Philip K. Dick's "Now Wait for Last Year,."
AHEM!
I would like to take a brief moment. To step down from my "Tall Stallion" to say If you don't like the film because of its plot holes,
or lack of character development,
or if it is, because you just didn't quite understand it. What ever your reason is, cool man. But there's no need to throw shade at people who enjoyed the film, for what they saw. We all can bask in the sweet stench of our own opinions. but I can't force anyone else to smell my own. If you know what I Mean. Well that's all from me.
HYAH Gideyup, Icarus!
I completely disagree with this; while Tenet is no intellectually intense movie, its concept and application really helps seeing time as a dimension rather than a directed continuum. And I think that that in itself is reason enough to watch the movie; it alters your perception of time and allows you to see your experience in time as a point on an axis, and opens up the possibility of considering the very concept of moving backward in time. I personally found the experience mind expanding. 🤷♂️
@@lukebyrne5188 I agree... If you don't like a film because of it's plot holes, or lack of character development, or because you are unable to hear what the characters are saying, or because the story makes no sense... ahhhh.... or because you are unable to empathize with the nameless protagonist, due to the protagonist having no story for you to empathize with, including even a name... uhhhmmmmm.... or if ...
Okay, I can't do this anymore. I don't know about you Luke but my check didn't clear.
A well made bad movie is still a bad movie, and Tenet is a bad movie. Likely one of the worst I've ever seen bar none.
It's Nolan being enamored with a concept then doing ZERO legwork to make it make ANY actual sense
It has a thin veneer of 'sensibility' but that is all. If you think about it AT ALL it utterly falls to pieces and is so insipid that it's almost insulting. In fact, I will say that it IS insulting because the movie goes out of its way to tell you at one point not to think about it...which is the hallmark of a dumpsterfire of an idea.
I came to US for three years and have seen probably 200+ movies, but this one made me doubt my English listening ability.
well some of it was backwards English, or Russian, maybe!
The accents suck and there’s constant whispering
the volume in our theater was deafening and we still couldn’t understand 75% of what they were saying in some scenes
pey I listen to rather loud music and have gone to rap concerts, and the gunshot sound effects in this movie were louder than both and had my ears ringing.
Nolan made sure No will understand being smart
The movie says “don’t try to understand it, just feel it.” But there is nothing there to feel. No genuine emotion, wooden dialog that was hard to hear and follow.... I understood the plot just fine, I just didn’t give a crap about it.
that line should've told all of this movie's analysts that it knows it doesn't make sense.
I can't get over the fact that the protagonist has no reasoned motivation until the end of the film. For two hours I'm just sitting there going "why is he doing any of this and why should I care?"
@@themeatt625 because he's a CIA Agent who wants to prevent WW3?
@@spacemann1425 Maybe I missed it but, no one mentioned working for CIA, and he was told specifically that he needed to stop something "worse than WW3."
@@LearningaboutMovies I stopped watching when I heard the line “don’t try to understand it, just feel it.”
Another time travel movie recommendation I’d add to your list is Predestination with Ethan Hawke. It successfully uses a lot of themes and tropes that Tenet fails at, and it’s very entertaining!
ah yes, I think only one commenter has mentioned this so far. thank you.
@@LearningaboutMovies Volition if you haven't seen it yet
predestination has plot hole. no one can give birth him or herself. that was the point i lost my interest in that movie
Please watch more movies if you think predestination is better then tenet. Awful comparison
Is that a movie whers a man had a sex change and got himself pregnant. That movie was trash
I actually left the theater legitimately pissed off. I couldn't hear any of the dialogue, and had no idea what was going on because of it. I'm not a stupid person, and it made me feel like an idiot, because I couldn't tell you how one scene connected with any other. I understood Inception no problem. This was a mess.
I am very sorry. Warner Bros. does not give refunds, unlike all other corporations that let you return their products.
Same here! I thought I may have had a bad position in the cinema for sound so I'm glad to hear it wasn't just me! I considered walking out an asking for a refund at one stage. I think his is the closest I have ever come to walking out of a movie.
@@walsie435 Absolute trash movie. Havnt ever wanted to walk out like i did during this garbage. James Bond wannabe filmed in reverse with little to no explanation for it.
garbage movie
Exactly! I was pissed the entire time.
Thank god it's not just me. I came out of the movie doubting my intelligence. Thanks for confirming that the sound quality was bad i.e. couldn't understand dialogue and I didn't care about the characters.
the single boys come around here to insult our intelligence, but really Tenet is the unintelligent movie that pretends to have it . The movie is understandable, but once you know what's going on, you say: 1) that's cliche, 2) that's it?, and 3) why should any audience member care about any of these characters? basically, this movie gives psychopaths license to mock other people for stupid reasons, as the comments section and my ban list shows.
@@LearningaboutMovies thanks a lot, I thought the same walking out the theater.
Great number of people claims the movie is both highly intelligent and innovative. I might agree the second but not the first. But the number is so high that I started doubting my own intelligence... but second reading the plot convinced me they are wrong
@Meta Man you convinced me to watch it again. I will watch it in another language and with a cup of coffee, so may be it will work. At least they say War&Peace must be read three times per one's lifetime (at the ages of 20,30 and 40) to perceive all the layers of the work. So why this tenet mustn't be interpolated to the Tenet? :))
I'm going to do it at this weekend hope to give you a feedback soon
There was an edit in the movie where Patterson says “get some sleep” and then it just insta cuts to him sitting on the bed... I was like wow that was awful
heh, well, at least we know he got some sleep!
YES!!!!
@yes,i’m happy he's desperate to defend this piece of shit movie hahaha
@Meta Man you need to stop posting this stupid drug induced text you came up with. It’s even dumber than the movie
Oh yeah that was so bad, terrible terrible editing
This was the first Nolan movie i had to actually try to focus on to understand. I wasn't sure if it was convoluted or if I missed something that was critical to the plot.
thanks.
It's the definition of convoluted. The plot is to stop a world altering event. Simple enough. The aim is to find a speical device. Simple enough. The twist is that you can reverse yourself. Not quite as simple but relatively simple if explained cleverly and concisely within the rules of the world. This was not the case.
Nolan has a habit of taking these ideas and loading them with bells and whistles, turning them upsidedown, shaking it, all whilst filming it with poorly orchestrated action, muffled audio, disjointed plot progression and bland characters.
The movie lives and dies on how well the concept is executed and here I feel like I have to spend more time analysing it than I did watching the bloody thing.
It seems to be the Nolan way. That the fun of a movie is figuring out what just happened rather than enjoying what is happening.
@@kevtb874 you’re not watching it right. The movie is made to be watched twice at least. First is, like you said, to understand it. Second is to enjoy what you already know. Every other watch just makes it more and more perfect until you finally see how this movie is a masterpiece
@@doge8825 if youre bored out of your mind an hour and a half into the film it fails to entertain and objectively sucks. Didn’t finish this film and never will,
@@doge8825 also you sound like a parody. How many times am I supposed to watch it until i either enjoy it or kill myself? Will 100 be enough?
It feels like a missed opportunity to me - the concept for the film is 10/10, but the execution is poor
yes, as I said, had the movie considered the effect of time inversion on actual people, instead of cookie-cutter action-movie characters, that would have been fascinating. Sort of Philip K Dick's Counter-Clock World or "Wait for Last Year." I sensed that the idea served the FX, not vice versa.
Definitely.
Learning about Movies how do you know the movie isn’t going to? How can you judge a plot for a movie that’s being told backwards and isn’t done being told. I honestly think you’ve missed some things
@@DB-ev5ep are you saying the movie producers will go back in time and make it good?
Very true. It feels like such a good movie on paper. But lacked that same punch on screen.
its okay youre in a reverse loop you actually enjoyed it
!eivom taerg a tahw
T'was a shit movie
That's funny
I wish I could watch the movie in reverse it might suck less LOL
I completely understand this point of view, but I absolutely enjoyed the ride during the movie and AFTER the movie where I was playing back in my head some scenes thinking "holy crap, that's why this scene was there." etc. The movie is meant to be understood in the TENET-non-linear way just like Memento. Stopping at the traditional storytelling POV to judge this movie is like a 3-dimensional being criticizing its 4-dimensional buddy his story doesn't add up
glad you liked it.
After watching it a second time, I had to honestly assess how I was feeling, I think I might have genuinely been mad to some degree. But I do absolutely love Nolan for his ability to inspire child-like wonder in his audiences. With Tenet however, I think it's a movie that is being way too heady for the sake of being heady.
same.
@Meta Man I appreciate that lengthy, measured and thoughtful response, and I do agree with most of the points you made. I love Nolan, as I stated in my original post. And with having viewed Tenet a grand total of 3 times, including just as recently as a week ago, I'm still fairly at the same place with how I originally felt about this film.
What I have discovered in the months since my first viewing are several amazing converging elements that makes this movie (TENET) the palindrome that it is, and I love Nolan for his love of creating detail rich pieces of art.
For me however, even being someone whose initial intention was to love this film, I just couldn't fully get there. I honestly feel that Tenet is a passion project for Nolan. I felt while watching as if though I was traveling through the neural network of Nolan's brain, and I'm not too keen on getting that intimate with the most deepest recesses of someone else's mind.
I totally agree with you that sometimes it's healthy to take in art that is challenging, making the experience that much more enriching, and rewarding, and even possibly conscience shifting. However, at least to some degree there also has to be a balance of an entertaining story. Tenet is an absolutely gorgeous looking film, but the story just doesn't do it justice.
I would consider 2001: A Space Odyssey to be a challenging film that did render me a bit confused and a lot curious after my first viewing, but not frustrated like I felt after Tenet. I will say, Tenet is absolutely the perfect 2020 movie, unnerving, complicated and bewildering. The only truly redeeming thing about this film (for me, and I honestly have no qualms about anybody that does love this movie), is the theory that the little boy Max in the final frame of the film is Neil. I totally believe that's true and I think that is a pretty cool way to loop everything, and it works for me.
@@funeralbells
Sadly his reply is the same to a lot of negative comments here, literally spamming the comment section. Weird.
@@AttilaTheHun333333 Oh, I hadn't noticed. Well, hopefully he sent the same note to Stephen Colbert, because his opinion of Tenet is in the negative as well lol. Honestly though, it was very fitting for Tenet to be released in a year that was also very difficult to make any sense of.
The soulless, and even childish "villain" was the nail in the coffin for me. The whole movie feels so pointless. Depressing
the beat-up-the-leading-lady scene was grotesque and unnecessary.
i've met people like that IRL unfortunately
Damn you did a good job on describing the villain
@virtue It was inserted ONLY to drive home that point because otherwise it's not in the film.
We get one ridiculous scene where the 'protagonist' gets to the dinner only so the oligarch can tell him that he is a rich, obnoxious and grumpy asshole who likes to torture people. When he is done with his text the protagonist leaves.
Then we get a pointless scene of beating the wife because... nobody wants to sympathize with a wife beater.
Same reason they made him Russian - Germany is not a class enemy anymore and in China the cinemas better show the film. So nothing more effective than telling an American audience that the bad guy is Russian. Because.
So... artificial. So lazy. Slow clap.
@Meta Man How often did you copy/paste your pamphlet under this video?
Doesn't make it more comprehensive.
The real question is:
Will people want to rewatch this movie if not made by Nolan?
😋
branding might be everything.
@@LearningaboutMovies the other argument i usually heared from Nolan's fans are: "You don't get it. Watch it again!" (...i've heard this kind of arguments since Interstellar come out)
Which means thats a sign that Nolan's branding make people will feel special WHEN they understand the movie.
OR....
show the main flaw that Nolan's is a good moviemakers, but not-so-good storyteller.
P.s: sorry for my grammar. English is not my 1st language (nor 2nd nor 3rd actually.lol)
you're English is better than most native English-speakers. Yes, I am now seeing that argument here. Most viewers like that don't realize that some people can well comprehend an entire movie on first watch. I'm confident I can, and it's not easy.
@@MungareMike just wanted to say as a native English speaker, I think your English is great!
@@captainkielbasa5471 He does get overhyped, even over duds.
When I heard Pattisons character start explaining paradoxes, I was like so the whole plot is going to rely on the grandfather paradox? Lol. Which is basically whats happens.
some commenters around here seem to have never heard of that. telling me instead that this movie is so original.
@@LearningaboutMovies Well if they didn't hear of it before, they certainly weren't going to "hear" of it in the film.. lol
It's just not. It's not even time travel and it was one of the first things we learn. Even from the trailer. And the grandfather theory was mentioned once in the movie to explain a detaile.
@Meta Man idk on the first viewing i felt like i got all of the “feeling” aspects i was meant to feel; the action is kinetic & for the most part more readable and purposeful than the average nolan movie, the soundtrack is suitably overbearing and keeps the pacing tight, i liked the locations and costumes, etc etc.
that being said watching it again anytime soon feels like a bit of a chore when so much of the runtime is dominated by dialogue that is half incredibly on the nose and obvious and half incredibly opaque and contrived.
if nolan was committing such a stroke of interpretive genius we wouldn’t have to sit through these exchanges that add nothing to the film. if i recall correctly dunkirk had very little in the way of dialogue or character & nolan clearly embraced that & made up for it in other regards.
in practice the time manipulation of this movie isn’t really that complex, save for the final siege it’s easy to follow what’s going on. if we just spent the whole movie witnessing the effects of this movie’s premise & it’s world ending implications without having to stumble over clunky exposition & weak character motivations i would’ve jumped back in as soon as possible. the actions scenes are really clever & fun to think about as is, feel like the story elements could’ve been trimmed & blended much more smoothly.
@Meta Man this is a bot. It spams most reviews of this movie
Uh oh the Nolan fanboys didn't like this one. Too bad they don't realize dislikes affect a video the same as likes.
yes! I have said that that half a dozen times in the comments.
@@colinjensen8303 not at all, I’ve disagreed with him before as well, it’s just very good interesting that this particular video got so much hate, especially given the fact that we all know Nolan has a cringe fanbase that holds him way too high.
@@h.ar.2937 yea mediocre to people too stupid to understand it hahaha
It was definitely a fun experience watching it in the cinema with only one other person, but I had no idea what was going on 😃 and could not tell you what happened afterwards
heh, I imagined all of the people I know -- and it was difficult to see anyone geeking out over this movie.
One of the things they should have done was show us the future's perspective. Show us the person / future that created the technology and why.
You should ask all those posers that pretend they have understood everything, and those who dislike this movie are dumb... they are everywhere
@Meta Man The movie does have some references to movie making itself, like Inception clearly also had. But I don't think it's genius, a good idea doesn't make a good movie by itself, and I don't dislike the fact that they tried to put you into action right away, what I don't like is the delivery of that.
The dislike ratio shows how loony Nolan fans are. How about this for a plot... Durt: A Nolan movie where a turd coming out of a butthole plays in reverse.
The point made in this review sums up my entire problem with this movie. The characters are so damn unrelatable and their problems even more so. I had no clue what the stakes were or why I even had to care. And lord the fucking dialogues! One pile of horse shit stacked on top of the other with the music dialled to a 11.
Can anyone else appreciate that this guy responds to all of his comments?
And he does it respectfully.
Bravo Sir!
thank you. Some credit goes to TH-cam, which makes it very easy to respond to all comments and quickly.
I just went home and watched Dark, Season 3 to understand what happend.
heh, many people have recommended that one here.
Dark is in my heart
Wish I saw this video before watching it. Left the theater less inspired. Would have been happier spending my money on a new t-shirt.
no refunds from Warner. Unfortunate for us.
the best "time travel" effect was seeing yourself come out of the inverter before you go in. The eye contact that the split character was able to make with themselves was interesting.
agreed.
Yeah I liked that part
I would like to see this movie with ALL the dialogue cut out, and just see the time travel effects.
Good spectacle, no heart, no characters, bad dialogue mixing. Least favorite Nolan movie
thanks.
@Meta Man I'd forgotten about this movie already. That's the deal though, everything you mentioned he'd already done with Dunkirk. When we look back at the dark knight rises we can't get over the bad sound mixing for bane. Same thing with Cooper in interstellar. Great movies but damn that shit was bad. And that's where it's kinda stupid, you got this great movie being hindered by other bad choices and Nolan keeps calling it an artistic choice. Bro, no hahaha. We can't hear the goddamn heartfelt words Cooper says to Brand as he detaches into the beautiful black hole Nolan and Kipp Thorne built. That's not an artistic or stylistic choice, it pulls you out of the movie completely. Just like the editing and mixing in Tenet too. Like I said, it's a spectacle but not much else. Probably is cooler seeing it a second time but after the headache inducing editing the did for this movie, I almost don't wanna see it a second time. Even if I understand the cuts, there will still be too many of them. There's no room to breathe. Mad Max feels like a thrill ride also but it gives you time to breathe and take in the beauty of its cinematography, editing and etc. As a chef, you don't garnish a dish with fart spray and call it a stylistic choice. I mean it is, but it hinders the experience of the consumer and if that's what you're after, you done it
So many people here acting high like they understood the film. I managed to get a hold of it after watching all the explanation videos. All, cause watching one of them is not enough.
and was it worth it, all that studying? a work of art might best be understood when it is absorbed, not explained. Maybe.
@@LearningaboutMovies i gave up trying to understand it after the first explanation video because i just didnt care anymore, not wasting my brain power on it. I pride myself for getting complex plots and stories and guessing most plot points but i just didnt get it. This movie is in too much in love with itself.
i mean, yeah. science lady explained everything i needed to know, and the rest of it followed and was just building off that premise.
Or maybe you're just dumb. Just saying.
I've seen this movie four times now and can say confidently that it becomes less disjointed and more enjoyable everytime. I had a vague idea of what was going on my first time in the theater, but still enjoyed it a lot. To me it's effective on every level, yet another great addition to Nolans filmography. Bravo sir !
glad you like it.
Thank you. I subscribed. You do NOT know how hard it's been to find just ONE intelligent negative review. After watching Tenet last night, shocked by how horrible it was, I did a TH-cam search and skimmed over 30 reviews, all of them either (A) attempting to gaslight me into thinking i need to rewatch it and that I'm dumb, or (B) saying that THEY (the reviewer) didn't really like it or "get" it because THEY are dumb. So thank you for respecting the audience and my intelligence by articulating that this was a poorly written script by an auteur who just doesn't care all that much about emotional impact and character growth.
you're welcome. A critic's judgment is the least interesting part of a review. If I can help you to observe and think through what's in a film, we can wildly disagree and yet you can gain something valuable.
I was gobsmacked by how much I didn't care about the protagonist. And I tried so hard to root for him.
I think people are afraid to point out the faults and plot holes of the movie.
Great comment!
@@blakealtonen9858 my friend enjoy the movie.
Thanks for a review that perfectly articulates what I suspect many of us felt about this Nolan movie.
Tenet not only is the worst of Nolan's films, it somehow manages to step into the past and cheapen his previous works.
It felt like I was watching a parody of a Nolan film. And what is with Nolan's inability to make dialogue audible? Beginning with The Dark Knight, audio tracks have been de-prioritized over the music and sound effects, compounded by actors who are often wearing oxygen masks.
thanks. I wish it were a parody of a Nolan film, but unfortunately it is not unintentionally funny, as a lot of bad to mediocre science fiction is.
The main character did something I thought was interesting... when he used the word “Entropy” I remembered that his dad Denzel Washington said the same word when asking for an explanation of... you guessed it, Time Travel mechanics in the movie “Deja Vu”. Which is actually a way better overall film than Tenet haha
oh yeah, forgot about that. Deja Vu.
Yes! Love Deja Vu. Triangle also does a better job than this movie with a similar concept.
Yo, I just watched this movie today with my friend and on the way home I told him the movie Deja vu where the main actor’s dad stars is a much better film than the Tenet. Hahaha
@Meta Man
You’re trying to hard dude.
Deja Vu is one of the stupidest time travel movies, it's innovative I give you that, but silly and still with a silly concept manages to be more engaging than Tenet.
I cursed 6 times out of confusion...
6 is just average.
I kept telling my wife, what the fuck?
I think the biggest problem with Tenet is that you have to push through about 2/3rds of the way before the initial part of the movie makes any sense. Once that switch is flicked it actually becomes very satisfying. I rememeber coming out of the theatre and bitching about it, but then I found myself kinda working through it all day and eventually decided it's Nolans best - easily.
The reversed linearity thing is a cool concept that really hasn't been explored much in the last few decades and the concept of a temporal pincer movement is super intriguing. Then you add in all the stuff you would have initially missed in the film and it becomes pretty cool. I like the fact that 80 percent of the movie occurs within two 10 minute chunks.
I'm glad you like it. thank you.
It took me a few months to get around to watching it, but I thought Tenant was a mess! My wife asked me repeatedly what was going on, but I only had a vague idea myself. To me Looper would be a better movie to watch instead.
exactly.
I thought Looper was poor as well. It didn't do time travel good at all. This was about as bad as this. It was ok to watch but I walked away disappointed. The Netflix series Dark is much much better time travel experience. Is hard to follow but all makes sense and everything is there if you want to piece it together. Tenent you have to start making massive leaps and assumptions about what you don't see.
Just a jarring experience. The audio fights against the dialogue, the exposition fights against the pacing, the concept fights against character development. Everything was at war with itself, and although I won't give my review up until I watch it a second time with subtitles, in my house... It wasn't the same sense of understanding I had leaving Inception, it just felt frustrating. Should of added another hour or so to the movie.
that's a good way to put it. thank you.
@Nik Kingman 👍, you’re right, maybe I just lack big brain Nolan fan IQ and should chalk up similar overall criticisms of this movie to the viewers just being dumb.
I got the movie, It’s pretty upfront in what it is trying to say, the mix and the pacing just sucks.
“Everything in the universe will come to an end”
“Including my son...”
"no way, Bill."
"yes way, Ted."
Yes, her character was just excruciating. Really hoped she would die after getting shot in reverse, which was supposed to be like a super awful and lethal thing. But instead it did fuckall because plot convenience.
We need more of this level of articulation when criticizing a movie! Yes, we need critics! Great video!!
thank you.
I admit, I am a huge Nolan fanboy, but a lot of your criticisms are true. I just got home from the theater. There were several scenes where I literally could not understand what the characters were saying due to the sound mixing. Also, your criticism of the characters is also valid - impersonal and flat - the only lively protagonist was Pattinson imo. I felt the film was also off in its pacing - the first half of the film kind of drags along but at the same time they're jumping around from location to location meeting all kinds of new characters and there's very little introduction as to who these people are and why they're important. Even with all of my criticisms, I felt the second half of the film was a big pay-off. You gave it a pretty bad score. I'd give a 4 which is like a B (which is what I would give a lot of movies: I liked them but they're not the best of all time). I found it enjoyable and will rewatch but it's definitely not one of Nolan's best movies. I'm probably giving it a half star more than it deserves bc its Nolan and I just saw it.
I feel that a rewatch of Tenet is necessary. After I have allowed the film to simmer a bit in my mind and also to try and piece together some of the more confusing aspects of the film (or try to make out the parts I literally could not hear).
probably this is a fine watch-it-on-a-plane to pass the time movie. that way not hearing dialogue is excused. would be happy to read your additional thoughts.
@@LearningaboutMovies to be honest, the sound mixing was inexcusable. In particular, for me, the scene following the car chase where the antagonist is talking to the protagonist from behind the glass, I could not understand a single word that was said. It was confusing bc I wasn't sure if it was just muffled or if their speech was in reverse (bc of the time element). I thought maybe it was just me bc I can be hard of hearing sometimes but as I see more people mentioning it in reviews, it seems to be a major flaw in the film. As for the dialogue being lots of exposition, I felt at times it was necessary bc once the time travel element comes into play, the pace really picks up (probably too fast at times). I think the film could have benefited from being longer bc it feels like a lot of story is crammed into 2.5 hours - this would allow them to flesh out characters more and allow us to absorb & process some of the more intense time travel logic scenes. I think a rewatch of the film is necessary to see how it ages.
Sator collecting artifacts for the algorithm to end the world is Thanos collecting infinity stones no?
although Sator only had the modest goal of destroying the Earth. Thanos was all in on blowing up half the universe. When you are collecting MacGuffins to cause total destruction, go big.
@@LearningaboutMovies Well, only one's a titan, the other merely a titan of Russian industry.
100% agree. Masked people couldnt really hear wtf they were saying. But doesnt really matter as no one knew wtf was going on in this movie anyway.
heh. thanks.
Even though I loved this movie, I have to give you a like cause that comment actually made me laugh.
Finally someone with guts to do an honest review, thanks.
courage is Chuck Yeager. thanks though.
Why are you talking as if other people’s reviews are dishonest?
Really enjoyable video. Would watch again! Unlike Tenet.
Also, loved your reference to Live Die Repeat... totally underrated movie.
thank you. we just rewatched Live Die Repeat, and it is well done in just about every way.
Isn't the movie called "Edge of Tomorrow"?
@@majimasmajimemes1156 It was called that in the theatrical release... but the studio meddled and renamed it for the DVD release.
I found an article about it: www.slashfilm.com/why-edge-of-tomorrow-got-retitled-live-die-repeat/
It initially confused me, too!
The sound mixing was not good at all. I thought it was the theater I was in but every video and person that has seen it so far has said the same. It did not do the movie well at all.
I had no idea what I watched when I finished it...I love Christopher Nolan films but I was disappointed that it was so confusing. I will give it another watch. The ending was interesting with Neil and The Protagonist. But I felt like it was more about the visuals than anything.
I agree. Nolan is worth a second viewing or another try.
I completely agree, sorry you're being hammered on the downvotes. I am a time travel fiction obsessive and love Nolan's other movies, but this was just incoherent gibberish aside from a few scenes.
dislikes are nothing. The NPCs are coming out in the comments, trying to waste my time with stupidities galore.
agreed. thank you.
Just because you cannot comprehend it it doesnt mean it is incoherent
Nolan Batman fanboys.
HξζΙΧ the movie wasn’t hard to comprehend, it was hard to follow. i’ve seen it three times now and have read plenty of different takes on the film. i understand every little intricacy of the plot and themes, this movie just isn’t that deep, it’s unnecessarily convoluted, filled with needless exposition, and fails to substantially develop relationships between any of the characters. Maybe you’re the one who doesn’t understand it and that’s why you find it so fascinating, dig deep and you’ll find there wasn’t much to understand in the first place. it’s pointless.
And I like the film quite a bit LMAO i personally find the experimental narrative structure interesting to an extent but your comment is just plain stupid.
Nolan loves doing fancy stuff, that makes his fanboys go crazy. To understand him you really only need to watch The Prestige. He is the "magician" that wants to awe his audience, even if almost all of it is just cheap party tricks, and Tesla is nowhere to be found. Tenet is basically just a spy movie (he loves the Bond movies), with lots of unnecessary time travel garbage piled on top of it.
The characters are relatable, because they are trying to save the world and put their own lives at risk - other than that, there's not too much. The woman of course has motivation to be with her son, but they didn't show much of that relationship at all. Also the Protagonist doesn't see much of it, so I totally get that it's a bit unbelievable how much he cares - I think they should have developed that better. But I think the reason why the backstory of the Protagonist is missing is because of the ending (not gonna spoil it here) so I was fine with that.
I mistrusted Robert Pattinson's character at first, because of what happened in the hallway, but later on I realised I was in the same situation the Protagonist was: ignorance is part of the whole deal. I really liked the ending scene by the helicopter and felt the emotional impact.
I love the idea, I love how it got me hooked from the first time we saw a bullet fly backwards - I have to add: I went in with zero expectations in terms of plot, I saw a teaser once but forgot about it and avoided the trailers successfully.
I think it is definitely worth watching - I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy it.
thank you. great comment.
"Trying to save the world" is not characterisation. It's plot. Characterisation is "okay, but WHO is this person trying to save the world? WHY are they specifically trying to save it? Why should I care about them as people?"
casbyness As I see it, Nolan relies on our human nature. We naturally care about our fellow men, as we are social beings. It was enough for me to care for the characters. Besides, I think we have forgotten to see art as such. Did we always have multidimensional characters and character development in historic literature that is nowadays considered to be good? No...
Saying they are heroes doesn't make them relatable.
@@imansolms6609 Meh, pop psychology apparently doesn't work for most people in the real world, if you don't develop you characters it doesn't matter how great you say they are. The movie talks about "feeling it", but it certainly doesn't "feel" they are saving the world, Princess Bride did a much better job at that. And that is reflected by the reviews, if people liked the characters or engaged in the story, people wouldn't say they don't like it because "it's hard to understand". Memento was praised and much harder to get than Tenet. Tenet has a very chice-ridden plot once you've seen a couple of time travel movies, so you know what to expect as the guy in the video said: the twists are that the movie tries to play obvious things as twists hah
I absolutly agree with your assessement. And the sound editing was awful, everyone whispers pseudo-meaningful dialogue and than BOOOM loud Soundeffects!
thanks.
Just saw it, and the whole time I was thinking, my soul for some closed captions. I could barely hear the words, I had no idea who they were, where they were, when they were. Most characters have a Europia accent and mumble, so it was super confusing. I saw Inception in theaters and kept track of reality and 4 dream levels, but this was a jumbled mess. 3/10
yes, exactly, Inception and even Memento are comprehensible to anybody willing to engage with them. Part of the reason is strong enough character development and clear answers to the questions of why the characters are motivated, things which Tenet lacks.
@@LearningaboutMovies Memento is one of my all time favorites, but inception was similar garbage to this one imo. It was trying to be deep too much and made the experience worse. Even south park made fun of it. 😆
Great review. I felt the same way about all the points you mentioned.
- too much verbal exposition
- not enough character development
- cringed at the mention of grandfather paradox
- the mention from one character to another which was meta-communication to the audience ("sit back and don't think too much about it.)
They almost made it seem like a non-traditional time travel movie by mentioning physics and how the bullets worked. Then it just became a time travel movie. With convenient physics added in as plot armor for the protagonist. Like fire behaving like ice. That wasn't needed.
thank you.
Yeah the "hypothermia from a gasoline explosion" part was dumb.
100% spot on review
thanks.
Idk why you got so many dislikes. I loved the movie but all of your critiques are 100% valid. It’s as if someone can’t have a different opinion. Anyways great review.
it's just typical barbarians and psychopaths. I am hand-curating a blocklist of them. Hopefully, dating services are also banning them, lest they reproduce.
Was very excited for this movie, but found it to be the most frustrating and confusing movie ever. Just wanted to go home the last 30 minutes or so.
me too.
Ha not enough marvel for you
MadBigRobotJox There is a lot in between marvel and that. In my opinion neither develop characters very good so I guess you can relate them.
@@ForceOfLightEntertainment That pseudo intellectual baffoon wanted to insult you for his lord Nolan because you have an opinion that shatters his illusion. Ignore him.
jarab1212 Thank you! On my channel we did a review of this too. Some of the Nolan fanboys are obnoxious haha
This would’ve been an amazing TV show. Not enough time for the audience to understand what was going on
a spy TV show where the heroes invert -- maybe.
Tenet was a terrible movie to watch. I really disliked it for all the reasons you stated. Problem with Nolan is that it has crazy fans defending it as if it’s their first born child.
Nolan could start a religion, as there's the seeds of one already present.
Exactly. Same as inception imo. I loved Memento, interstellar and batman btw
Thank you for giving an honest review.
you are welcome.
Honest = he said what i like to hear
@@bryannepeguero4953 Honest as in he's not afraid to criticize thou lord Christopher Nolan.
@@bryannepeguero4953 that's honesty for you? what a petty being...
Point of view and not a review.
I have no degree in quantum physics, but thanks to a film called "Amici miei" in english "My friends" I can recognize a supercazzola. Now I explain what a supercazzola is.
Supercazzola in Italian means: Meaningless sentence pronounced
with conviction in order to confuse the interlocutor.
In speech you can also use made up words that mean nothing, but you must do it with absolute conviction.
yes, Star trek is filled with supercazzolas. God bless the Italians.
The funny thing is, I kinda liked the idea of infusing things with tachyons would reverse the timearrow.... but relating it to fission was bull. And well, the rest was also bull.
The real question here is: Can a building which has been destroyed both forwards and backwards in time ever be built?
that is the classic time-loop paradox that the entire movie is based on.
Or, as I like to call it, a 'plot hole.'
It is many questions like this which make these types of movies feel nonsensical and brings out us out of the entertainment
Why not? It was built quite a while before it was destroyed in both forward time and inversion.......
@@Aeneas-aojb Explain how, you smart genius clever guy.
The main character wasn't good in his role either. He tried to be suave and capable but he was neither. And watching him beat up big strong men 1 foot taller than him just wasn't believable.
I watched it a few weeks ago and did not like it. I love most of his movies. One of the things I like about his style is he tries to make you feel the concept of the film. Memento for example has you feeling like you might have short term memory loss. Insomnia had me feeling like I've been up for three days. I think maybe this is what CN might have been going for but to a detriment. The segment of the film I did like was when the protagonist is being educated on what reverse entropy is and I kind of wanted to know more, but the film just unveiled into an awkward action movie. It was a disappointment.
BTW, have you ever seen Time after time. HG Wells chasing Jack the Ripper through time. Liked that better than this, and I'm not a big fan of time travel movies.
right. Dunkirk makes you feel claustrophobic. Batman Begins makes you feel paranoid and suffering delusions. (The seed of Inception is in Batman Begins with what Ra's Al-Ghul and Scarecrow combined are doing to Gotham).
No, I haven't seen that! Good recommendation.
Thank you, i actually did turn to my friend after about 30 minutes and say “I have no idea what’s going on.”
I have never hated a movie as much as I hate this one. I was actually angry after seeing it it was so bad. Not engaging or entertaining or understandable at all. I was bored to tears, bored to anger the entire time. Couldn’t even get my phone out to look at memes. I felt like Elaine watching the English Patient the whole time: I HATE IT!!
I am going to guess you are a female. not that your comment couldn't come from anybody, it's just that this review has triggered a social experiment, where it's clear that young males and isolate adult males who loved this movie and attack everybody else as "dumb" for not loving it show that they do not sufficiently understand anyone but themselves.
I know that almost everybody I know would simply not care for this movie, and I would bet money on it. This review is for them, and by extension normal people like you. thank you.
Yes this movie is AWFUL I HATED this movie the MOST
I just saw it and I literally decided to go to sleep because I was so fucking lost fam. I woke up to the sound of a building exploding. The sound mixing is even worse🤢🤢
I think the one-note aspect of the characters was an intentional characterisation considering the main character has no name and calls himself the “protagonist”. Considering Inception may have been about filmmaking itself, Tenet might have similar meta textual themes, which in my opinion justify some of the aspects that you criticise as actually being clever and interesting. Also, I’m not sure the film’s time travel element are so easily dismissable. I mean Nolan did consult with a group of actual physicists after all, though I’ve got no scientific expertise to be fair
this is all possible. The question is why name that character the Protagonist, right? In what way is the movie a comment on stories or protagonists in general? Given that it involved so much action, and repetition of scenes, I'm not sure it really was. Perhaps the "meta" hints are just MacGuffins. But, I await an analysis that makes sense of that question.
Learning about Movies that’s completely fair. I guess its all about how much you’re willing to trust that Nolan wasn’t just blowing smoke with this one. I’m awaiting such an analysis myself, but I’m definitely not the guy to do it, one of the main reasons for that being that I also had major audio issues with all the whispering and that. There’s probably gonna be a lot of armchair philosophising about the film though so we’ll have to carefully sift through that which isn’t gonna be fun haha
Learning about Movies by the way I appreciate you taking the time to respond in the kind way you did! I want to say that I respect your opinion. Contrarian voices on Tenet are appreciated
I saw the one-note aspect as one of many callbacks to the classic Bond formula - sure Bond has greatly evolved/was given backstory in recent years but until Craig, we never really knew his personal history.
After watching this movie, its almost like Christopher Nolan played The Mirror Universe side quest from the game CONTROL, and decided that should be a movie.... That mission story line is almost identical.
that's interesting. I'll take a look at that -- good reference.
I'm new to this channel, but I'm hooked. You nailed this review and now have me thinking I was too generous (I ripped the characters, maybe landed at like a 6/10 which is low for me). Nolan was huge for my cinefile development but this was just such a mess. I'm very happy you brought up Primer. IMO it's easily the best time travel movie and just so so so so good at everything it does. Tenet is huge and Primer is so reserved and compact. And talk about a movie that doesn't think it's audience is dumb!
6/10 is reasonable. I say stick with Nolan; I'll still be at the premiere of his next movie. Thank you for subscribing and I hope to keep hearing from you.
@@LearningaboutMovies Oh, I watch too many movies to give up on him entirely haha. I also loved your review on I'm Thinking of Ending Things. Very sharp stuff.
@Meta Man I admire his originality and desire to push cinema forward. And I am planning to rewatch it when I can and see if my thoughts change, and they well might. At the end of the day it really comes down to what one wants in a movie, and Tenet didn't deliver much of what I wanted in a movie. But maybe with subtitles it will be better.
This is a great review. No bullshit... all unfiltered opinions u had watching the movie... I was contemplating whether it was a good movie or not, which itself shows how much of a mess this movie was...
Dunkirk at least made use of the visceral experience more skillfully than Tenet (which justified the use of blaring sound effects, the shaky camera and distorted time periods based on the setting). This film is uncompromisingly Nolan but felt more like a chore to get through rather than an exciting experience...
Honesty is easier; you don't have to remember your lies or care what other people believe.
yes, agreed.
I’ve never agreed with a review more. You’ve Nailed everything!
thank you.
Could not hear the dialogue. Watched it in a Dolby cinema with extremely good sound system but dialogue was drowned out by the movie soundtrack. I found it impossible to care about any of the characters or figure out what was happening while I was watching it so there was no dramatic tension to any of the big fight scenes, just a lot of noise and explosions. Worst movie Nolan has made by far.
yes, exactly.
@Michael Fraser- Took the words right out of my mouth
I too noticed that the dialogue was hard to hear
You should check out "Timecrimes", a Spanish movie from 2007. It's pretty brilliant. Does what Tenet thinks it's doing but with a fraction of the budget and interesting characters you actually care about.
great, thank you very much.
Ive seen it great movie
Love that movie!
That's one of the best time travel movies.
Yeah Timecrimes does what Tenet attempts but fails: to put you right in the middle of the plot without explanation.
well articulated, thumbs up and a sub! I think the visual is enjoyable but narrative is a mess, also funny side note, no one in my country talks about background sound louder than dialogue, because we watch movie with sub, and I didn't notice that myself when I watch it aswell!
thank you.
I watched the movie at home with subtitles as English is my second language. I had to change the volume about 30 times during the movie cause it was either too high or too low. It definitely made the experience even less pleasurable.
Its a good point you made......imagine Inception with zero Leo backstory, or Interstellar with zero Matthew backstory, and those films become bad films really fast.
exactly. Plus no emotional tension for the main character, like Interstellar and Inception have. We don't have any good reason to believe the Protagonist has a care about the female lead in this movie.
I can't express how much I hated this movie. Allow me to save you 3 hours and $14. TENET is about four very bored people with no names, expensive clothes, and blank expressions who run backward, drive backward, and spend LOTS of time on boats. Michael Caine pops in for lunch and things blow up, but you won't understand why...or care. The End.
$14 is what they are charging for IMAX?? They need to do better than Tenet then.
@@LearningaboutMovies it's actually $18 here but I have an AMC membership and get discounts.
Hey, I think your review is on point. The story is built entirely around its high concept and is basically an excuse to display on screen some (supposedly) mind-bending action scenes. Problem is: 1/ the time reversal shown to us doesn't really make sense; 2/ Nolan ignored everything else: characters, themes, etc. So we end up with an overly serious movie that has nothing interesting to say about anything.
yes, exactly.
I think Tenet sucked for multiple reasons. I bought the Blu-Ray and consider it a waste of money.
Muffled dialog and turning on subtitles reveals simplistic exposition and little actual story.
I sincerely hope he doesn't/didn't fuque up Oppenheimer with his "I know what their saying" attitude!
After seeing it... yeah, I’m with you. First half was unforgivably boring and convoluted. Second half had no stakes, and I feel they didn’t do nearly enough with the gimmick.
I could be wrong, but I just wanted to see more backwards stuff in the early parts of the movie. Could it have been rescued if they went back to the past early in the movie? Not sure, but it took them 100 minutes to finally do that.
You should understand that there's only so much you can show of the "gimmick" and for them to squeeze it in the film while trying to move the plot, when they are literally showing you people travelling back through time, unlike every other time travel movie which shows you people "poofing" from future to past and vice versa, which obviously saves a shit ton of time. Not really hard to understand.
Tenet is so boring that you will walk back in time just to stop yourself from watching the movie. I am not joking.
I wish it weren't so.
It was such a stupid, boring, convoluted movie. At the end of it me and my brother were like "wait a minute; was this whole movie TRYING to waste our time and insult our intelligence?" . Honestly this is the same feeling I get from every Nolan movie (almost every movie.. some aren't as treacherous).. It feels so pretentious and overcomplicated and it treats you so stupidly that it feels like there's something your missing, like it's trying to subvert your expectations, but no, it just thinks that your dumb enough that the "fantastically intelligent" science-y stuff is going to blow your mind... Absolutely NO room to make fun of itself.. at all. No humor; incredibly self-serious...
That said, I DID love Batman 2 (the joker one) when it came out when I was about 18.. and loved it for years.. (but now, going back to it, although the opening scene and first third or so are excellent, it gets dumb and unwatchable and cliched by the time you get near the end)... I also liked Interstellar a lot at first but going back I had the same issues... I didn't MIND Oppenheimer... But again, it was overcomplicated, NO HUMOR and all the other issues to varying degrees (talk about exposition... no pun intended)..
I hate Nolan. Maybe I wouldn't hate him so much but the fact that everyone LOVES him, both the audience, the critics, and the industry, makes me feel a responsibility to make it explicit how distasteful I find him.. I mean c'mon, if you could at least make fun of yourself A LITTLE bit it would be helpful...
I tend to not like spectacle movies (although some that you might call spectacle are very enjoyable to me...I liked Dune 2.. and like Denis.. although I do have problems with him too, ones which you've mentioned too) and I especially dislike Nolan because he is often spectacle masquerading as Cinema.. I don't want our resources going these people.
Thanks for coming to my talk.
This movie literally made my brain hurt
time travel does that.
The entire climax of the movie I was asking myself, who put together this gargantuan teams of Call of Duty reject? Why is half inverted, why was that needed? Who they were fighting against? And most importantly, why would everyone die if the main bad guy died even by natural circumstances?! What a goddamn mess of a movie.
exactly. has anyone figured out that final battle army? probably but because it is so unclear to the audience, I don't find it successful even if the esoteric nature of it is explainable.
I think they're fighting against crumbling buildings and maybe time itself? I had a similar reaction to Mockingjay Part 2, another stinker. If the imperial army is so much more powerful than the rebels, where is it and why do they rely on the weirdest traps that destroy the city further?
There's a saying, the cunningly concealed is better than the wholly revealed. Its a film that is meant to make you think but a lot of the time they didnt cunningly conceal stuff from you, they just threw a whole lot of stuff at you. And some stuff they only show you for a half a second but its essential to the story. And when they throw a lot of unnecessary stuff on top like sometimes calling the weapon, plutonium and sometimes the algorithm so you never really know what the threat is and how it works. Having said that i have watched the film a few times to see how it knits together or is supposed to knit together. In the end its a film you can argue about and discuss endlessly about so many things in it. So its a bit of a love/hate film for me.
the reversed walking and running made me laugh so many times that i couldnt take this movie 100% seriously
it should've been in a Buster Keaton comedy.
Yeah the rewind scenes were so laughable, Nolan should go to jail for this clusterF***
Just watched it last night and as much as I don’t want to say it, you are right in many aspects about this movie. Christopher Nolan directed Interstellar which is one of my favorite movies of all time and it was really disappointing to see one of my favorite directors swing and miss so hard. Shame.
I didn't want to say it either. Always want to report that a movie's great and you should try it. Definite bummer.
Interstellar was a low point in my opinion, so it's just been a descending trend, and tbh not that much of a fan anymore.
Omg!!! Thank you for this honest review. You articulated exactly what I felt after watching this movie. It made no sense at all and the background sounds and music were annoying af. Highly disappointed. Do not recommend.
you're welcome.
I had a feeling it was a dud. Nolan is turning out to be a one trick pony. Everything is about time. Somehow someway.
and the weird or impossible idea that the future can somehow aid the past. which depends on the Grandfather paradox. That was in Interstellar, too.
So cool that you mentioned “Primer!” Would like to rewatch it, maybe with my teenage daughter.
that's a good one for teenagers I think.
Oh, good. It’s been so long since I’ve seen it but remember thinking it was clever and entertaining!
Just watched Tenet today; I must say this is a super accurate review of the experience....totally shared same feeling about this particular movie while still loving Nolan’s previous work.
thank you.
Just saw Tenent and now I’m deaf. Love Nolan and 100% agree with your review. Agreed, 1.5 out of 5. Subscribed.
thanks. I hope your hearing comes back.
100% agreed with your review. We have to call a spade a spade. Christopher Nolan movies are great but this one was a convoluted mess.
thank you. I think this movie has proved successful with a narrow young-male demographic interested in action and concepts. I get that, and if I were 16, I would be right with them. (in fact I was, once.) and yet, I don't think this movie is good art.
Movie was so bad, so many scenes seemed unnecessary, he met R Patz, to meet an Indian woman, to meet Michael Cain to meet the wife character. Couldn’t all that exposition be given 1 or 2 characters rather than 4 back to back. Conversations seemed unnatural.
I wish it all weren't so.
As someone who loves time traveling movies (12 Monkeys, Predestination, The Jacket, Looper, About Time, Edge of Tomorrow, Back to the Future, and possibly my favorite one being Primer), I enjoyed Tenet and felt like it brought something new to the Time Travel genre. Rather than just going back in time and doing something (as with most time travel movies), you have inversion instead, where time is flowing backwards for inverted objects or people.
The plot itself wasn't overly complex because they explain a lot of what happens before the end of the movie, and you got the general idea of it. It's not the antagonist who is sending himself weapons, it's hundreds of years in the future, a group of people sent him some gold and instructions on how to make one of those Inverter machines and assemble an apocalyptic weapon with the 9 relics.
When something is inverted, it flows through time backwards to you or me, but if a human is inverted, they view the world as going backwards, because they are flowing backwards in time. This is the "time travel" aspect. It's not a walk through a time machine and end up in the past, it's walk into a machine and the rest of the world flows backwards for you. You still age, the rest of the world just gets younger, and this lets people "travel back in time." It's similar to how Primer handles time traveling. So, if you see something moving oddly, such as things "falling" up, then something is about to get inverted. The movie focuses on these moments pretty often, so when you see rubbles of concrete rumble and move upwards, then it's probably part of an inverted explosion that's about to happen. That's the "feel it" part.
I'd agree on not being able to hear a lot of dialogue, but I've always watched movies with subtitles so that probably helped a lot. Also, I didn't felt much for the characters other than Neil.
Lastly, no offense, but if you thought that this movie had a difficult plot to follow and the time traveling aspect was confusing, then I'm pretty sure you don't really understand Primer's timeline. Most people think they do the first time around, but they really don't. I've always felt that Primer, by far, has the most difficult to understand plot and timeline as most of it is happening off screen and you have to make a lot more assumptions and connecting the dot. Tenet is somewhere closer to Predestination in terms of complex time travel plots.
excellent. thank you for engaging with what the video actually said. I have responded to your points many times elsewhere in the comments. just know that I appreciate very much your thoughtfulness.
I love this movie from the first minutes, but I do understand that entropy is not for everyone to enjoy.
I think in order to enjoy the movie, you have to understand the physics behind it. At least the general concept of entropy and its relation with the flow of time.
I'm no scientist but I'm always fascinated with time. I've been wondering what it was like to be a positron, how the world would seem like. Now someone made a movie about it, and I was blown away. Although it's not so scientifically accurate, like: how can you see anything if you're inverted and the photons moving away from you? Or worse, shouldn't your atoms get annihilated the first time they're in contact with inverted matter?
Yes, I agree, and Tenet is not a bad time travel movie, if you are a fan of the genre you probably have seen much worse, most are. But it's not good, and people expecte more from Nolan, but should have known better after Inception and then Interstellar which were steps down from his previous work.
Interstellar itself has very bad space travel physics, it fails at basic stuff like not understanding what a slingshot maneuver is, but people pretend "IT'S SO ACCURATE" because it replicated a scientific rendering of a black hole and used a real star database for their backdrops.
This movie is awful, the best thing about it was the music.
And I say this as someone who loved many Nolan movies (Memento, Interstellar, even Insomnia etc.)
many have said this here.
Meta Man indeed, this movie is crap.
Nolan made a complicated movie that solely relies on the characters explaining what's going on through their dialogue, but decided to suppress the dialogue track and make everything else in the movie loud as f**k. I mean why even bother making it, unless it's a cheap trick for repeat audience. Ridiculous. #FireTheSoundGuy
it is completely perplexing why the sound has to be this way. Should be perfect -- there's no excuse for anything less than that. Perhaps it will be different if I watch it with headphones, but that's not what ordinary moviegoers experience.
Thanks for your well-articulated review. I saw Tenet in a non-IMAX theatre and, apart from the aerofoils scene, I didn’t face issue with the sound mixing.
After two rewatches, I think one of the best ways to approach this film is to treat it like a giant crossword puzzle that is set in the spy-fi realm. This way, I intentionally didn’t care about the characters because I knew I had to treat them like pieces within the puzzle. This enabled the ‘inversion’ concept to act as the true star of this film, with every character facing different consequences upon interacting with the turnstile.
That’s just my take, but I appreciate the level of detail you went into with this review.
thank you. good advice, and it makes sense to me that the concept is the real star.
@@pedroornelas2983 You’re spot on with your analysis.
I’m not really a movie guy myself but this is one of the worst movies I’ve seen in quite awhile. The movie is trying to tell a complex narrative involving a time loop and that never goes well imo. The music blocking out the words of the characters also makes the narrative needlessly hard to follow. I turned my head towards my friends to ask them what was going on and they didn’t know because of how little sense the movie makes. I also never got why the protagonist was so fixated on the women and why he cared so much for her. That seems pretty forced in. Also apparently the British dude was her son? You r supposed to be able to tell because of the key chain but they make no attempts to draw your attention towards it till the end. I feel like you took my problems with the movie and expressed it pretty well. I really felt like I wasted money on this movie.
I'm sorry they wasted your money. It stinks, and I wish these movie studios would allow refunds in good faith, as pretty much every other corporation selling a product does.
Insomnia, Memento, and following are the only Christopher Nolan films I like. Dunkirk looks great but it's boring, and all of his other films look ugly for me.
I dont know why but films like Interstellar and Inception just look ugly to me. I suspect it's the greyish color pallette.
My second major problem with Nolan films is that I feel they're just pseudo-intellectuals. They put on a pseudo philosophy that give the appearance of depth when there really isn't much.
Just watched it. Agree 200% with you. In fact, my partner just said it’s scary how much of what you said is what I was complaining on our way back home. I feel validated 😌
great minds ...