Tenet – Film Review

Christopher Nolan wants to be the “Savior of Cinema” when it comes to releasing “Tenet.” I can understand a filmmaker wanting to preserve the theatrical experience — but Nolan may be his own worst enemy when it comes to making a film. This film I would say can be viewed at home — it’s just bogged down by bad audio. Sometimes during the film, I wasn’t sure why certain scenes were happening and what the overall narrative was of the story. That is not a good thing. Aside from those issues, I do think the film is good and does what it can to be an original story.

The casting of John David Washington, Robert Pattison, and Elizabeth Debecki are great in their lead roles. Kenneth Branagh oddly plays a Russian villain similar to “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)” which I thought was weird. I wish that John David Washington got to have a character name other than “The Protagonist.” To me, it felt a little lazy when it comes to film making. Especially during the #BlackLivesMatter movement, it felt tone-deaf to not change that in post to say his name once.

All I have for you is a word: Tenet. It’ll open the right doors, some of the wrong ones too.

John David Washington does the best that he can throughout this film and he does keep you engaged when you can hear the story. The action set pieces are definitely more impactful knowing what went into the filming of many of them. Some of them are filmed in reverse and forwards at the same time. It definitely does make you think about how they filmed that without using CGI. The time inversion rules felt clearly explained — the third act usage of them was not very clear. I got a bit confused about the whole plot of the third act, honestly. A quick read over the Wikipedia article helped me understand how pedestrian the actual plot was to be able to follow what happened.

I may seem more negative in this overall review in comparison to how I feel about the movie. I did enjoy it quite a bit. It’s a fun ride, definitely a popcorn movie. I think once you’ve seen the film once and read the synopsis you’ll be able to watch it a second time with more enjoyment. I personally wouldn’t rush to see this in a theater unless you felt inclined. I think when it hits the rental market it will be something you will watch more than once.

8/10

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