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“Tenet” - 2020, new Christopher Nolan film
- Thread starter JareBear: Remastered
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DigitalScars
Member
I didn't see one either. I felt robbed.
Javthusiast
Banned
Very much enjoyed Tenet. Way easier to understand even after one viewing than many critics or regular people making it out to be.
#Phonepunk#
Banned
im reading some critic reviews, they are up their own asses way more than usual even. both a weird mix of "this movie is incoherent and doesn't make sense" and "this movie isn't very deep". sounds like a bunch of pseudo intellectuals
couldn't critically think about the movie and have to bash it instead.
sounds like a fun spy movie with a twist. maybe i'll see it at a drive in.
couldn't critically think about the movie and have to bash it instead.
sounds like a fun spy movie with a twist. maybe i'll see it at a drive in.
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LoV
Banned
The story is absurd with the whole kill switch and people would just die for no reason to blow up the earth, but it was okay. Robert Pattison was great but not Washington; he felt very flat.
Edit: LoV, apparently something in this is a spolier, so I edited your post and added the appropriate [tags] [/spoiler]
Thanks for saving me the ticket price, I guess.
~ava~
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carlosrox
Banned
I mean maybe if I could understand what the fuck anyone was saying I coulda understood it better.
I celebrated when I could pick out like 2 or 3 words I could understand out of every 20.
I swear to God there was a scene later in the movie where I heard nothing they said except "Opera House" and I was like "I got that! I understood that!".
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Explosive Zombie
Banned
Guys can you maybe put spoilers in spoiler text it literally came out today in America
Reptars Revenge
Member
Oh man this movie was amazing and pretty easy to understand. Thank god the audio was perfect in my theater and there was like 5 people
LoV
Banned
My bad, but it was not really a big spoiler, it was just a setting piece.
Reptars Revenge
Member
That part I thought was interesting because future people really had no option bc their world was fucked (Def a climate change shoutout) and we never see their world. They were like hey send us the coordinates to the alrgorithm and we will grab it and activate it and hopefully reversing the physics of the world does something or kills us all nobody knows
TexMex
Member
I liked it less than every Nolan film except Interstellar, which sounds more negative than I mean because I like or love all his other movies.
Technical level - both visuals and audio - it was completely stunning as expected.
Story was a bit of a convoluted mess. And I freely admit that I had trouble even following what was going on at times, I felt like an idiot. It kept piling on more and more rules and exposition about the world that I was struggling to keep up and at some point it just lost me. It keeps feeding them to you too, right up to the final act to the point where it felt a little up its own ass.
Denzel Jr is a miscast here but I've liked him in other stuff. Pattinson continues to be great. Enjoy watching Kenneth Branagh go almost full crazy Gary Oldman here, he was great.
An overall 7/10 for me.
1. Dark Knight
2. The Prestige
3. Insomnia
4. Inception
5. Batman Begins
6. Dunkirk
7. Rises
8. Memento
9. Tenet
10. Literally anything
11. Interstellar
Technical level - both visuals and audio - it was completely stunning as expected.
Story was a bit of a convoluted mess. And I freely admit that I had trouble even following what was going on at times, I felt like an idiot. It kept piling on more and more rules and exposition about the world that I was struggling to keep up and at some point it just lost me. It keeps feeding them to you too, right up to the final act to the point where it felt a little up its own ass.
Denzel Jr is a miscast here but I've liked him in other stuff. Pattinson continues to be great. Enjoy watching Kenneth Branagh go almost full crazy Gary Oldman here, he was great.
An overall 7/10 for me.
1. Dark Knight
2. The Prestige
3. Insomnia
4. Inception
5. Batman Begins
6. Dunkirk
7. Rises
8. Memento
9. Tenet
10. Literally anything
11. Interstellar
Explosive Zombie
Banned
so I just saw it an IMAX absolutely one of the best Nolan films he continues his streak of masterpieces that started with The Dark Knight.
1. Interstellar
2. Tenet
3. The Dark Knight Rises
4. Inception
5. The Dark Knight
The order of this top five is changed before and it can change again but these are my current feelings.
1. Interstellar
2. Tenet
3. The Dark Knight Rises
4. Inception
5. The Dark Knight
The order of this top five is changed before and it can change again but these are my current feelings.
Sub_Level
wants to fuck an Asian grill.
2 out of 5. Spoiler tag just in case:
- People who said there was less exposition are liars. There's just as much as any other Nolan film, if not more.
- Half the movie is about an abusive relationship that I couldn't have given any less of a shit about.
- Poor sound mix for a movie where the audience absolutely needs all the information given in the dialogue.
- The stuff with the time soldiers at the end was like some goofy videogame.
+ Cool electronic soundtrack. Works extremely well for thrills & action.
- Half the movie is about an abusive relationship that I couldn't have given any less of a shit about.
- Poor sound mix for a movie where the audience absolutely needs all the information given in the dialogue.
- The stuff with the time soldiers at the end was like some goofy videogame.
+ Cool electronic soundtrack. Works extremely well for thrills & action.
TexMex
Member
Completely agree with all of this, especially points 3 and 4.
DonJorginho
Banned
If you watched any of his performances over the past 8 years you wouldn't be so surprised
DonJorginho
Banned
TENET is an amazing film, people are more than entitled to their own opinions and the film does have problems (audio mixing, exposition dumps, pacing)
But TENET gets so much so right for me to be able to not ponder over those mishaps so much. I also feel it is actually quite easy to get the plot of TENET compared to some of Nolan's other works.
Going to include my review I wrote on Letterboxd below, no spoilers in it.
An Aesthetically Pleasing Mindfuck Of Epic Proportions:
TENET is a superb film from the bombastic mind of Christopher Nolan which provides all Cinema Junkies their fix after what seemed a lifetime away from theatres following COVID-19.
The pounding score from Ludwig Göransson compliments the outstanding action scenes that take centre stage in this production, buildings are blown up, car chases unfold, and an actual Boeing jet is crashed into a building, all in reverse and realtime all at once thanks to the amazing concepts of Time explored by Nolan and brought to life by the brilliant VFX work in the film.
A Nolan production wouldn't be worthy of it's status without a balls to the walls narrative and Nolan delivers here with one of his most divisive scripts yet, with twists galore and many mind-blowing concepts to get your head around, it's clear this won't be for everyone. Luckily for me it was a spectacular film and it's plot was one of my favourites from Nolan and in my personal opinion one of his easiest plot's to grasp.
The acting in Tenet is a highlight, with a strong performance from the main lead in John David Washington. But the stars of the film for me personally were Elizabeth Debicki and Robert Pattinson as Cat and Neil, who both delivered great performances in their according roles. Robert was a personal highlight, stealing every scene he was in with wit and charm. Kenneth Branagh was slightly corny as the main antagonist but he does a good enough job where it's never taking too much focus away from the film itself.
The main problems with TENET for me were it's pacing and audio mixing, the pacing at the start of the film really takes the biggest hit where it just feels like Nolan is trying to shove as much exposition down your throat so they can get to the meat of the film. Scene after scene of brief characters interactions with nothing but expository dialogue for the most part really bog the opening 40 minutes or so but the film manages to sort this out after this point.
The audio mixing especially in the film is a major negative, with the music and SFX being set so agonisingly loud at points that the dialogue is drowned underneath all this which really takes away from the whole experience, the music and SFX would have been set at a perfect level if the dialogue audio was also pushed up higher. But Nolan's recent fetish for a low mix with dialogue makes for a rather empty experience at times.
In conclusion, TENET is not a perfect film but is a superb film none the less with such a strong concept explored to a great effect, with amazing setpieces and performances along with one of my favourite musical scores of recent times, which manage to keep the overall package of TENET a great one despite some issues with it's initial pacing and audio mixing.
8/10
But TENET gets so much so right for me to be able to not ponder over those mishaps so much. I also feel it is actually quite easy to get the plot of TENET compared to some of Nolan's other works.
Going to include my review I wrote on Letterboxd below, no spoilers in it.
An Aesthetically Pleasing Mindfuck Of Epic Proportions:
TENET is a superb film from the bombastic mind of Christopher Nolan which provides all Cinema Junkies their fix after what seemed a lifetime away from theatres following COVID-19.
The pounding score from Ludwig Göransson compliments the outstanding action scenes that take centre stage in this production, buildings are blown up, car chases unfold, and an actual Boeing jet is crashed into a building, all in reverse and realtime all at once thanks to the amazing concepts of Time explored by Nolan and brought to life by the brilliant VFX work in the film.
A Nolan production wouldn't be worthy of it's status without a balls to the walls narrative and Nolan delivers here with one of his most divisive scripts yet, with twists galore and many mind-blowing concepts to get your head around, it's clear this won't be for everyone. Luckily for me it was a spectacular film and it's plot was one of my favourites from Nolan and in my personal opinion one of his easiest plot's to grasp.
The acting in Tenet is a highlight, with a strong performance from the main lead in John David Washington. But the stars of the film for me personally were Elizabeth Debicki and Robert Pattinson as Cat and Neil, who both delivered great performances in their according roles. Robert was a personal highlight, stealing every scene he was in with wit and charm. Kenneth Branagh was slightly corny as the main antagonist but he does a good enough job where it's never taking too much focus away from the film itself.
The main problems with TENET for me were it's pacing and audio mixing, the pacing at the start of the film really takes the biggest hit where it just feels like Nolan is trying to shove as much exposition down your throat so they can get to the meat of the film. Scene after scene of brief characters interactions with nothing but expository dialogue for the most part really bog the opening 40 minutes or so but the film manages to sort this out after this point.
The audio mixing especially in the film is a major negative, with the music and SFX being set so agonisingly loud at points that the dialogue is drowned underneath all this which really takes away from the whole experience, the music and SFX would have been set at a perfect level if the dialogue audio was also pushed up higher. But Nolan's recent fetish for a low mix with dialogue makes for a rather empty experience at times.
In conclusion, TENET is not a perfect film but is a superb film none the less with such a strong concept explored to a great effect, with amazing setpieces and performances along with one of my favourite musical scores of recent times, which manage to keep the overall package of TENET a great one despite some issues with it's initial pacing and audio mixing.
8/10
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Explosive Zombie
Banned
In IMAX I thought all the dialogue was loud enough but I'd still miss stuff because of how fast it was said or something like that. Nothing major, though.
Reptars Revenge
Member
I was so happy the audio was perfect where I was at. Shout out to AMC in Tampa. Surprisingly we switched from dolby to regular last minute because of the heat game and I could actually hear everything and there was like 5 people instead of a packed theater
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TriSuit666
Banned
Really enjoyed it, mainly a lot of the concepts are straight ripped out of Quantum Break, even the main conceit and mechanism they use to convey the time component is copied directly. There's also a fair smattering of ideas nicked from Control. Remedy should really ask for some ideas royalties to be honest.
For a Nolan film, it's actually his most linear in terms of plot.
For a Nolan film, it's actually his most linear in terms of plot.
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Explosive Zombie
Banned
I got the impression those are simply some of the more current theories on how time travel would be possible but I did think of Quantum Break as well while watching it. Had it not been a script Nolan had been ironing out for 5 years based on an idea he had been planning for 10 years I'd definitely be more suspicious but he was talking about this around the time of Inception. He also had Kip Thorne review his script of it.
carlosrox
Banned
I was dying for subs during this.
Orpheum
Member
If you watched any of his performances over the past 8 years you wouldn't be so surprised
Yeah i came to the same conclusion yesterday when i talked to a friend about the movie. The dude is really solid in general
Stiflers Mom
Banned
Not much of a Nolan fanboy (liked Prestige and Interstellar, though), but will watch this to support my local cinema...
sol_bad
Member
The ninja farmer
Member
Managed a second trip to see it
Just wow !!!! As usual for Nolan this just expands on another viewing.
some random non spoiler thoughts.
my 2nd 2 cents
Just wow !!!! As usual for Nolan this just expands on another viewing.
some random non spoiler thoughts.
- The use of two colours, not at the end but a theme running through the movie (but I think Nolan missed a trick not using this idea on the ‘cars’)
- The ‘time period’ of the movie (never really picked up on this the first time) and what it says about Nolan’s thoughts on the nature and behaviour of time
- That a lot of the loose ‘pieces’ of the movie play better and had a place over the course of the movie (‘the you don’t drink on the job’ line made much more sense and the arms dealers role in it all)
my 2nd 2 cents
Explosive Zombie
Banned
Okay, serious question for other people here, maybe I just missed this line of dialogue the first time? But the Wikipedia summary claims
did anyone else catch anyone in the movie saying this?
the future is bad because of global warming
Yes. The oceans rise and the rivers dry up. Other than nuclear holocaust, it's the most plausible outcome for why the planet is fucked hundreds of years into the future.
The ninja farmer
Member
the wing mirror in Tallinn. Thought that Was a great example of the threat of moving objects back in time. How it was damaged, before it got clipped in the crash Which then ‘fixed the damage’
Kadayi
Banned
Just got back from seeing it. The sound mix was terrible could barely understand what anyone was saying through most of it. I got the gist of the storyline, for the most part, but honestly, I feel it would have been better served as a high production one-season TV series versus trying to pack all of that into a 2-hour film. Also, Elizabeth Debicki is a stunning looking woman, but goddamn it is she distracting too tall versus pretty much all the men in the film.
sol_bad
Member
Only problem with it being a TV show is budget constraints. A show most likely won't be given a 225 million dollar budget and it will be harder to present the concept through to people. I mean yeah, they could show time reversing in various cheaper ways but I don't think it would have the same impact.
Kadayi
Banned
I don't think the bulk of the money went on special effects versus Nolans OTT practical set-pieces. Dude just needs to make a Bond film and get it out of his system already: -
sol_bad
Member
Maybe when the new James Bond comes aboard he'll get that chance.
That 747 scene though, shit was amazing, my jaw dropped.
What wasn't amazing was the miniature building that double exploded, it looked miniature.
Explosive Zombie
Banned
Sound mixing is one of my favorite things about it, tbh. Though I felt that way about Interstellar and Dunkirk as well. The audio experience of a Nolan film is second to none in my view.
manfestival
Member
I went last night after work. Only 3 people including myself were in theater. They have a guy constantly coming in the theater to patrol and see if we were wearing face masks. As usual, it was ok to be off while eating but on for the rest of the time.
About the movie, I enjoyed it but I think I share the same sentiment with others here saying that this isn't the best work of Nolan. Though it is saying this is the least excellent of the excellent(in my opinion of course). The movie had probably the easiest premise and it was easier to follow compared to many of the other Nolan titles. However, that last major sequence(no spoiler) was hard to follow and admittedly lost me. There were times in the movie where I fell out of belief in the premise. I was also not a fan of the ending but I do want to point out that I really enjoyed the acting across the board. Another issue that I had was that there were times in the movie that I struggled really hard to understand what was being said on screen. While the soundtrack was awesome, the sound mixing was subpar.
About the movie, I enjoyed it but I think I share the same sentiment with others here saying that this isn't the best work of Nolan. Though it is saying this is the least excellent of the excellent(in my opinion of course). The movie had probably the easiest premise and it was easier to follow compared to many of the other Nolan titles. However, that last major sequence(no spoiler) was hard to follow and admittedly lost me. There were times in the movie where I fell out of belief in the premise. I was also not a fan of the ending but I do want to point out that I really enjoyed the acting across the board. Another issue that I had was that there were times in the movie that I struggled really hard to understand what was being said on screen. While the soundtrack was awesome, the sound mixing was subpar.
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Javthusiast
Banned
Bergoglio
Member
Dunkirk proves this.
Subterranean
Member
Haven't seen the movie yet but the soundtrack slaps.
Cosmic Smash
Member
Radical Dreamer
Member
Movie review by Mark Kermode (my favourite movie critic)
Glad he liked it. I'm going to watch it at Sunday. I'm getting excited!
Hopefuly tenet does well in box office.
