Review of Tenet (2020) by Lennoxana — 05 Sep 2020

Truly awful. While I like Interstellar, Batman and Dunkirk, this movie is not only unnecessarely complex; it's also boring, flat, implausable, riddled with plotholes and plagued by samey music and ugly color grading.

Next to that, the dialogue is atrocious and exposition only, the badguy is a walking talking eighties USA vs Russia cliché, plot devices are super obvious and action sequences don't work as intended. Sure, a lot is going on on screen, but you, the viewer, have no clue until explanation after the fact. During the movie break I - and many others - contemplated walking out. And if you feel the same, please make that decision. It definitely does not get any better during the 2nd act.

A few remarks and observations:

- The multiple filming locations all over the world mostly seemed unnecessary and a (too) obvious way of showing Nolan wants to shoot a Bond Movie.

- I feel we should not enable directors to put out garbage like this by giving them a pass or even high praise because of 'hype'. Please do not feel like you have to rate this movie highly because it seems smart, because you think it makes you look smart, or because people say Nolan is a genius. It truly isn't a genius movie (The overarching storyline is actually quite simple and childishly naive) and Nolan isn't the Stanley Kubrick of our time. Tenet is an absurd, soulless, overly rational and contrived movie, and if it was meant to save or revive cinema we'd better start writing our goodbyes.

- It seems weird to me that most positive reviews only say 'Don't listen to the negative reviews; please watch this movie in theaters, preferably multiple times, because your mind will be blown. Trust me.' First of no, and no that's not true, but also.. Trust you? Is that you, Nolan pr-team? Where are the in-depth positive reviews? Can anyone explain what really is so good about this movie?

The only positive thing about the movie is that Nolan (probably?) tried to come up with something original. However, I feel that letting people risk contracting Covid by going to see this p.o.s. in theaters is really a d-move.