I am at once entertained and confounded by Nolan's latest escapade. At its heart, Tenet is an ambitious retelling of the old time travel thriller genre, however it feels convoluted and seems to be deliberately confusing upon first viewing.
After reading an online story beats and some fan theories, while combining them with my own, I've decided to stick with my original rating of 6.5 and perhaps in time it will change.
The movie was shot with sophistication and style, but there are too many plot contrivances with narrative bogged down by the weight of its own logic and inability to be coherent.
The sound and dialogue seem to be designed to make it hard for viewers to understand and thus enjoy the story arcs and its conclusion. Characters were talking with heavy accents, behind masks and exposition upon exposition that were dominated by the background music or sound effects.
And like Nolan's recent movies, Tenet is almost bereft of emotion, where he seems to delight in the technicality of his sci-fi world more than telling a good story. There are drama and violence for sure but they were delivered with such cold precision and calculated structure that the amazing action pieces actually takes away from the story's cohesiveness.
And by the time you reach the final act, either you are on board and are in awe with Nolan's masterpiece or totally dumb founded and feel the entire movie is one good looking mess that works only in his mind.
Nolan makes incredible and thought-provoking movies but for me, his last truly great movie was Inception. And I feel that it has been a steady decline in storytelling quality and an increase of cold logic/technicality.
In essence, Tenet is a revisit of Memento but on steroid. The muscles have taken over the healthy man within.
After reading an online story beats and some fan theories, while combining them with my own, I've decided to stick with my original rating of 6.5 and perhaps in time it will change.
The movie was shot with sophistication and style, but there are too many plot contrivances with narrative bogged down by the weight of its own logic and inability to be coherent.
The sound and dialogue seem to be designed to make it hard for viewers to understand and thus enjoy the story arcs and its conclusion. Characters were talking with heavy accents, behind masks and exposition upon exposition that were dominated by the background music or sound effects.
And like Nolan's recent movies, Tenet is almost bereft of emotion, where he seems to delight in the technicality of his sci-fi world more than telling a good story. There are drama and violence for sure but they were delivered with such cold precision and calculated structure that the amazing action pieces actually takes away from the story's cohesiveness.
And by the time you reach the final act, either you are on board and are in awe with Nolan's masterpiece or totally dumb founded and feel the entire movie is one good looking mess that works only in his mind.
Nolan makes incredible and thought-provoking movies but for me, his last truly great movie was Inception. And I feel that it has been a steady decline in storytelling quality and an increase of cold logic/technicality.
In essence, Tenet is a revisit of Memento but on steroid. The muscles have taken over the healthy man within.