SO I SAW TENET!!! Twice! (No Spoilers, I don't think there's a way to spoil this film honestly.)

   

Tenet Review

    Saw I have already reviewed Tenet for my podcast but I'd thought I would post my thoughts of what I thought over here. I would have liked to get to this one sooner but here we are. I was so excited to see Tenet. Christopher Nolan is my favorite director working today so naturally, I was naturally excited. Then I saw the reviews and they were definitely split. That definitely got me a little nervous. Nolan's films have always been a little polarizing but I was not expected for this! Nevertheless, I was still pumped. 

    I saw it first with my grandmother because I wanted to see it twice before I reviewed it. One of the things I had heard from the reviews was how confusing it was. I have introduced my grandmother to many movies. I showed her Foxcatcher, No Country For Old Men, Knives Out, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Mad Max Fury Road, and Tenet. My record with her is 5:1, she did not like Knives Out much to my disappointment. She did like Tenet so I was thankful for that! The feeling of sitting in a theater again was incredible. It has been a question with movies going direct to streaming if theaters still matter. I don't want theaters to go and sitting back in an IMAX theater was awesome! 

    Instantly in just the opening scene, Nolan proves that theaters still need to exist. I had seen this opening scene before I saw Rise of Skywalker for a second time but after being gone from the theater environment it felt all the more awesome! This was my first Nolan film in theaters so I was especially blown away because of his talent. It's a good thing Nolan started us off with this bit of action because it will be a while before we get another action scene. I didn't really know what was going on on the first watch but I got it later. It's a great opening. The first act after this scene I found to be a little strange. You don't have a full idea of what's going on and it moves in a strange way. I don't have a problem with it but I suspect that this is what has caused some of the controversies. 

    I thought John David Washington did an excellent job as the main character of the film. The ending scene in particular was when I noticed how good he was. I don't quite understand why Nolan chose to call him The Protagonist. I didn't think that it was that silly like people have made out. The performances all around I thought were very good. Robert Pattinson was a true standout in my book. I think this might be Nolan's most humorous film and most of that is because of Robert Pattinson and John David Washington as well. I am much more confident in Pattinson's acting after seeing this. (Still haven't seen The Lighthouse!) Elizabeth Debicki also gives an emotional performance that I appreciated. Her reason to be in the film isn't very creative but it is well done and that's what counts in my book. Kenneth Branaugh was also pretty menacing as well. There were some moments where I thought that he was a little over the top but overall a great performance. 

    I really became engaged in the airport scene. From that scene and on I was on Cloud 9. The action here is perhaps Nolan's best ever. I had a blast every time there was an action scene happening. I have no idea Nolan did this without CGI. The guy has always been a practical affects man which is one of the reasons I respect him so much. One of the biggest complaints I found was the sound editing. People have said that it is too loud and that they can't hear the dialogue. There were two scenes where could relate to that problem and one of them is the scene with Michael Caine. As usual Michael Caine made an appearance in this Chris Nolan film. In his scene, he is eating and while Michael Caine doesn't look silly, if anything he looks awesome while he is eating, I could not quite make out what he was saying. There is also a boat scene where I could quite understand all of it but the scene was so well shot to where I didn't have much of a problem with it. I thought the loud sound was actually very effective. It enhanced my time and sort of added realism to the film that I loved. This action looks incredible and I had a blast watching it. As far as the time travel stuff goes I thought it was pretty cool. I have not seen time travel like this before and I liked the new take. It also made for some awesome sequences. I understood it a lot more on second viewing. There's a line in the film, "Don't try to understand it, feel it." I would say that to someone seeing it for the first time. Go for it on second viewing. If you are going to see Tenet, see it twice, it helps.

    There are some other scenes I want to give a mention to. The scene of The Protagonist beating up a bunch of people in the kitchen was awesome. There is a certain shot on a building on top of a mountain that I thought was gorgeous. The final act was fantastic as well with some excellent action. There is a reveal at the end with Robert Pattinson's character that I thought was fantastic and had an emotional punch that I liked. Also, my brother and dad liked it which I was happy about. 

Final Thoughts

    Overall I thought Tenet was fantastic! I thought the action and the look of the film was jaw-dropping. The acting is great and I liked the new interpretation of time travel. If you've been holding out on going back to theaters make this the first film to return to in theaters or don't if you don't want to. Being back in the theater was great. This is one of my favorite Nolan films and some of my favorite action set pieces from him. What did you think of Tenet? Let me know what you thought of it in the comment section down below. If you want to hear me go even more in-depth on what I thought of Tenet go check out my podcast on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify. Thanks for reading!

Tenet Trailer