"Tenet" Review - Battle of the Timelines

It feels great to finally be back in a cinema again. Of course, we all have our worries when it comes to this virus, but not having movies felt like losing the rain, and I wanted it back desperately, even if it was just for a moment. I took extra safety precautions when going into this IMAX experience, and the entire trip I made around my Tahoe vacation with my brother was worth it.

The first movie out there now is Tenet, which was supposed to be the big cinema comeback, before the big spike of COVID happened in July. There was such high expectations for Christopher Nolan’s next big cinematic ride. Everyone hoped he would not disappoint. While I’m sure he didn’t let down some, he sure let down a Nolan fan like me.

Christopher Nolan is easily one of the best filmmakers of our time. That being said, his stories are huge hits or huge misses. It all just depends on how much common sense he wants to bring in each film. When it comes to something like Dark Knight or Dunkirk, it’s a home run. But something like Inception or Interstellar, it can be frustrating when one doesn’t know what’s going on. The cinema experience deserves great cinematography, music, acting, and practical effects. All of which “Tenet” easily succeeds on. While something like Inception warped many people’s minds, at least you had some sense of what was going on and what to follow. Unfortunately, Tenet tries so hard to be Inception on steroids that it falls flat on its face. Halfway through the movie, I got complexity lost and utterly frustrating trying to figure out the time travel and speed rules everyone was following. It also didn’t help that the editing was so fast and choppy that there was no breathing room to simply take in some of the plot and relax. Tenet went full speed in a NASCAR vehicle expecting you to not feel motion sickness while you were in on the trip. One shouldn’t need to see a film three times to understand a film’s deeper message and story. In fact, it’s supposed to be the other way around. There should be layers to peel once you feel and understand a story the first time.

Throughout the entire movie, I kept saying this would be so much better as a mini-series. For Nolan to stretch this out, take time to explain the fundamentals of time travel and really let the audience sink in and go for a wild ride in the span of maybe 7-10 episodes, man it could’ve been one of the best shows ever. But alas, we get this rushed, crammed, confusing as hell piece of work that while has it’s brilliant Nolan moments, fails to stand out amongst the filmmaker’s finest work. It fails to stand out in general sadly. Hopefully the film he wants to make hasn’t happened yet.

One Nebs Down!