Tenet

[General Ceel]

Anybody else see Christopher Nolan's Tenet?

 

[Adira Ventress]

I am wanting to, but it will have to be at a time that is reasonable for me to have my full attention.

 

[General Ceel]

I am wanting to, but it will have to be at a time that is reasonable for me to have my full attention.

I watched it for the first time last night. Its certainly a challenging film. Think of it as the most expensive experimental film ever. Everybody else making big budget films with studio money these days essentially have no other choice but be conservative. For better or worse, Nolan had no such restriction. Personally, I can't fault any artist for swinging for the fences and taking big risks. That's what Nolan does here. I think the end result comes up short. The criticisms of the film are not without merit... but at the same time I suspect it will grow on me (and others) with time. Had this been a low budget indie film made by an unknown director it would be the kind of slightly undercooked, but ambitious movie that launches their career. But for Nolan, a director in his prime, with no limits and nobody telling him "don't do that," its a different situation. So in the end I'm kind torn. I'm still thinking about the film, so that has to be a good thing, right? But at same time I was confused and left unsatisfied while actually watching it.

 

[Adira Ventress]

I watched it for the first time last night. Its certainly a challenging film. Think of it as the most expensive experimental film ever. Everybody else making big budget films with studio money these days essentially have no other choice but be conservative. For better or worse, Nolan had no such restriction. Personally, I can't fault any artist for swinging for the fences and taking big risks. That's what Nolan does here. I think the end result comes up short. The criticisms of the film are not without merit... but at the same time I suspect it will grow on me (and others) with time. Had this been a low budget indie film made by an unknown director it would be the kind of slightly undercooked, but ambitious movie that launches their career. But for Nolan, a director in his prime, with no limits and nobody telling him "don't do that," its a different situation. So in the end I'm kind torn. I'm still thinking about the film, so that has to be a good thing, right? But at same time I was confused and left unsatisfied while actually watching it.

Oh, I quite agree. Nolan doesn't care about social norms. He runs on gut feeling and does things he wants. We need more directors doing this; they're playing it too safe.

 

[Hwo]

I liked the movie a lot, but like other Nolan films, the plot became too self involved by the end, for lack of a better explanation. It's one of those things where you're following 90% of it, then it just goes off the rails with the last 10%. Although I did see most of the plot twists coming, so it wasn't that different. I liked it more than Inception. Probably on the level of Interstellar where it's a very great movie despite almost taking it too far as it got toward the end.

 

[General Ceel]

Now that my new TV has arrived I'm looking forward to watching Tenet for a second time in higher detail. I don't think the average viewer has any interest in being challenged too much, or revisiting something that didn't click for them the first time. That's fair. I'm still pretty undecided about this film. With Inception and Interstellar, I loved those films from day one. Tenet left me feeling the way I feel the first time that I listen to a long piece of experimental music. It doesn't always click the first time, or even after several times.... but if you feel compelled enough to keep listening there eventually comes a point where suddenly something clicks and you start to understand the logic in the chaos or the equation. I want Tenet to be like that for me. But who knows. Maybe it won't get better with more viewings. That's okay. I found it compelling enough the first time to warrant giving it another.

 

[Hwo]

I think my issue is the lack of adequate explanation about the time travel. I have this problem with all time travel movies. Once you start to explain how time travel works in your universe, you need to be consistent. I find there are too often paradoxes, inconsistencies, or outright failures with plots involving time travel. There were some things in Tenet that just did not make sense to me during the climax. And frankly, I do not think Nolan tried to explain all of it. The ending seems aimed at wrapping things up neatly so that you understand generally what happened and do not continue asking how some of it happened. I think that was Nolan's intention all along. This is a cinematic experience, not a PhD thesis.