A Review of “Tenet (2020)″

 

It’s weird to finally be watching a movie in the cinema after so long but Tenet was a film that I have been wanting to watch for ages! I am a huge fan of Christopher Nolan and watch nearly every single film that he has made. Even his less well-received movies such as “Interstellar” still wowed me in some capacity. Dunkirk, his previous movie, disappointed in some ways and not because it was bad, far from it, but because it was rather tamed and grounded compared to his crazy, mind-bending movies such as Inception. Tenet was him bringing back this craziness and return to the time concept again. The question though is if this film was worth returning to the cinema for? The premise is simple, a secret agent embarks on a dangerous, time-bending mission to prevent the start of World War III.

Firstly, I got to praise the originality of this movie. Yes, it is a spy espionage movie and borrows a lot of element from the previous movies of the like. However, the use of “Inversion” really adds a layer on top of this movie and makes it feel like no other movie has. This “inversion” is best seen in the action sequences which result in some visually stunning spectacles. On that note, the action sequences are phenomenal from the car chase to the plane crash and my favourite being the fight scene between the protagonist and an inversion soldier. It’s even more impressive when you realise that most of these action scenes are practical and not CGI which benefits the movie by not taking the audience out of it and keeping as glued to what’s going on.

Unfortunately, legendary composer Hans Zimmer does not return for Tenet and is instead replaced by Ludwig Göransson of Black Panther and Mandalorian fame. Despite that, Ludwig gives an impressive electronic score that elevates every scene and is deafening in a good way. If you didn’t know Hans Zimmer was not scoring this movie and watched it, you still probably would think Hans Zimmer was still scoring it.

The story is also intriguing enough to keep the audience engaged. It is simple with the agents having to prevent the “Russian” bad guy from dooming the world! However, the inclusion of inversion does add an extra element to the plot and makes the audience think about the movie. Even after it was finished, I was still thinking about the movie. The inversion adds an element of unpredictability to the movie and starts to change the way the movie operates. However, this inversion doesn’t take focus until halfway through the movie. For the first hour, it is just a spy espionage movie with a lot of exposition and setup but the second half goes into high gear and is when it gets really good.

The actors are for the most part give really good performances. Special mention to Elizabeth Debicki as “Kat” who gives an emotive performance of a woman who is practically in a domestically abusive relationship. John David Washington as “The Protagonist” (yes seriously…) has the suave and coolness from an agent spy, Robert Pattinson as “Neil” gives a lot of charm and wit to his performance and Kenneth Branagh as “Andrei Sator” is frightening in his performance as the villain. 

One major flaw about the movie, in my opinion, is the characterisation. You can already see this when the main character’s name is never mentioned whatsoever in the movie. Apart from Kat (Elizabeth Debicki ) and Neill (Robert Pattinson), to a certain extent, are very bland and one dimensional. The protagonist (John David Washington) is the “good guy” and doesn’t have anything else from that. We don’t know his backstory, his feelings or even his real name for that matter. The character doesn’t even have that big of a reaction to the inversion thing either and can feel rather robotic. Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh) suffers from a similar aspect to the protagonist is an over the top Russian bad guy and wants to end the world and wants to control his wife. There are some other supporting characters introduced in the movie and sadly they also are lacking in depth. The only emotive aspect in this movie is the abusive relationship between Kat and Andrei Sator. However, apart from that the movie very lacking in a lot of humanity and emotional moments.

The second major flaw is the sound mixing in this movie. The voices of the actors are just so muffled or rather low sometimes which makes it hard to hear what they are saying. This gets even more difficult when the characters are wearing a mask or have incredibly strong accents like Kenneth’s Russian accent. Occasionally, the loud music score is really loud during conversations between characters. This is quite detrimental to the movie as every dialogue is really important to understanding the movie and not being able to hear it because of weird sound mixing is not great.

A minor flaw is the “inversion” explanation. It is still quite confusing to understand and while it is explained in the movie to a certain extent, it can still leave you rather confused and dumbfounded. It isn’t a major problem as it gives a rough idea of the concept and in the end, this rough understanding is all that’s needed to enjoy the movie. Just like a character says in the movie “Don’t try to understand it, Feel it”. Although, that is kind of a blatant reason for the director to not explain everything…

Overall, the movie was a blast to watch. It is a bit weaker compared to Nolan’s previous movies but is still stunning to watch. It is a grandly entertaining movie that is an absolute spectacle. I highly recommend considering watching it in a theatre as this movie is best experienced there in all its glory.