Hello you movie lovers of the platform, how are you all doing today?
I thought long and hard on this blog, and the fact should I do a review or not. But in the end I decided to share my thoughts on this, let's say, interesting movie. I read one short review that said "this should be watched a few times with subtitles" and I completely agree.
The reason is that the story line is so complexed and dialogs are too hard to understand, to easily follow. I kept asking my husband what is going on, and I'm still not sure I understood it fully. Be warned that there will be some spoilers ahead, but with that in mind, let's see what this was all about.
- Title: Tenet
- Year: 2020.
- Genre: Action | Sci-Fi
- Directed by: Christopher Nolan
- Running time: 2h 30 min
The Plot:
Oh, where to begin with this one?
The short version would be an undercover agent we know nothing about called Protagonist is trying to prevent the World War III from starting, by stopping Andrei Sator (the bad guy), but with a huge plot twist in a shape of time inversion.
The slightly longer version would be that our good guy or Protagonist is trying to master this new concept of time inversion he gets to know by agency that hired him. The time inversion literally means that he can travel through time but in reverse, sort of. So if he would go to past everything he does would be backwards. That includes walking, driving, shooting and fighting.
As I said in the beginning this movie is one of those tough to follow, at least for me. Protagonist is paired with a new partner to help him in this mysterious mission, but that guy looks to comfortable with all the new stuff from the beginning. It's hard to follow the movie as it is, but sometimes music and noise is so overwhelming that I didn't hear the characters and their lines. That made it even harder to understand.
It was interesting to see everything going backwards for a bit, and that element on it's own was brilliant in idea and in reality. The bullets that fly in opposite direction, shooting from a target to the gun and Protagonist trying to master these new skills, had me interested. But, there are so many, random plot twists with in the plot twists, that I often wandered
"How the hell we got to this scene?"
We are also introduced to Andrei Sator's wife who played a great role in stopping her lunatic husband. Talking about him, Andrei Sator wanted to practically erase the entire life on Earth because he was ill, from incurable disease.
My opinion:
This was hard to watch and not feel a bit slow, but it's even harder to write a review on it and be completely honest. Christopher Nolan is a genius, that is for sure, and I know that he prefers his movies to be watched in cinema, but considering you would have to watch it a few times to understand it, I don't see how that is realistic.
I am a big fan of anything that makes me think a bit harder and pushes my limits. I am pretty sure I would have a different opinion every time I watch it. It's like reading the book "Little Prince" over and over again. As I said, there is something truly amazing in the idea of reversed time but there is also too much going on to feel comfortable.
The acting is amazing, most of the shots, fighting scenes and explosions are also great. Not breath taking, but just fine, considering this move is more about the story line and less about the special effects. Some emotional connections between Protagonist and Sator's wife, or Protagonist and his partner are depicted finely. We could see that time is affecting their emotions and forming strong bonds, that are later revealed as something that was going on for much longer than we thought.
When the end of the movie was coming closer and I realized that our main character was behind the whole organization, just from another point in time, my mouth fell to the flor. It's like finding out he is his own grandfather (as I joke with my husband, when we watch movies like this one).
The time reversing part, although very cool in idea and performance, made some parts of the movie impossible to catch on to. Some characters are going backwards and some forwards in the same shots. It looks amazing, and I can't even imagine what it took to be written and made, but it's not for everybody, that's for sure.
All in all, I think I have to watch it again. I'm intrigued and willing to test my brain again, but this time with more popcorns and some breaks :) Did you watch it? Be sure to leave me a comment!
With love,
Tamara