Tenet is mundane rock bottom for Nolan

1.5 / 5

Christopher Nolan has demonstrated he’s able to bring deep but accessible concepts to refresh the blockbuster format with entrees like Inception. Tenet continues this mind-boggling concept gifting with time travelling abilities being given to CIA agents that allow them to relive past moments in reverse to undertake special missions. This concept certainly looks appealing on paper and seems to hold much potential with cinematic spectacle. The main problem with the film is absolutely everything else.

The script seems to be completely focused with providing eight tonnes of context for plot twists 100 minutes in while completely forgetting to make you actually care about any of the characters or plotlines leading up to them. New characters get flung at you from every corner and all present their secret problems for the protagonist, played by John David Washington, to take into account without making it clear whether they’re there for a one-off contextual meeting scene or for the whole film as ‘well-rounded’ main characters. This results in Robert Pattinson’s secondary protagonist being about as memorable as a henchman that got shot in the opening.

The dialogue is also excruciatingly unrealistic and makes the ‘characters’ seem like empty vessels who’s only life purpose is to (attempt to) inform the viewer just what all this overly-complex meaningless naff is about than having a developed frontal lobe. Conversations between Washington and Pattinson end up feeling like extracts from The Da Vinci Code novel: hilariously unnecessary amounts of context about themselves being dished out to ensure the invisible watcher knows everything, such as Washington having to be reminded that Mr Pattinson has a master’s in physics. If this is the type of detail-obsessed attitude we’re to expect from these people with no real chemistry at all, why should we care?

As for the blockbuster side, the action scenes attempt to be unique and worthy of being artifacts taught in film schools with the backwards-montage concept of time travel. Typical car chases and military battlegrounds are given a little zing of paradoxical-physics originality, with the protagonist surging through reversing explosions and repairing buildings. But this is all cheaply done with little thought-provoking past a concept that relies on reversing footage, unlike Inception’s dream state that had limitless plays with physics that tied in cleverly with events happening in the real world. And if this is the selling point of the film that thinks cardboard characters and an onslaught of military lectures are a worthy sacrifice for, Nolan needs to reconsider his priorities.

Tenet is beyond a confusing mess. It consistently tries to make itself seem clever with a few clever scenes built on its key concepts but are only truly clever if you’ve payed attention to the lightning-fast sandwiched scenes of mundane context upon context with pretentious characters. Back to the drawing board please, Nolan.