Tenet (2020) - Christoper Nolan

I went to see it earlier tonight and I've come away with really mixed feelings. On the one hand it was a visually spectacular film, both in the way it was shot by Nolan and the choreography and scale of the action. I also didn't find the story too difficult to follow, even if some of the concepts took a bit of time to get your head around. On the other hand, the sound mix was absolutely terrible imo. I don't understand the need for such loud background noise when characters are talking, or why characters had to deliver important dialogue/exposition when wearing masks or talking over radio/headsets, whilst still dealing with loud background noise. I also don't think that Nolan really tried to flesh out the characters, which is a long-standing criticism of mine when it comes to his films. The consequence of this was that I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters.

I wouldn't personally put this up there as one of Nolan's best films, I think The Prestige, Inception, Dunkirk and Dark Knight are all superior to this . In some respects I think it's quite comparable to Interstellar. It's a clever film with some amazing visuals that left me feeling a bit cold.
 
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nicktay2605 said:
I went to see it earlier tonight and I've come away with really mixed feelings. On the one hand it was a visually spectacular film, both in the way it was shot by Nolan and the choreography and scale of the action. I also didn't find the story too difficult to follow, even if some of the concepts took a bit of time to get your head around. On the other hand, the sound mix was absolutely terrible imo. I don't understand the need for such loud background noise when characters are talking, or why characters had to deliver important dialogue/exposition when wearing masks or talking over radio/headsets, whilst still dealing with loud background noise. I also don't think that Nolan really tried to flesh out the characters, which is a long-standing criticism of mine when it comes to his films. The consequence of this was that I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters.

I wouldn't personally put this up there as one of Nolan's best films, I think The Prestige, Inception, Dunkirk and Dark Knight are all superior to this . In some respects I think it's quite comparable to Interstellar. It's a clever film with some amazing visuals that left me feeling a bit cold.
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Many of Nolan's films have this cold, stark realism and lighting. It's one of his trademarks, but also one of his failings IMO. They're all shot and look very similar.
 
I've watched a few tenet timeline explained videos now and it seems 90% of it I got at the cinema but there was a lot of small details and ideas that never crossed my mind but make pretty clever additions to the story.
 
Went for a second viewing earlier this week as I wanted loud distracting noises, instead when the trailers for other films started I noticed the centre channel was overbearing to the point where it sounded like amateur hour and the L/R channels were broken, but when the film started the sound track was very well balanced! This is a cinema where they'll use broken flickering projectors, will put the centre sound channel off to a side speaker if there's a fault with the centre and even ran an entire film in 4:3 because they didn't know how to adjust it. Enjoyed the second viewing just as much spotting the little things.
 
I went for a second viewing last week on normal 2d at cine world and the dialogue was so much clearer and easier to understand with a much reduced bass track. Such a better balance than the imax on opening day. Answered some questions and spotted a few more bits I'd missed first time around.
 
My wife was confused, she didn't understand the time flows / concept. I think anyone who's watched any sort of scifi wouldn't be phased by the concept. That being said I its the interaction between flows that's the brain teaser, the direct interaction between the two directions (fight scenes!). That made for some interesting and fun interactions that even when you thought you knew how it was going to happen was a utterly bizarre interaction.
 
Reality|Bites said:
I'm watching this right now, The characters delivery of his lines are so wooden and robotic, it's taking me out of the story.
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It was quite jarring and unnatural. It was also so heavy on the exposition was just not engaging at all.

WTF even was that final battle scene, i think i saw one enemy soldier
 
I think the lead actor took me out of it ( that and the terrible ADR Mixing) though no doubt under direction, when hes first discovering about it all in the gun range, he doesnt seem amazed impressed or..well..anything...like..at all, in fact I cant remember a single emotion from him. Member that moment in Matrix when Morpheus is explaining things and jumps the building and Neo jstu goes.."whoa"...that worked cause it was built up that everyone thought the same thing. Either they didnt want that, or the story was poorly explained and delivered.
 
It was a enjoyable romp for a couple of hrs. A steady 6 out of 10

The sound was terrible at times though, way to much noise as people have mentioned.
 
arknor said:
why subscribe to netflix? how do they have a single customer? you can pirate everything as soon as it gets put on there.
oddly people still pay
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Is there anything odd about it? I pay for Prime when I could easily stream or d/l everything they have to offer.

I don't however, simply because I really can't be arsed. And it's nice to be able to just load up a platform and have a bunch of cool films presented to me each week.
 
I watched this the other day - the wife paid for it on rakuten (spelling...) - through a fairly decent stereo i didn't notice any real sound issues, just 2.0 (so no sub). However online everyone seems to be complaining, this was the uhd version - wonder if they have remastered some of the audio...

In other news - I thought the film was 'ok' - I was expecting The Prestige/Inception level of excellence and unfortunately it wasnt for me... 6/10 - I will give it a second watch.

If someone could explain the no requirement for breathing apparatus for the female lead on the boat near the end that would be great....!!
 
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