Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan (Screenplay)
Starring: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kenneth Branagh, Clemence Poesy
Plot: Armed with only one word, Tenet, and fighting for the survival of the entire world, a Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.
Tagline – Time Runs Out
Runtime: 2 Hours 30 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Tenet starts when special force agent known only as the Protagonist (Washington) awakes with a message, a world, Tenet, sees him going in search for answers, which sees him teaming up with Neil (Pattinson) and getting involved with an international arms dealer Andrei (Branagh) to learn of a bigger problem the world will be face, one that will see him need to learn about the reality of life.
Thoughts on Tenet
Characters – The Protagonist is a former special agent that finds himself getting a word to work with, one that will let him work off the radar, which sees him using his time to unlock the truth behind a potential end of the world situation, he does have moments of trying to be sarcastic along the way and is left torn between saving the world and something else. Neil is one of the connections that The Protagonist makes along the way, he fills in information along the way to give us something new to the world we are entertaining, he does feel very confident through the film. Andrei Sator is the international arms dealer that has a connection to the events that might happen, the person that the Protagonist needs to get close too. He is deadly man who will not let anyone get close to him. Kat is the wife of Andrei that is the way in for the Protagonist, she is stuck in a marriage she can’t escape from, being complete controlled throughout the film.
Performances – John David Washington in the leading role is strong, he brings moments of charm to his performance, while keeping it feeling serious, while getting the laughs with Robert Pattinson, who fills the sidekick like role, feeling very posh. Kenneth Branagh and Elizabeth Debicki complete the main cast working well through the film too.
Story – The story here follows a man that gets recruited to an organisation that is trying to stop an end of the world threat, which will see him needing to learn more about the reality of time. This is a very complicated story that brings another look at time travel, in a way that plays into a more logical reason, only it does seem to be a story that wants to mix looking down on the audience and thinking it is better than anyone else who has made a time travel film. The mix of time travel and heist ideas does work well, with everything seemingly being connected. This is also a story that does feel like you need to watch a few times to pick up on every single little detail.
Action/Sci-Fi – The action is the film is brilliant and easily the best part of the film, with action scenes that plays into the time travel ideas involved in the film, which shows us the sci-fi elements happening within the film.
Settings – The film does take us around the world on the adventures, they all feel like they are upper class locations, which continues to show us how the film makes us feel like the rich’s playground.
Special Effects – The effects in the film do continue to show us how amazing certain moments look, with a lot of the inverted world helping make these events happen.
Scene of the Movie – Car heist.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It does feel like too much is going on with the extra cuts around for it.
Final Thoughts – This is an ambitious movie that brings us a new look at time travel, only for it to become too overly complicated as everything unfolds.