Director: Christopher Nolan
Distributor: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Duration: 150 minutes
Tenet (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Tenet might actually be one of the most ambitious movie projects of the last few years, but also one of the biggest flops in terms of how many people it actually reached upon its release. This doesn’t mean the movie is bad, or that the production value was faulty, it just got released during a bad time, seeing most of the world was in lockdown during its release. COVID-19 basically destroyed one of Christopher Nolan’s original productions and this probably also caused WarnerMedia to decide to also release their new movies on HBO Max and not solely in theaters first. That being said, Tenet pulled all the right strings, and we were impressed with the physical release.
The story of Tenet is somewhat hard to explain actually. The ‘Protagonist’ (John David Washington), is clearly a highly trained operative and during an operation that goes wrong, he finds himself in the captivity of his enemies. Even while being subjected to torture, the unnamed protagonist of the film does not spill the beans on any information his captors may desire. He soon finds himself waking up in a hospital, officially reported as dead, ready to track down certain culprits. He soon finds himself learning that the flow of time is not always as it should be, and that there are ‘reversed’ items to be found in the world. Guns that attract bullets, rather than fire them, items that compose themselves instead of decomposing, etc. This leads him to a certain arms dealer and soon unknown allies join his crusade.
Tenet is quite peculiar when it comes to its flow. As time travel, and things that move ‘backwards’ are heavily included in its story, things can get complicated rather quickly. The movie will leave you in the dark for quite a bit, to slowly start answering all the questions in your head one by one. While certain things you just have to ‘go with’, the movie is very nicely brought, the practical effects are amazingly handled and the overall story value makes this one to sink your teeth in. Even though the movie spans a whopping 150 minutes, these were over very quickly.
In terms of cast, the movie is pretty much sublime. John David Washington takes the lead as the ‘Protagonist’ in this film, the unnamed and unsung leading character of the film. You will see him slowly open up to the new laws of how time flows in our universe and he does so in a very believable fashion. Washington is not only good in his performance, he just emanates a certain action hero vibe for this film. Robert Pattinson has come a long way from his sparkly self in the Twilight movies and we can only commend his growth. It’s clear that roles such as this are preparation for donning Batman’s suit in the near future, but it’s his own skill that makes him a valuable leading role in this one. The antagonist is played by Kenneth Branagh, who plays the villainous Sator. This arms dealer has multiple layers and does surprise you throughout the movie. The female (love) interest is played by Elizabeth Debicki. While initially feeling as a somewhat flat side-character in the film, she becomes essential to the story quicker than you’d expect. She does a formidable job and while initially it seemed she would serve as a supporting character, she easily bests the male co-stars for the title of a ‘leading role’.
The Blu-ray version of Tenet comes with an extra disc for the special features alone. This separate disc will contain over an hour of bonus material, mostly being parts of one big ‘making of’. While you are able to pick what part of the creative process you wish to see, but we advise just pressing play all and see every piece of the puzzle being fitted in proper order. We were quite impressed with this extra value for the physical edition, certainly giving you your money’s worth. There are also a few trailers to explore, but these feel a bit redundant compared to the main feature on the bonus disc.
Conclusion
While Christopher Nolan may have been at the helm of this project, Tenet is nothing like the Batman movies in terms of atmosphere, but certainly as good or even better, in terms of quality. This very ambitious project came to life in an extraordinary fashion, with a lot of practical effects where other moviemakers should be jealous of. We enjoyed the movie from start to finish, even if it’s not really just an ‘Action Sci-Fi’ film. In its own little niche portion of both genres, the film is amazing, near-perfect even, but marketed as a normal film, it might not get the praise it deserves.
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