Tenet (2020) Movie Review ⇆ Read before you watch

Tenet was just brilliant. It was the perfect movie to go back to the cinemas with. It’s a very high concept sci-fi spy story that involves crazy time physics, but I won’t give anything away. Just know that going in, you will need to pay attention to every word to follow along and even then you might get lost a few times. There was a good 45 minutes I had absolutely no idea what was happening but I came back around to it. It’s definitely a “see more than once” kind of movie.

I absolutely loved it though. I feel like Christopher Nolan just became the Isaac Asimov of the film world. I get a certain feel from Asimov novels that I’ve never felt anywhere else until now. If you’re a sci-fi fan this is highly recommend. It’s the same sort of high concept, hard sci-fi that I love Asimov’s novels for, albeit with faster pace and more punching.

There were great action scenes, great moments of tension, some humour here and there. Extraordinary special effects and cinematography that coellesced into some of the most unique movie scenes ever. It’s very well paced too, two and a half hours and it flew by. Every scene was important and nothing bogged it down at all.

Brilliant score, this is one of the first times in a long time that Nolan hired a different composer from Hans Zimmer, Ludwig Goransson who did a brilliant, synth heavy score that I hope to find on vinyl. It really elevated the movie in numerous ways.

Acting was brilliant, John David Washington is new to me but I’d love to see him in more films. Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki were great as well, and it was a nice surprise to see Aaron Taylor Johnson toward the end. I’ve seen some criticisms that the characters aren’t well developed and that is true, they’re very bare bones characters. But I feel like in a weird way the movie would have been bogged down if there was a bunch of backstory for everyone. In fact with it being a sort of spy film, knowing more about the characters may have ruined some intrigue and mystery. It’s a unique tale and I didn’t mind just being thrown in with these people along for the very crazy ride.

Another criticism I’ve seen is one I actually do agree with; the sound mixing was odd and there were moments the music or background sound made it hard to hear the dialogue. I’m not sure why it was mixed that way but when you already had to pay attention really close to the plot, that added another layer of unecessary confusion.

I had a great time, I think this will become a classic in time, I really do. I cannot wait to watch it again. I’m going to get the 4K and rewatch and rewatch and analyze it.

If you feel ready to WATCH , this is the one to see, click here to watch