Tenet (Christopher Nolan)

[baby doll]

There are a lot of thematic similarities between TDKR and A Tale of Two Cities, and he based much of the plot around it.

I don't know why that's a bad thing.

If Nolan knew how to tell a story (a different matter than devising convoluted structures whose complexity is their only purpose), that is if he knew what Dickens knew, he wouldn't have to go reaching for his Penguins Classics every other reel in order to inject enough pseudo-profundity into his movie-like contraptions to intimidate the spectator into thinking they've seen a Very Serious Work of Art.

[Mysterious Dude]

I wonder if it stands up to scrutiny.

There are certain moments that make me doubt it. When he shoots at the target, the bullet comes out of the target and back into the gun. So where did that target come from? When they set it up, was it already riddled with bullets? Maybe a minor anomaly, but it makes me pause.

[Morris Schæffer]

There are certain moments that make me doubt it. When he shoots at the target, the bullet comes out of the target and back into the gun. So where did that target come from? When they set it up, was it already riddled with bullets? Maybe a minor anomaly, but it makes me pause.

Perhaps it was simply a clue discovered by the Tenet Organization. The bad guys were messing around there, and Tenet discovered it. And figured out what was occurring.

Thought some more on this. The very nature of this concept means it's kinda above most critique as it enters into paradoxes and such. It'll drive you mad if you're hell bent on figuring it out. Although I don't mind trying to figure out whatever I can.

Really, some objects in this movie that are [

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not human should not follow the laws of inversion. The Audi SUV driving backwards did not go through the turnstile so how come it's affected? Same with the choppers during the finale and I'm sure the boats and such.

]

By the way, there's talk online [

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that Neil is Kat's son Max. There is probably not enough to support that.

].

Also did not realize it's [

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Neil who rescues Protagonist in the opera house.

] That Kat's lover was called Arepo (read carefully), and that the name Rotas (read carefully) also appears in the movie although those instances mean diddly squat, except...

...There really is a thing called a Sator square, the oldest datable representation of the Sator Square was found in the ruins of Pompeii, Wiki says:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sator_Square

I think I started to love this movie right when [

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inverted Protagonist is sucked underneath the airport door, straight into Neil and current protagonist who holds a gun to inverted protagonist's head.

]

[transmogrifier]

My opinion is that the concept of inversion as shown in this movie is really, really, really dumb. It does not make a lick of sense.

[Dukefrukem]

Hmm. Didn't love this. My first reaction being: "THIS is what WB thought would save theaters in 2020?"

More later.

[Dukefrukem]

It's not dumb btw. It's just a mess.

1. Inception
2. The Dark Knight
3. Interstellar
4. The Prestige
5. Dunkirk
6. Memento
7. Batman Begins
8. Insomnia
9. The Dark Knight Rises
10. Tenet

[Skitch]

It's not dumb btw. It's just a mess.

1. Inception
2. The Dark Knight
3. Interstellar
4. The Prestige
5. Dunkirk
6. Memento
7. Batman Begins
8. Insomnia
9. The Dark Knight Rises
10. Tenet

I haven't seen Tenet yet, but what a filmography, sheesh. Leave a little talent for the rest of us bro lol

[Skitch]

I'm 15 minutes in. I've openly admitted I'm a whore for sci-fi. I've been known to make massive leaps to make sci-fi movies logic function.

I'M FIFTEEN MINUTES IN AND THIS MOVIE MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE LOOOOOLOLOLOL

I'm still in to it but even I am laughing wut

I can make Primer make logical sense but so far this inversion concept is nonsense.

[Ezee E]

I'm 15 minutes in. I've openly admitted I'm a whore for sci-fi. I've been known to make massive leaps to make sci-fi movies logic function.

I'M FIFTEEN MINUTES IN AND THIS MOVIE MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE LOOOOOLOLOLOL

I'm still in to it but even I am laughing wut

I can make Primer make logical sense but so far this inversion concept is nonsense.

Keep watching lol. I don't know that I ever bought into this world. I went with it the best I could. There's certainly some cool stuff that's happening at least.

[Skitch]

Its gorgeous to look at, and the score is phenomenal.

[Skitch]

I'm not sure if this movie is brilliant or retarded or I'm a moron or what

[Ezee E]

I'm not sure if this movie is brilliant or retarded or I'm a moron or what

Two of the three. I don't know which are correct.

[Skitch]

Whatever you do, you can not come into contact with yourself

*immediately fights self*

This movie makes no damn sense.

[Morris Schæffer]

Whatever you do, you can not come into contact with yourself

*immediately fights self*

This movie makes no damn sense.

I think this could be interpreted both ways. If you touch yourself the world Will end. Or it's something best avoided, but if it happens then we'll deal with it. Which is why the Pattinson character interferes and urges him to leave the scene asap. Still, I won't pretend it all made Sense to me.

[Skitch]

I laughed

[Stay Puft]

I watched this a couple nights ago and was actually thinking about that Bill & Ted scene. For all of the hype and bullshit about spoilers (they wouldn't let this screen at drive-ins if theatres were closed, like these assholes deserved to have this movie bomb), Nolan really went and delivered a bottom-tier James Bond film with a bog-standard causal loop. I'm convinced this dude is just an idiot. He's so desperate to stay one step ahead of his audience that he spends 150 minutes obfuscating a simple gimmick. I think there was even a scene where The Protagonist mentions cause-and-effect and a character tells him not to think about it like that, but that's literally what it is (or maybe I'm misremembering; there's so much inane exposition it just bleeds together). So many of the arbitrary rules that he establishes around the inversion mechanic (i.e. needing the masks and suits) are simply meant to safeguard his plot twists, but the twists are so cliche they fail even at that (Nolan is nothing if not a blunt and literal storyteller, so it's immediately obvious who The Protagonist is fighting when he first encounters the turnstile at the freeport).

I thought this was pretty miserable and when the credits started rolling I just sat there and thought, maybe theatres actually should die.

[transmogrifier]

It really is a joyless slog, and the thought of ever having to watch it again kinda bums me out. I know in 10 years time, I'll probably be bumming around and think "You know, maybe I treated Tenet harshly. I should rewatch it!"

Note to future self: don't.

[Skitch]

It really is a joyless slog, and the thought of ever having to watch it again kinda bums me out. I know in 10 years time, I'll probably be bumming around and think "You know, maybe I treated Tenet harshly. I should rewatch it!"

Note to future self: don't.

But you and my future self will have slightly more information and decide to do it anyway, then we will choose to go backward.

DAMN do I not get this stupid shit

[Pop Trash]

I bailed on this after about 45 minutes. I take it stays this way until the end? It feels like an approximation of a movie featuring approximations of characters by a director that might be an approximation of a human being. Or more succinctly: unfun James Bond. Maybe we deserve another year long reprieve if going back to the multiplex means movies like Tenet and Wonder Woman 1984.

[Skitch]

I bailed on this after about 45 minutes. I take it stays this way until the end? It feels like an approximation of a movie featuring approximations of characters by a director that might be an approximation of a human being. Or more succinctly: unfun James Bond. Maybe we deserve another year long reprieve if going back to the multiplex means movies like Tenet and Wonder Woman 1984.

Oh you really should watch the whole thing. There was about 45 minutes in the middle that I almost thought I was starting to understand...then the third act.

Also I posted this 12 hours ago [birds of a feather]:

[Pop Trash]

I don't know. I'll come back to it maybe at some point, but it could be months, it could be years. I kept thinking about 2020 movies I haven't seen that I should be watching instead of Tenet:

Soul
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Possessor
Another Round
Shirley
On the Rocks
First Cow (again)

[megladon8]

Pretty wild how much esteem Nolan lost over the course of just one year, with one flop.

[Pop Trash]

Pretty wild how much esteem Nolan lost over the course of just one year, with one flop.

It's good for him. He needs the air let out his ego anyway; especially after all of his "my TRU CINEMA ART will singlehandedly save movie theaters!" rhetoric.

[Ezee E]

He should go to something a little more simple like Dunkirk. Or just suck it up and do his James Bond.

[baby doll]

It's good for him. He needs the air let out his ego anyway; especially after all of his "my TRU CINEMA ART will singlehandedly save movie theaters!" rhetoric.

I dunno, he gives off a certain Principal Skinner vibe: "Am I so out of touch? No, it's the audience that's wrong." My guess is he doubles down hard on being awful until he becomes a cautionary tale of a capital-A Auteur undone by his own hubris, like Michael Cimino but with less talent.

For the record, Heaven's Gate > every Nolan movie put together.