Tenet (2020)

  • Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!



    Go here and give us your nominations!
    Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
chaos

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
17,324
4,839
The time travel angle had the potential to be better than it was. It's basically Primer rules modified. idk, I think having all events happen simultaneously might be a way you could explaina way paradoxes. I think a big difference might be that Primer and this just have fundamentally different characters. The characters in Tenet are just impossible to relate to, any of them. None of it makes sense. Boiling such a huge idea with such profound implications into "stop bad guy who wants to destroy world" is retarded. Maybe it could be written in a non-retarded way but that would require understanding the villain and empathizing with their character, and none of that is happening here.

It's disappointing, just wasted potential.

And yeah I agree on the sound, it was bracing, I think he was doing that on purpose and wouldn't be surprised if it was some backwards shit. Lynch does that all the time to unsettle the listener, it made me anxious.
 
a c i d.f l y

a c i d.f l y

ಠ_ಠ
<Silver Donator>
20,062
99,466
The sound matched the moments. I'm so glad I watched it with my daughter staying at grandma's and the wife at work, so I could have the volume cranked and it absolutely made the experience better.

Definitely not as cerebral as folks wanted it to be. Just a mindless action flick wrapped in an inverse time paradox box. It's not like people relate to James Bond. They want to *be* James Bond. I didn't want to be the unnamed Protagonist, "I am the protagonist of this story!".... Most of the time, even for acting like a badass, and supposedly the smart one orchestrating the whole scenario, came across like a fucking moron for the purpose of narrating to the viewer. Which comes across as insulting to the viewer's intelligence.
 
Attog

Attog

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,452
1,888
My guess is Nolan is mixing this for theaters and just doesn't give a fuck about people watching it at home on a tv set or using a soundbar type device.

If you have the right sound system this movie is one of the best there is. I have a short list of home theater demo material that includes Bladerunner 2049, Mad Max Fury Road, and now this.
 
  • 1Solidarity
Reactions: 1 user
Soygen

Soygen

The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
<Nazi Janitors>
28,506
44,992
I really wanted to like this. Sound/Visuals were amazing. I didn't really have trouble with the dialogue, but I was playing it pretty loud on my surround system. I feel like the whole time-flow concept could have been cool, had someone who was much better with sci-fi writing helped with the script. This is probably my least favorite of his movies, though.
 
a c i d.f l y

a c i d.f l y

ಠ_ಠ
<Silver Donator>
20,062
99,466
Attog said:
My guess is Nolan is mixing this for theaters and just doesn't give a fuck about people watching it at home on a tv set or using a soundbar type device.

If you have the right sound system this movie is one of the best there is. I have a short list of home theater demo material that includes Bladerunner 2049, Mad Max Fury Road, and now this.
Click to expand...
Can confirm. Sound is badass at high volume in Dolby Armos on a 7.2 setup.
 
  • 1Edgelord
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 users
Lendarios

Lendarios

Trump's Staff
<Gold Donor>
19,360
-17,424
I saw this twice over the xmas break, and I really liked it.

The second time it allowed me to focus on the little things, particularly when they where inverted, and that fine scene with the door.

Robert Pattinson really impressed me, I was expecting him to be forever the vampire sparkly emo guy, but on this role, he really nailed it. I loved his mannerisms, his speech cadence, even more that the protagonist.

Super tall girl looks awkward in some dresses because her legs are not as large as her torso, but she is one fine woman.

The protagonist did a great job. I only see him in Baller prior to this, but the guy has the chops to be a Bond action kind of actor.

Regarding the physics of the movie the second time I watched it, I realized that the protagonist is the observer that collapses all the multiverses and wave probabilities into a reality. Pattison actually explained it on the container, the part of "go to sleep", was the actual theory behind why they have to go through the motions even if then existing was proof enough that they succeed it.

Great movie.
 
Last edited:
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
Z

Zweischneid

Molten Core Raider
836
-853
Attog said:
The movie definitely made more sense the second time around, not saying I still understood half of it but I definitely "got" the part near the end where he knew he was saying goodbye, that totally went over my head the first time and had no impact when it should have.
Click to expand...


Yeah. Though it is also one of the more unnecessary / paradox things.

He goes back to "unlock" the door and get shot in the head. But since he's the one going reverse in time, he's the one who would've locked the door from the regular time-perspective?

From the protagonists perspective (going forward in time), they come into the underground chamber and up against a locked door with Neil's corpse and the bad guy behind it.

Neil going in reverse gets "un-killed" by the bullet coming out of his brain and "un-locks" the door.

From Neil's perspective (going backwards in time), he enters the room through an unlocked door with the protagonist (from his view) in reverse dropping down into the same room. Protagonist and his buddy reverse out back through the door, which Neil then locks before getting shot in the head.

So arguably, if he didn't invert after saying goodbye, he'd neither be shot nor would the door have been locked for the protagonist?
 
Jozu

Jozu

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
6,986
6,295
Your asking too many questions now son.

The more you try to unpack this movie the more it re-packs itself back in. There is no explanation for the finer questions and theories. Like I said, what would have happened to the guy who gets trapped in the unexploded wall? Was he there when they built the structure in reverse entropy time? lol.
 
Aychamo BanBan

Aychamo BanBan

<Banned>
6,338
7,144
Zweischneid said:
From Neil's perspective (going backwards in time), he enters the room through an unlocked door with the protagonist (from his view) in reverse dropping down into the same room. Protagonist and his buddy reverse out back through the door, which Neil then locks before getting shot in the head.

So arguably, if he didn't invert after saying goodbye, he'd neither be shot nor would the door have been locked for the protagonist?
Click to expand...

I'll never understand the thing about Neil being shot at the end.
 
Attog

Attog

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,452
1,888
Zweischneid said:
Yeah. Though it is also one of the more unnecessary / paradox things.

He goes back to "unlock" the door and get shot in the head. But since he's the one going reverse in time, he's the one who would've locked the door from the regular time-perspective?

From the protagonists perspective (going forward in time), they come into the underground chamber and up against a locked door with Neil's corpse and the bad guy behind it.

Neil going in reverse gets "un-killed" by the bullet coming out of his brain and "un-locks" the door.

From Neil's perspective (going backwards in time), he enters the room through an unlocked door with the protagonist (from his view) in reverse dropping down into the same room. Protagonist and his buddy reverse out back through the door, which Neil then locks before getting shot in the head.

So arguably, if he didn't invert after saying goodbye, he'd neither be shot nor would the door have been locked for the protagonist?
Click to expand...

Goddammit I thought I understood it before you had to go and raise all of this!
 
Sanrith Descartes

Sanrith Descartes

You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
<Gold Donor>
45,275
123,190
Stopped reading the thread once it got all spoiler like. Simple question: is it worth $3.99 and 2 hours of my time to rent?
 
Nirgon

Nirgon

Log Wizard
14,179
22,920
Sanrith Descartes said:
Stopped reading the thread once it got all spoiler like. Simple question: is it worth $3.99 and 2 hours of my time to rent?
Click to expand...

Yeah it was worth 4 bucks. I saw it. The editing or whatever you wanna call it is pretty cool. Not my favorite movie ever or anything.

I was definitely turning it up and down a lot. That was annoying as shit.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
Mist

Mist

REEEEeyore
<Gold Donor>
31,455
23,932
chaos said:
The time travel angle had the potential to be better than it was. It's basically Primer rules modified. idk, I think having all events happen simultaneously might be a way you could explaina way paradoxes. I think a big difference might be that Primer and this just have fundamentally different characters. The characters in Tenet are just impossible to relate to, any of them. None of it makes sense. Boiling such a huge idea with such profound implications into "stop bad guy who wants to destroy world" is retarded. Maybe it could be written in a non-retarded way but that would require understanding the villain and empathizing with their character, and none of that is happening here.

It's disappointing, just wasted potential.

And yeah I agree on the sound, it was bracing, I think he was doing that on purpose and wouldn't be surprised if it was some backwards shit. Lynch does that all the time to unsettle the listener, it made me anxious.
Click to expand...
My favorite part of Primer, that nobody seems to notice, is that the story works as a metaphor for a tech startup, even if you leave out all the time travel stuff. You have these two founders who invent this new technology. At first they're just playing with it, to see how it works. They build an early prototype, but they're not sure how to monetize it. Eventually they have a disagreement, and one backstabs the other and they end up going their separate ways in the end, ending their friendship.

It's actually very similar in plot structure to The Social Network.
 
Last edited:
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
Blitz

Blitz

<Bronze Donator>
5,979
6,652
Sanrith Descartes said:
Stopped reading the thread once it got all spoiler like. Simple question: is it worth $3.99 and 2 hours of my time to rent?
Click to expand...
There are some really cool setpieces and tricks and what not. The payoff was pretty solid. Just don't try to make too much sense of the movie.

I really liked it. But it's not his best film.
 
j00t

j00t

Silver Baronet of the Realm
7,380
7,477
i just watched it. i had heard there was a bunch of sound issues and didn't know if it got fixed from on the dvd... the very first dialogue in the movie was a little hard to understand so i just put subtitles on and called it a day. honestly i think it helped because the bit that i've read through this thread, it seems i was a lot less confused about what was going on than most people here.

i think the movies biggest flaw was just some of the cuts and scene transitions were a just... too quick. a lot of the scenes felt like they didn't have time to breathe. and i think that also affected the general audiences ability to process what was going on because they had to divide their attention between piecing together the bits of dialogue they understood and processing wibbly wobbly timey wimey.

overall i was pretty happy with it, but it's a bit like going to a nice restaurant when your food is a bit under seasoned. it's enjoyable enough but it could have been great, and the closer you get to that divide without crossing it, the more you focus on what could have been.

edit: you know how when you watch memento or 6th sense for the second time and you already have the knowledge of what is happening, it really helps you to appreciate how much thought and care went into the whole thing? i think this movie should have a TON of those moments... but honestly i don't think too many are there.

also the sator square thing...

SATOR
AREPO
TENET
OPERA
ROTAS

all those things were in the movie, except for ROTAS. did i miss that?
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
Z

Zweischneid

Molten Core Raider
836
-853
j00t said:
i just watched it. i had heard there was a bunch of sound issues and didn't know if it got fixed from on the dvd... the very first dialogue in the movie was a little hard to understand so i just put subtitles on and called it a day. honestly i think it helped because the bit that i've read through this thread, it seems i was a lot less confused about what was going on than most people here.

i think the movies biggest flaw was just some of the cuts and scene transitions were a just... too quick. a lot of the scenes felt like they didn't have time to breathe. and i think that also affected the general audiences ability to process what was going on because they had to divide their attention between piecing together the bits of dialogue they understood and processing wibbly wobbly timey wimey.

overall i was pretty happy with it, but it's a bit like going to a nice restaurant when your food is a bit under seasoned. it's enjoyable enough but it could have been great, and the closer you get to that divide without crossing it, the more you focus on what could have been.

edit: you know how when you watch memento or 6th sense for the second time and you already have the knowledge of what is happening, it really helps you to appreciate how much thought and care went into the whole thing? i think this movie should have a TON of those moments... but honestly i don't think too many are there.

also the sator square thing...

SATOR
AREPO
TENET
OPERA
ROTAS

all those things were in the movie, except for ROTAS. did i miss that?
Click to expand...

Yeah, ROTAS is in it. It's the name of Sator's company storing stuff at airports (in the business of letting people walk in to view paintings, etc..).
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
You must log in or register to reply here.