Tenet (2020)

[Drunken Monk]

Christopher Nolan's first film since 2017's Dunkirk has officially begun shooting. Not a lot is known about the plot, only that it was written by Nolan himself and is a spy thriller that takes place across numerous countries.

Cast includes Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kenneth Branagh and Michael Caine.

[Drunken Monk]

 

[SamSeed]

Tenet will be cut in the UK, a scene involving kicking has been removed totalling nine seconds:

https://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/tenet-film

[One Armed Boxer]

I got through watching this one in the cinema here in Australia over the weekend.  Awesome action, but lacks the heart that 'Inception' had.  Still, definitely worth checking out on the big screen! I gave it the full review treatment over at COF -

https://cityonfire.com/tenet-2020-review-christopher-nolan/

[sifu iron perm]

On 8/16/2020 at 2:57 PM, SamSeed said:

Tenet will be cut in the UK, a scene involving kicking has been removed totalling nine seconds:

https://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/tenet-film

what in the? 

 

[One Armed Boxer]

1 hour ago, sifu iron perm said:

what in the? 

 

The kick made it past the Australian censors. It’s a briefly brutal scene that has Elizabeth Debicki kicked in the chest when she’s on the ground, but nothing fans of Asian cinema won’t have seen 1000s of times before.

I guess being kicked while you’re down is to the BBFC in the 20’s what nunchucks were to them in the pre-millennium era. Does anyone know if headbutts are allowed now? I remember the BBFC removed that scene from ‘The Matrix’ when it was first released in cinemas.

[sifu iron perm]

1 hour ago, One Armed Boxer said:

The kick made it past the Australian censors. It’s a briefly brutal scene that has Elizabeth Debicki kicked in the chest when she’s on the ground, but nothing fans of Asian cinema won’t have seen 1000s of times before.

I guess being kicked while you’re down is to the BBFC in the 20’s what nunchucks were to them in the pre-millennium era. Does anyone know if headbutts are allowed now? I remember the BBFC removed that scene from ‘The Matrix’ when it was first released in cinemas.

Thanks for the info. I booked my IMAX ticket for this Friday afternoon. 

[SamSeed]

4 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said:

The kick made it past the Australian censors. It’s a briefly brutal scene that has Elizabeth Debicki kicked in the chest when she’s on the ground, but nothing fans of Asian cinema won’t have seen 1000s of times before.

I guess being kicked while you’re down is to the BBFC in the 20’s what nunchucks were to them in the pre-millennium era. Does anyone know if headbutts are allowed now? I remember the BBFC removed that scene from ‘The Matrix’ when it was first released in cinemas.

I do seriously wonder though - if it was a man being kicked, would the scene have been cut? The recent Batman trailer has him brutally beating a guy, including a few hits on the ground. I bet it'll still be a 12A in the UK, because Batman.

[One Armed Boxer]

1 hour ago, SamSeed said:

I do seriously wonder though - if it was a man being kicked, would the scene have been cut?

Probably not. As I understand it the decision was purely connected to securing the 12A rating, so when it hits Blu-ray it should be uncut. Thankfully the omission of the scene doesn’t have a major impact on the narrative. Or in other words, it’s no ‘saw in the head’ scene. 

[SamSeed]

So. No plot spoilers. Astonishing visuals, set pieces that I have never seen in any other film before. But the plot? And the characters? Utter guff. I didn't care one iota about The Protagonist, and that being the case, why should I have cared about anything that was happening? If a writer can't communicate their story to the audience, they're a bad storyteller. All I thought was that I'd have had much more fun staying at home watching the Backwards episode of Red Dwarf, because where Tenet made the physics exhausting to understand, Dwarf used the same physics to tell a fun story, all in thirty minutes.

[sifu iron perm]

Amazingly put film together, technically speaking. Plot and characters quite problematic. IMAX experience was superb.

 

[laagi]

On 8/29/2020 at 2:00 PM, sifu iron perm said:

Amazingly put film together, technically speaking. Plot and characters quite problematic. IMAX experience was superb.

 

My first IMAX experince and I was blown away! The cinematography is miraculous. As far as the movie I was able to keep up until about haf way through when it just completely lost me. I would also argue that it was the only time it dragged a bit; too much science drivel for my taste. I'll probably need Morgan Freeman to explain the movie to me to fully appreciate it. If you have the chance do watch this on IMAX, well worth the money.

[shukocarl1441996347]

Not a bad action flick but christ is it bonkers. I had to take 2 Paracetomol when I got home.

[sifu iron perm]

1 hour ago, laagi said:

My first IMAX experince and I was blown away! The cinematography is miraculous. As far as the movie I was able to keep up until about haf way through when it just completely lost me. I would also argue that it was the only time it dragged a bit; too much science drivel for my taste. I'll probably need Morgan Freeman to explain the movie to me to fully appreciate it. If you have the chance do watch this on IMAX, well worth the money.

yes indeed it was glorious thanks to IMAX ..Gravity for me, was the greatest IMAX experience. 

[Secret Executioner]

Saw this one a few days ago, and while I wasn't too sold on the trailers, I actually liked the movie. The plot gets confusing really fast, but somehow that kept me interested because I wanted to try and figure it out as it went. The time element (objects and even people acting/going backwards) is well pulled and makes for some bizarre though still impressive imagery, even if the way it works isn't exactly well explained - we know they come from the future and that big machines send them back (or forth) in time, but who does it and why it's done remains ambiguous and the fact the villain has full control of it at first makes it even harder to work out. As often with this kind of stories, I felt rules were established but later tossed out the window (spoiler: characters do meet alternative timelines/inverted versions of themselves without it causing much incidence). The idea that someone/something sent back in time will act weird because of it is interesting and kinda makes sense, though physical properties going bananas may be a bit much - even if someone sent from the future would be going backwards in the past, I don't think being caught in a fire would cause said person to freeze to death (that comes across as Bizarro levels of inversion). 

 

The character I found to lack depth and development. The lead is a decent guy who wants to fulfill his mission, he gets in some funny situations but not much is known of him - on a sidenote, I found he looked a bit like Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther. Was it just me ? His sidekick (Robert Pattinson) is a quirky smart guy that is implied at times to be either a spy or a time paradox. The lead woman is very one-dimensional: she hates her asshole husband and wants to be with her kid. Said husband is the main villain, a very imposing guy who also uses the time altering stuff for his own advantage - and somehow gets defeated by it (like you wouldn't expect that...). He is impredictable, charismatic and possibly the most interesting character because he is the one we know the most about. Other characters including an Indian old woman giving cryptic advice to "help" our hero. She is very elusive, talks a lot but doesn't say much... Wasn't a fan of this character, sorry.

 

A strength of the film is the action - fist fights, shootouts, car chases... You get a wide range of sequences and they are pretty intense. The fight choreography is also well-made and I kinda wished The Dark Knight rises had been this strong in the action but also story department - the story and how it went on feels rather flimsy when you look back at it.

 

My call ? Tenet may not be my absolute favorite film of the year, but it's a solid contender for a top 5 if not top 3 spot (behind Harley Quinn and New Mutants).