Tenet (2020) Review

So the day has finally come, 5 months after seeing my last film in the cinema, I have returned to watch the new blockbuster Tenet and here is my review for this film. The premise of the film sees a man have to travel the world in an effort to stop World War 3, but he is only armed with a word - Tenet and he has no idea what he is getting in to.

Main Character

John David Washington plays The Protagonist here, no seriously that is his characters name. He is really great here, he gives a really strong performance, we follow this guy all over the world on a journey and you will care about him and really want to see him succeed. He has plenty of charisma here and swagger that you buy him as a leading man straight away and will see much more of him in the future. 

Supporting Characters

Robert Pattinson has had a good week, after the brilliant first trailer for The Batman and now his fantastic performance here. He has so much charisma too, the partnership with him and Washington is the real highlight of this film, they are great together and it is great to see two younger actors thriving in this large blockbuster. Elizabeth Debicki has a large role and I think this is the best I have seen her, her character has the real emotion here, you care about her and want to see her personal story resolved in a positive way. Kenneth Branagh plays the villain, and just like Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit he is playing a Russian and I do think his accent is pretty decent. He does a good job in coming across as the aggressive and intense bad guy and adds to this film very nicely. Himesh Patel and Aaron Taylor Johnson also do good jobs in there smaller roles. 

Story

Now this is the part of the review that will be really short as I knew pretty much nothing about the plot and that is the way you have to watch this movie. The story is really interesting in different ways that I will not get into, but the film is also really convoluted, most of it makes sense but it is sometimes a film that is quite hard to follow. I think this films plot will be better when you watch this film on its second watch-through. 

Script

The character dialogue for the script is really well done. The relationships between them is handled well and you do care about the characters and the perils that they are put into. But some of the dialogue that explains the plot didn't really work for me, I mean there was never a part of the film where they dumb the plot down even a little bit and that can again make it hard follow. 

Style

The style of the film is fantastic, this is a film that was born to be watched on the cinema screen, don't watch this on a tablet or phone or even your TV, if you can go and appreciate it on the big screen. The action scenes are brilliant, they flow incredibly well and the unique story element allows them to get creative and add excitement. Also this film is 2 hours 30 mins long but I was never bored once, the pacing is great and even though this film is long and a tiring watch it is never dull or too slow. 

Overall

Overall, this is a great Christopher Nolan film, though I thought it was more in the Interstellar bracket of quality then Inception. However, I think on repeat viewings this film could be better and better, even raising the ranking higher so I would implore if you are a film fan and can, go and see this film and support the cinemas as it is worth a watch. 

Rating - 8/10