Troy Stiffler

Newest trailer reveals much bigger set pieces. Kinda wish I skipped it.

Dan

Houston Alamo will be opening back up with this and Bill & Ted at the end of the month. I think I'll still be waiting for streaming. First Nolan film I won't be seeing in the cinema since The Prestige.

E Unit

^^^ Same here.

E Unit

So....some good reviews.

Draven

So this is really coming out September 1st, huh? I am truly amazed and stand corrected on any new movies coming out in 2020. I can't believe they are willing to take a bath on this at the box office but I guess something had to be the sacrificial lamb.

DJariya

Its in theatres in over 70 countries and China will be playing it too.

This isn’t going to be Ishtar. It’s going to make money, but the majority will likely be foreign revenue.

DJariya

Tom Cruise went to go see Tenet overseas. I assume it's in whatever city he's in filming MI: 7

Twitter

candyrocket786

Got my tickets for Monday.

L Everett Scott

Daily Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin saw the film and shared his 'highly reticent' impressions (not a review) of Tenet on last week's Kermode and Mayo Film Review Podcast. I've included some of his comments below and spoilered out the portion where Collin starts to get a bit specific about the content of the film.

Anybody who wants to know absolutely nothing about the movie should just bail on this post now.

For anyone who just wants to listen to the podcast themselves, look for the August 21st episode on Apple Podcasts or the BBC's iPlayer Radio and fast forward to about 1:17:30.

E Unit

I actually just got back from seeing it. Happenstance and all, I was able to watch it with some others at the Alamo Drafthouse in ultra South Austin. I actually dug this a lot. This story for me was as head scratching as Inception - meaning you’ll get the gist of it the first time, then probably upon repeat viewing you’ll understand it more and more. Great action sequences, and thankfully not all are in the trailers. Nolan’s editor needs to win something for doing the cuts on the forwards and backwards timeline stuff. One thing solidified it for me - I’m looking forward to seeing Pattinson play Bruce Wayne, he looks the part in this movie. And John David Washington can definitely carry a movie, as we’ve also seen previously in KKKlansman.

I didn’t expect to see this in a theater, and honestly I don’t see a vital need to, I think it would have been fine at home. But it was very weird seeing this, and just being inside a theater again. I probably won’t again until the virus dies, or I can see something like this in a theater with a handful of people like I just did.

RichC2

That's pretty sweet, early too.

Cinemark just started doing a "private theater" thing where you and up to 20 others can rent a theater showing a first run movie (namely Tenet, Unhinged and New Mutants) for $150, which works out to $7.15-ish per person if you get all 20, doesn't seem like a terrible deal.

DJariya

Yeah I read that WB was doing some early showings in select markets.

candyrocket786

So if it's just me, I get the whole theater to myself for $150?

lwhy?

I was hoping to see Tenet at my local drive-in. The owner said the financial terms from the studio were unrealistic. That's the only way I would be willing to see it. They're showing Bill and Ted. I may go watch it. I haven't seen a movie on the big screen since January.

RichC2

Correct. If it were normal times, they'd probably prohibit it for concession purposes, but even those are dirt cheap right now. They just need revenue.

E Unit

Little dash of the type of action. One one surprising thing that I won’t mention...only due to the fact that even if I hinted at it, people will probably guess correctly. And no, it’s not related to this video.

L Everett Scott

Went with a couple of friends to see this earlier this evening, and the general reaction was...not good.

Some spoiler-free remarks:

The movie starts in what's become standard Nolan fashion with a covert operation. The sequence builds nicely with the tension getting ratcheted up...and then dialogue that might've been important gets lost because the sound mix has the score and the sound effects turned up to eleventy stupid. What doesn't help is that a number of characters are wearing face coverings that muffle what they're saying. As a result, I only have a general idea of what happened in this pre-title sequence but was pretty lost for at least half of it.

Afterwards, we get a scene where Clémence Poésy gives us her take on Q and explains the technology that serves as the basis for the story. I appreciated this part because 1) Nolan walks us through the concept he has in mind and 2) I could hear what was being said. This scene, though, turned out to be rather deceptive because it made the tech seem straightforward; later, we find out that in practical application, it gets complicated very quickly.

We then get a globe-trotting story where one side attempts to use the tech to do something not very nice while the other side uses the tech to try to stop them. There are twists and revelations along the way with Nolan laying down pieces of his puzzle box as he goes along. Everything snaps into place by the end(*), so anyone who's able to follow the key points will be rewarded.

This really should've been at least at least extra bases, possibly a triple...but it's more of a dribbler that just sneaks under the third baseman's glove. The issue I mentioned earlier with the sound mix is huge--so much exposition is inaudible because of lines that get lost because of the amped up effects and score or because the actors' mouths are covered.

An Irish outlet claims in a spoiler-free article that the unintelligible dialogue is a deliberate creative choice, which I think is going to have a negative impact on viewers' enjoyment of the film. It's one thing if this were some hang-out film where the characters are talking about nothing important, but this a movie where chronology gets played with and the action gets so complicated that the English language isn't equipped to describe properly what's happening. (I'd love to see someone try to spoil the big climax--it's near freaking impossible to follow.) A little expository assistance would've been much appreciated.

This movie was so frustrating. You can see Nolan's craft in the set pieces, but the film seems to be actively working against the viewer, throwing up one obstacle after another to prevent it from being understood. This was terribly disappointing.

(*)I don't say with confidence that all the pieces click together because I didn't walk away from the film thinking that. Three people had to explain to me how everything fit, and I'm taking it on faith that those folks actually understood what was going on.

Questions for @E Unit or anyone else who's seen this movie:

Dan

Spoilery infographic thinger, only click if you've seen the damn movie or don't care about spoilers.






Joeboo835

Saw this last night and I couldn't agree more that the Audio mix (specifically the voices) is absolutely horrible. I (and my kids, who normally rip me when i bring up stuff like audio/video flaws) could barely make out most of the movie. Which made it EXTREMELY difficult to follow with a movie like this where dialog is everything.

Troy Stiffler

Interesting. I was watching Westworld the other night and had the same problem. I think a lot of the crew crosses over. Wonder if there is one guy messing up the audio mix.

TomOpus

I usually watch movies with captions on. Gesh, I'd hate to think I have to wait for home video to fully hear this movie.

Deftones

Isn't that pretty much Nolan's signature? Every movie he does has inaudible dialogue.

Troy Stiffler

I don't recall any dialogue being too bad. He does throw information at you so fast and brief that it takes multiple viewings to get the details. If I'm not mistaken, he explained it a little on the Insomnia commentary. Something about letting the viewer's brain fill in little gaps as a way to pull them into the story. Or something.

The Westworld thing was odd though. For a few seconds I was wondering if my TV was messed up. It was like trying to listen to something talking in a loud club. Someone needs to calibrate their mixing gear.

Deftones

Common complaints about Interstellar and the Dark Knight Rises.

rocket1312

And Dunkirk. Although I think that one was actually intentional to a degree. Still, it seems his mixes are pretty demanding and if a sound setup isn't up to a certain quality and isn't calibrated properly (as is probably the case in most theaters) it sounds like a bunch of unintelligible noise.