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Tenet First Reviews: A Beautiful, Spectacular Head-Scratcher

Critics say christopher nolan's 007-meets- minority report sci-fi thriller is tricky to decipher but full of mind-blowing action..

TAGGED AS: Sci-Fi , science fiction

One of the most anticipated movies of 2020, and one of the few tentpole releases still opening this year, Christoper Nolan’s Tenet is… Christopher Nolan’s Tenet . That is to say, based on the mostly-positive first reviews of the sci-fi spy thriller, you know what you’re getting into, but also you have no idea. The movie, which stars John David Washington and Robert Pattinson, appears to be another difficult one to describe, plot-wise, in part because of spoilers, but it’s also celebrated for its action and mind-blowing effects, even if you don’t care about any of the characters. And while some critics suggest the film needs to be seen on the big screen, we encourage you to check here for the latest information on how movie theaters are implementing new safety regulations in light of COVID-19.

With that said, here’s what critics are saying about Tenet :

How does it compare to the rest of Nolan’s filmography ?

It’s one of his most daring sci-fi narratives yet, and the results are truly phenomenal. – Linda Marric, The Jewish Chronicle

Tenet exceeds our already sky-high expectations… It is undeniably the most audacious film of his career – which is saying something. – James Mottram, South China Morning Post

Tenet is as intricately and exquisitely designed as Nolan’s earlier work. It boasts some of the most spectacular, memorable set-pieces of his career. – Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

Tenet is not Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece, but it is another thrilling entry into his canon. – Matt Purslow, IGN

Tenet is the first time I felt he gets too carried away with his own concept. – Casey Chong, Casey’s Movie Mania

So what is it about, anyway ?

What’s narratively most interesting about it is strictly off-limits in any pre-screening discussion. – Guy Lodge, Variety

We’re not even sure we could spoil this one if we tried. – Simon Miraudo, Student Edge

The palindromic title has some narrative correlation — albeit in an exhausting, rather joyless way. – Mike McCahill, IndieWire

Can we expect another mind-bending delight?

If Nolan’s Inception baked your noodle, prepare for a whole new level of bewilderment. – Andy Lea, Daily Star

Tenet will have you saying “Wow,” but also “Huh?,” “Wha …?” and “WTF??!!!” – Radheyan Simonpillai, NOW Toronto

Tenet is not in itself that difficult to understand: It’s more convoluted than it is complex, wider than it is deep, and there’s more linearity to its form than you might guess. – Guy Lodge, Variety

The fun with Tenet lies not in trying to decipher the whats or the whys but in simply admiring the how. – Adam Woodward, Little White Lies

I watched the movie twice for this review, and still feel very confused about what is supposed to be going on and why. – Leslie Felperin, Hollywood Reporter

Is it more about the visuals?

Tenet frequently delivers mind-blowing moments that are unlike anything you’ve seen (or even thought about) before. – Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

Tenet is best approached as an experience to be felt rather than comprehensively understood. Sit back, relax and prepare to have your mind blown. – James Mottram, South China Morning Post

An absolute treat as a Movie Event… Tenet ’s deployment of stupefying practical special effects is pure wizardry. – Shannon Conellan, Mashable

Nolan’s commitment to shooting practically achieves an effect akin to first seeing the T-Rex stomp onscreen in Jurassic Park – it’s a film that shows you the impossible in a way that’s indistinguishable from reality. – Jordan Farley, Total Film

Take away the time-bending gimmick, and Tenet is a series of timidly generic set pieces: heists, car chases, bomb disposals, more heists… but gosh, does he blow stuff up good. – Jessica Kiang, New York Times

How is the action ?

The action exceeds anything Nolan has ever done before. – Radheyan Simonpillai, NOW Toronto

The sheer meticulousness of Nolan’s grand-canvas action aesthetic is enthralling, as if to compensate for the stray loose threads and teasing paradoxes of his screenplay — or perhaps simply to underline that they don’t matter all that much. – Guy Lodge, Variety

If Nolan has out-Nolaned himself, it’s in the action set-pieces which, despite being of head-scrambling technical intricacy, are sharper than Occam’s razor and carried off with astonishing economy. – Adam Woodward, Little White Lies

Big, bombastic and does everything with the most epic scale possible. It’s a lot like being punched in the face by Cinema™, in the best and worst ways. – Tom Beasley, Flickering Myth

Are the stakes compelling ?

It’s the rare action film where the characters don’t just say the world will end if they fail in their mission – you feel it, too. – Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

Tenet ’s stakes are too high, perhaps, to really have any emotional impact. – Rosie Fletcher, Den of Geek

What is the movie reminiscent of ?

Tenet revisits the terrain of 2000’s Memento with more money… yet plot-wise, Tenet has more in common with Minority Report . – Mike McCahill, IndieWire

Tenet can feel like a $200 million remake of Primer , with a fiendishly brilliant but confounding narrative that practically demands one or two rewatches to fully appreciate the big picture. – Jordan Farley, Total Film

It may echo the cleverness of Rian Johnson’s Looper and Shane Carruth’s Primer in its dizzying disregard for linear chronology, but the plotting is muddled rather than complex. – Nicholas Barber, The Wrap

It’s reminiscent of Steven Knight’s Serenity …influences range from La Jetée to From Russia With Love . – Radheyan Simonpillai, NOW Toronto

But what does it really feel like ?

Nolan has made his own Bond film here, borrowing everything he likes about it, binning everything he doesn’t, then Nolaning it all up. – Alex Godfrey, Empire Magazine

The fanciest James Bond romp you ever did see, complete with dizzy global location-hopping, car chases that slip and loop like spaghetti, and bespoke tailoring you actually want to reach into the screen and stroke. – Guy Lodge, Variety

This is absolutely Nolan delivering his James Bond movie, only Bond never had to deal with inverted bullets. – Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

How is the cast ?

David Washington is rock solid in the lead role… Robert Pattinson brings his A-game. – Adam Woodward, Little White Lies

Robert Pattinson puts in a truly electrifying turn. – Linda Marric, The Jewish Chronicle

Only Elizabeth Debicki and Kenneth Branagh made quite an impression in their respective roles. – Casey Chong, Casey’s Movie Mania

Branagh is unexpectedly fearsome. – Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

But do we care about their characters enough ?

Though leads John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, and Elizabeth Debicki bring a level of solid integrity to their characters while wrapped up in flawless costumes, we’re left without any idea of who they actually are. – Shannon Conellan, Mashable

Tenet suggests Nolan no longer has any interest in human beings beyond assets on a poster or dots on a diagram. – Simon Miraudo, Student Edge

Tenet is by no means a movie about race. But Washington does appear to lean into what his race brings to the role. – Radheyan Simonpillai, NOW Toronto

What are the movie’s biggest issues ?

Tenet ’s coldness is what keeps it just short of greatness… the viewer’s investment is purely intellectual. – Laura Potier, Starburst

[It] feels strangely hollow and coldly detached. So detached to the point that Nolan’s otherwise great acting ensemble fails to connect emotionally. – Casey Chong, Casey’s Movie Mania

It’s hard to work out what’s happening. It’s harder still to care. – Donald Clarke, Irish Times

For a film which prides itself on its innovative outlook, its portrayal of gender roles can feel surprisingly old-fashioned. – Linda Marric, The Jewish Chronicle

(Photo by )

Do we need to see it in a theater (if we can) ?

This is certainly the biggest bang for your buck of the year so far. See it on the biggest screen you can with the very best sound system. – Rosie Fletcher, Den of Geek

Viewed solely from its technical point-of-view… This is a must-see on the biggest screen possible. – Casey Chong, Casey’s Movie Mania

It’s best experienced in a huge, dark room. – Matt Purslow, IGN

Demands to be seen in a cinema, and on the biggest possible screen… But Tenet will later thrive in home viewing formats, giving viewers the chance to pause and go back over tricky passages. – Jonathan Romney, Los Angeles Times

[Note: Information on movie theater safety precautions can be found here .]

Tenet will debut in several global markets on August 26-28 and open in limited theaters in the U.S. on September 3 before expanding wider around the world.

Tenet (2020) 70%

Thumbnail image by Warner Bros. Pictures

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For transparency’s sake, it feels important to state that this film was screened for limited press in Chicago with extreme precautions that simply won’t be in place for most ticket buyers at least for weeks, including 1% capacity of a huge, sanitized theater first thing in the morning. The intent of this review is not to encourage or discourage anyone from attending a theatrical screening at this specific time. It is an analysis of the work itself for posterity.

No one could possibly mistake “Tenet” as being by anyone but Christopher Nolan . First, it has the kind of budget that only Nolan could get for an original screenplay. There’s so much money in every bursting frame of this opulent film that a scene in which gold bars are literally dumped on a runway feels almost like a self-referential wink. Second, it contains one of those time-twisting narratives that have defined the Nolan brand, one that blends robust action sequences with high-concept stories that viewers have to legitimately strain to follow. Finally, at times, it even seems to echo previous Nolan projects like an album of remastered greatest hits. There are war action scenes that recall “ Dunkirk ,” an espionage narrative that feels like “ Inception ,” and even a whole lot of people talking through masks a la Bane in “ The Dark Knight Rises .” It is 100% designed as an experience for people who have unpacked films like “ The Prestige ” and “ Memento ” late into the night, hoping to give Nolan fans more to chew on than ever before. More certainly seems to be the operating principle of “Tenet,” even if the chewing can get exhausting.

[Note: Spoilers will be incredibly light but if you want to go in completely unvarnished as many Nolan fans do, you’ve been warned.]

“Tenet” wastes no time, dropping viewers into an attack on a symphony performance in Kiev and barely allowing anyone to get oriented. One of the agents sent in to retrieve a high-profile asset during the assault is a man known only as The Protagonist ( John David Washington , proving more than capable of carrying a blockbuster film with his charismatic performance). Our hero is captured by the enemy, tortured, and takes a cyanide capsule, as he was ordered to do in training. He survives, and his allegiance to the system and his orders leads to a promotion of sorts, a top-secret assignment that involves a new technology that has the potential to literally rewrite human history.

The Protagonist is taken to a remote facility and introduced to the concept of inverted objects. We look at an object and it is traveling forward through time along with us. That’s obvious from elementary school science class. But what if an object could go in the other direction through history instead? Apparently, objects have been doing exactly this, and the Powers That Be need to control it because if a bullet could be sent back through time, what happens if a nuclear weapon takes the same trip?

Teaming up with a mysterious partner named Neil (a charming Robert Pattinson ), our hero tracks inverted objects to a villainous Russian arms dealer named Andrei ( Kenneth Branagh ). To get closer to this mega-wealthy madman, The Protagonist uses Andrei’s wife Kat ( Elizabeth Debicki ), who loathes her abusive husband but is being blackmailed into staying with him via threats that she will lose her son if she doesn’t do exactly what he says. On a very basic level, “Tenet” is about the extremes of unmonitored power. When one becomes so rich and powerful that they can literally shape world events, why not try to shape world history too? Sound a little familiar? Andrei is very much cut from the same cloth as classic Bond villains, complete with unchecked opulence, Russian accent and snarling line delivery. Blend Nolan’s obsession with time-twisting high concepts and his love of classic action construction and you have some idea what “Tenet” feels like.

However, there’s never been a Bond movie so stuffed with expository dialogue. “Tenet” spends roughly two hours of its 150-minute run time explaining what is happening, why it is happening, and what might happen next. And yet even with that it’s still incredibly difficult to follow because Nolan goes so far down his own rabbit hole of time travel that one almost needs to take notes to keep up (and I still think it arguably wouldn’t all add up if they could). Scene after scene of Washington, Pattinson, Branagh, and Debicki trying to convey the plot becomes exhausting, and it’s Nolan’s biggest mistake. It would have been better to just leave more unsaid, and jump chaotically into the film’s mood and visuals instead of so often returning to over-analyzing a plot most people still won’t be able to follow. At times, it feels like a film crafted for YouTube explainer video culture. (There’s already one online that purports to deconstruct the ending and the movie isn’t even out in most of the world.) Early in the film, the scientist who explains inversion says, “Don’t try to understand, feel it,” and I wished Nolan had listened to her more.

For some of his fans, this narrative assault is exactly what they’re looking for, but I prefer emotional registers in my Nolan that he seems only casually interested in here. The stakes don’t feel as high as “Dunkirk,” the maze construction isn’t as thrilling as “Inception,” and even the characters don’t feel as easy to invest in as “ Interstellar .” Almost as if he knows his puzzle box is ice cold, Nolan adds the subplot about Kat losing her son, but it’s so underdeveloped that I don’t think her kid even has a line. The kid is as much of a device as an inverted bullet.

If “Tenet” can be a hard movie to engage with emotionally or even comprehend narratively, that doesn’t take away from its craftsmanship on a technical level. It’s an impressive film simply to experience, bombarding the viewer with bombastic sound design and gorgeous widescreen cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema. The movie never sags in terms of technical elements and even performance. Everyone is committed to Nolan’s runaway speed. Van Hoytema’s work is vibrant, Jennifer Lame’s editing is tight, and the performances are all good to great. In particular, Pattinson really shines in a playful register that he’s not often allowed to use.

The decision to release “Tenet” in theaters instead of VOD was controversial for many reasons, but there’s no denying that “Tenet” was conceived by Nolan to be an experience that shouldn’t be paused and needs to be projected with a speaker system turned up to 11 (even if that would have still been true if Warner Bros. had delayed the film until it was safer to see it). I almost got the sense that playing “Tenet” at a lower volume or even pausing it at home to take a break might reveal its flaws. Nolan doesn’t want you to be able to to dissect it or be distracted by your phone while you watch it. The irony is that he doesn’t want you to be able to rewind it. “Tenet” is a movie about momentum, reflected both in its narrative and its aesthetic, and more cracks would show without it.

Viewer response to “Tenet” will come down to how much one engages with that momentum. I expect a surprising number of people will open the door and jump out of this moving race car (look, another palindrome!) before it crosses the finish line, exhausted by a story that doesn’t make sense even as it’s trying to explain itself to you. Others will embrace the filmmaking’s energy, which starts with intensity and doesn’t let up much at all. The word I kept thinking of was one I used earlier in this review: “aggressive”—that may sound like high praise to Nolan fans looking for something other than a lazy, predictable blockbuster and harsh criticism to those who aren’t looking to be left weary by a self-serious sci-fi epic. In the spirit of a film about objects moving opposite ways in time in the same space, maybe both groups are right.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

John David Washington as The Protagonist
Robert Pattinson as Neil
Elizabeth Debicki as Kat
Kenneth Branagh as Andrei Sator
Michael Caine as Sir Michael Crosby
Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Ives
Dimple Kapadia as Priya
Himesh Patel as Mahir
Clémence Poésy as Laura
Andrew Howard as Stephen
Yuri Kolokolnikov as Quinton
Christopher Nolan

Cinematographer

Hoyte van Hoytema
Jennifer Lame
Ludwig Göransson

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Christopher Nolan's Tenet is now out in theaters, and it has been met with a mixed response; here's what the critics have said. Over the last 20 years, Christopher Nolan has become one of Hollywood's biggest directors . Whether he's tackling major franchises like The Dark Knight , telling imaginative stories like Inception , or a pulsating war film like Dunkirk , his movies are always among the most anticipated films of each year. Traditionally, the hype also comes with stellar reviews.

His new movie Tenet was sure to be one of 2020's most talked about movies when the year began, and the discussion surrounding the movie has only grown due to the landscape of its release. As the first major blockbuster released after coronavirus, all eyes have been on Tenet and its box office performance . In many ways, the focus on its performance and whether or not it should've been released now has overtaken discussion about Tenet itself, especially since the film has reached a smaller audience than anticipated.

Related: When Will Tenet Release At Home (And How?)

Tenet stars John David Washington as The Protagonist, who suddenly finds himself wrapped up in a time-bending plot to save the world, but the critical reception to the film has been tepid. With over 250 reviews accounted for on Rotten Tomatoes, Tenet just has a 72% fresh rating - putting it in a tie with Interstellar for Nolan's lowest-rated critical movie. The negative reviews for the movie often point to Tenet 's overly complicated story, its emotionless center, and undefined characters. Here are some examples:

IndieWire :

It’s clever, too — yes, the palindromic title has some narrative correlation — albeit in an exhausting, rather joyless way. As second comings go, “Tenet” is like witnessing a Sermon on the Mount preached by a savior who speaks exclusively in dour, drawn-out riddles. Any awe is flattened by follow-up questions.

Altogether, it makes for a chilly, cerebral film — easy to admire, especially since it's so rich in audacity and originality, but almost impossible to love, lacking as it is in a certain humanity.

New York Post :

The frame is simple enough. But contained within its James Bondian plot is an endless series of unanswered questions. After the movie debuted in Europe, some commenters said it makes more sense after rewatching it. But that’s a cop-out. Just about everything in life is better the second time. We shouldn’t have to drop another $15 to appreciate the nuances.

The critical response to Tenet certainly came with detractors, but there is another side of critics who adore what Nolan created here. Nolan's latest is among his most ambitious, not only in terms of the story he attempts to tell, but also because of the scale of the action and spectacle. The time-bending aspect of the film gave Nolan the opportunity to do action scenes that are completely unique, and those who have seen it on the big screen (or even bigger with IMAX) can't help but be impressed. Washington has also been a bright spot, even in the negative reviews, as the BlacKkKlansman star demonstrates his ability to lead a James Bond -esque action flick . Here are some samples of the positive reviews:

Chicago Sun-Times :

Mostly, though, it’s a Christopher Nolan film built on the foundations of previous (and in some cases much better) Christopher Nolan films. “Tenet” reaches for cinematic greatness and, though it doesn’t quite reach that lofty goal, it’s the kind of film that reminds us of the magic of the moviegoing experience.

It plays best when it stops showing us its work and morphs into the fanciest James Bond romp you ever did see, complete with dizzy global location-hopping, car chases that slip and loop like spaghetti, and bespoke tailoring you actually want to reach into the screen and stroke.

CinemaBlend :

Tenet is masterful. Few directors even try to work on Nolan’s level, and to witness him taking huge swings like this, time after time, and actually connecting is downright impossible. His intricate blockbusters, calculated down to the nanosecond, are high-wire dances that you watch with your heart in your throat, convinced he won’t be able to complete the elaborate trick he has labored so hard at establishing.

As a movie built around its ideas and awe rather than a tight story, viewers' enjoyment from Tenet has and will continue to vary. Tenet is a movie that repeatedly has been described as one that leans further into all of Christopher Nolan's tendencies as a storyteller and director. For those who are big fans of Nolan's filmography, Tenet is the type of complex experience that they've come to expect and appreciate. But, those hoping for something more controlled and emotional may find Nolan's latest movie to be a bit lacking.

Next: Tenet Ending Explained: All Questions Answered

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