Warner Bros. is rereleasing Tenet on 70mm IMAX screens this weekend, and you better believe I’ll be the first in line. Why? For all its flaws, Tenet remains a grand blockbuster that stands head and shoulders above most modern releases. We should celebrate its achievements rather than lament its faults.
More pivotally, many moviegoers continually ask for more original products to go with the steady dose of sequels, remakes, and knockoffs. Tenet offers the perfect counterpunch to dreck like The Flash, Madame Web, and anything Disney produces these days. Again, it’s not perfect, but Nolan’s picture certainly delivers an original concept and boasts unique action and visuals.
Where else will you see a fight between two men moving in, traveling in opposite temporal directions? I’ve seen this sequence a dozen times, and I still can’t wrap my head around it:
Nolan paints Tenet on a massive canvas. As per custom, he shoots various sequences for IMAX, resulting in breathtaking vistas and a larger-than-life spectacle. The man destroys a 747 plane without CGI, which looks amazing in the large format. Ditto with a third-act action sequence during which two factions of time travelers run amok in the same space simultaneously.
As a character explains, “Don’t try to understand it; feel it.” What better way than in a large auditorium with state-of-the-art sound blasting Ludwig Göransson’s rhythmic score? Tenet was made for the big screen, and you won’t fully appreciate Nolan’s genius unless you see it the way he intended.
You can also see Kenneth Branagh’s hilariously campy performance up close, marvel at John David Washington’s intense commitment to a curiously underwritten role, marvel at Robert Pattison’s laid-back charm, and Elizabeth Debicki’s ability to douse her boyfriend with an absurd amount of suntan lotion. This film has it all.
Tenet may see Nolan reaching a little too high in his attempts to produce the most unique moviegoing experience imaginable. Ultimately, I see Tenet as a heat check by a man who had previously done very little wrong. Thankfully, rather than trying to top himself yet again, Nolan scaled back and crafted Oppenheimer, a grand, albeit intimate character study that didn’t rely on time-travel gimmicks, complex plotting, or massive, mind-bending set pieces. Hopefully, he realizes he doesn’t have to redefine motion pictures on every project, though I applaud the effort.
So, again, as with Dune and recent rereleases like Jaws, E.T., and Titanic, I implore you to see Tenet on the big screen. My opinion on the theater experience will never change, no matter how large my TV grows. Nothing beats the movie theater experience, where the stars truly shine, even when walking backward through time.