Seen at the Peninsula Cinema, Sorrento VIC
Bea says: Tenet was my suggestion as Cecil isn't really into the whole sci-fi/time travel/action genre but I don't mind it as a bit of escapism; and I had heard some good reviews from colleagues and BBC podcasts on the film. We were taking advantage of the current relative easing of restrictions in our state of Victoria, Australia and had gone away for the weekend (our first time since March) to the Mornington Peninsula. Sorrento has a lovely old cinema (although I will leave Cecil to say more about that), Tenet was on at a time that suited us, and so it was decided. It was our first cinema outing since March and it did have some odd quirks (not least the rather non-socially distanced spacing the booking system decided on!) but all in all it was lovely to be in a cinema again.
Tenet is action-packed from the opening scenes; it's loud, quite violent, pacey and beautifully shot. It's rather like a blend of Bond, Dr Who and the Terminator series. Basically, our hero, the Protagonist (John David Washington), a CIA agent, narrowly escapes death in mysterious circumstances, and as a result is recruited to a secret organisation called Tenet, who are able to manipulate time. This organisation claim to be trying to avert a mass war/man made apocalypse which occurs in the future, and the Protagonist will be assisting in this goal, moving backward and forwards in time to do so, travelling to exotic locations and meeting and re-meeting contacts in different places in time and space. The plot is very complex and I definitely missed things; but I did love watching the beautiful scenery of the exotic locations (this, and the action sequences, is what reminded me of the Bond films, particularly the early ones before mass travel was available). I liked the inclusion of the puzzle of time travel and the Sator square (where the Tenet name comes from) - these aspects reminded me of the Dr Who series.
I would watch this again to pick up more of the plot details and I broadly enjoyed it, but - trigger warning - it is violent and there are explicit torture scenes and violence towards women. I found these disturbing and as the torture scene occurs early on I wondered if I could hack it.
I understand from reading about the film that is was badly impacted by Covid-19; it is clear it could turn into a series of films but that may not happen now.
It was also really nice to see some diversity in lead roles.
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Cecil says: Sometimes we want to go to a specific cinema as much as we do a particular film, and the Peninsula Cinemas in Sorrento were a case in point. This is one of those lovely vintage cinemas built over 100 years ago, and still screening films today. Tenet was on at the right time for us, and although it wasn't in the screen room where lots of the original features can be found, it suited our schedule to go there, so that was our choice, even though I had a hunch it might not be my cup of tea, as Bea has said.
The opening 10-15 minutes seemed to be an exact copy of any Jason Bourne film, with chases, fights, lots of gunfire, lots of explosions, confusion, action and general excitement or mayhem. I find with the Bourne films (seen during lockdown on TV so I do know the genre) that the best thing for me is to switch off, do something else even during those opening scenes of tremendous action and violence, and just tune in to the storyline after things have calmed down a bit.
That approach usually works with the Jason Bourne stories, but in the case of Tenet, I never really caught up with the plot. I vaguely knew it was about time travel and some people were moving forwards as normal, while others moved backwards through time. It was highly complex and my brain just couldn't be bothered to try to understand it really, especially as I didn't ever really care what happened to any of the characters (a real downside I've found for some of the books I've been reading while we were unable to see films at cinemas during Covid).
And, rather like Usual Suspects all those years ago now, there were probably clues left for the viewer in vital scenes, especially as we neared the yawningly dramatic climax, but if a story depends on a vital clue that is flashed across the screen in a milli-second, and if you aren't tuned in for that, you miss the whole point, then it isn't much of a story in my book.
Sorry, Tenet, just not my thing (oh, and the very fact that both Bea and myself have thought of so many different films or genres it reminds us of surely says a lot about how derivative it is rather than breaking new ground in cinema - God, I'm sounding like a pompous bore, but honestly I was bored...)
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