I've had a copy of this for ages but never watched it. It seems right to watch a BIG film in company. So, my daughter came to visit and the WilliamA family sat down with Biryani to watch..........a pile of shit.
Oh boy. What a heap of crap.
Do I care what happens to any of these people? Nope.
Do I care that they've worked out the back and forth time travel story? Nope.
Am I excited and drawn into the adventure? Nope.
Am I puzzled by all the multi-star reviews? You bet your life.
I haven't seen all of Christopher Nolan's films, but I have seen several. When he goes for entertainment, mindless or otherwise, he seems to score. I'd say Dunkirk (for example) is serious entertainment and not a bad war film at all. The Batman movies are mindless and fun. When he has a crack at being a bit clever (Inception, Interplanetary, Tenet) he comes unstuck. Inception is the best of that little bundle IMHO, and works quite well as high-concept escapist fun. Interplanetary is great to look at, but the so-called clever story relies on a not especially clever device of having something inexplicable near the start of the film that turns out to be something even less well-explained happening at the end. (Please don't explain it to me. I've heard the explanation and it's about as intellectually challenging as the magic in a Sinbad movie and half as honest).
As for Tenet: I'll give it another go, just in the hope that it's not as bad as the first viewing suggested. I saw a review that suggested I would need to be an "expert" in metaphysics to follow the story. I don't think the world of metaphysics need be unduly troubled by Tenet. Maybe a world where metaphysics has "experts" might be.