Early Reviews for ‘Tenet' Range from 'Magnificent' to 'Huh?'

The reviews for “Tenet” came in today at noon EST.  With 33 reviews in, “Tenet” sits at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, with more than a few bewildered film critics pondering its plot and execution.

Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter says: “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.”

The irredeemable Guy Lodge of Variety:” a big, brashly beautiful, grandiosely enjoyable one that will provide succor to audiences long-starved for escapist spectacle on this beefy, made-for-Imax scale. 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. “Tenet” is no holy grail, but for all its stern, solemn posing, it’s dizzy, expensive, bang-up entertainment of both the old and new school. Right now, as it belatedly crashes a dormant global release calendar, it seems something of a time inversion in itself.”

 Jessica Kiang of The New York Times: “Tenet” dazzles the senses, but it does not move the heart — a criticism common to all of Nolan’s original films…But it’s not just lack of heart that holds “Tenet” back. Nolan imagines impossible technologies but won’t explore their deeper implications. ”

A more accurate score, if you like your aggregate scores based solely on the critical cream of the crop, is at an unimpressive 71 score (Based on 17 nationally-based publications). This isn’t glowing acclaim, nor did we expect that to be the case, “Inception” and “Interstellar” both nabbed scores of 74 back in, respectively, the summer and fall of 2010 and 2014.

You can expect my review of the film to pop up here on Tuesday afternoon.