Finally saw Tenet (and Nolan films ranked)

[Pale Violet Light]

So perhaps I should explain my inarguable ratings! First, I should say that IMO, no Nolan movie is a bad Nolan movie.

He’s a hack of the worst kind. The twist in the Prestige is so stupid that M. Night would be embarrassed to use it. And Interstellar tossed away any claim to scientific rigor halfway through, in favor of mawkish, vomit-inducing sentimentality.

… ok Inception is pretty good.

 

[GreyLord]

He’s a hack of the worst kind. The twist in the Prestige is so stupid that M. Night would be embarrassed to use it. And Interstellar tossed away any claim to scientific rigor halfway through, in favor of mawkish, vomit-inducing sentimentality.

… ok Inception is pretty good.

Interstellar may be one of Nolan's most notable films...IMO...not due to the scientific rigor, but due to the relevance it has to our day and present situation.

He never states why, but in a world where we face challenges that could end our way of life as we know it from several different vectors, the basic idea of the world slowly dying has a direct relation to our times and events today.

However, it also extrapolates how different people deal with this. You see these exact same behaviors today, from those that want to quell any thought of these dangers out there and presently happening, to those who want to focus on our present activities and what we are doing presently to survive rather than anything dealing with the future or how to change it. Different facets that we see in people today, from despair, to determination are covered in Interstellar.

Though it deals with Science Fiction, in some ways Interstellar is his most modern movie that deals with the real situations and attitudes that we see in the West today.

 

[Clint_L]

The plot of Interstellar annoys me, as well. Yes, it’s relevant to today in obvious ways, but it is also sentimental and dumb, offering no useful insights. But it’s almost worth it for the visuals alone.

Nolan is an extremely skilled director, and does wonders with the right script. He’s hit or miss as a screenwriter, and sometimes sacrifices realism in favour of the metaphysical point he is making. I think that is an awkward fit with hard SF, so that Interstellar takes a hard turn that loses me.

 

[Pale Violet Light]

The plot of Interstellar annoys me, as well. Yes, it’s relevant to today in obvious ways, but it is also sentimental and dumb, offering no useful insights. But it’s almost worth it for the visuals

It’s certainly a pretty movie.

He’s hit or miss as a screenwriter, and sometimes sacrifices realism in favour of the metaphysical point he is making. I think that is an awkward fit with hard SF, so that Interstellar takes a hard turn that loses me.

Exactly! They also made a big deal about how accurate their modeling of the black hole was, and then ruin it with the insane suggestion that there could be a life-supporting world around said black hole. Before finishing with some execrable nonsense about how actually love is the strongest force in the universe. Bleugh! Who are you, Dan Simmons??

 

[Retros_x]

1. The Dark Knight
2. The Prestige
3. Batman Begins
4. Inception
5. The Dark Knight Rises
6. Tenet
7. Interstellar

Havent seen the other ones. People claiming Interstellar is the new "2001" made me so mad. I think Nolan is the most overrated contemporary director. I still see most of his movies in cinema, because they look great and I alwas have enjoyment seeing them on the big screen. But they rarely are more than 3.5 * for me. The dialogue is often just soo awful and stiff. And he explains SO MUCH. Nothing is left open for the viewer. Viewers feel intelligent when they see his movies, but they are often dumbed down.

I will never forget the stubid robot having a radio connection from outside the black hole to Cooper just to explain in detail for the viewer what is going on. Or the austronaut doing a "explain like am 5 years old" of wormholes to Cooper while being already in space in front of said wormhole. When you saw 2-3 sci-fi movies the plot was also quite predictable and not that mind naughty word that everybody claimed. Also the whole "love as physical force" was way too cheesy for my taste.

I think Nolan is at his best when he doesn't try to be intellectual and just want to create good entertainment. I think if he just wouldn't wrote the scripts (or his brother) and just would direct actually well written scripts, he could be a true masterclass director.

 

[GreyLord]

It’s certainly a pretty movie.

Exactly! They also made a big deal about how accurate their modeling of the black hole was, and then ruin it with the insane suggestion that there could be a life-supporting world around said black hole. Before finishing with some execrable nonsense about how actually love is the strongest force in the universe. Bleugh! Who are you, Dan Simmons??

Depends on your point of view.

Christopher Nolan, despite not advertising his religious beliefs, was raised Christian and incorporates a lot of Christian ideas into his films.

I'm not going to delve to deeply into religious or political ideas on this board, but in order to understand some of his films you would need to understand christianity and the christian themes he has integrated into the themes of his films.

In regards to Love, it is not just love of each other, but love of a father for his child and children. In a Christian light...yes...that would be the most powerful force in the universe and the only way for a Christian to be "saved" as it were. What could work even more so is that this Father may not be seen or able to talk to his children regularly directly, but has ways to communicate via other means, and it is their greatest desire to aid their children.

Tenet also touches deeply on this subject, where it focuses on the differences in Christianity between the idea of predestination (Calvinism) and Free Will (what many others such as Baptist promote) and the integration between both and how they could work together (also a Calvinistic idea...though Nolan was raised Catholic).

 

[Pale Violet Light]

Depends on your point of view.

Christopher Nolan, despite not advertising his religious beliefs, was raised Christian and incorporates a lot of Christian ideas into his films

Fascinating! I hate it.

 

[TiQuinn]

I generally enjoy Nolan movies for the intricacy of the plot structure that his movies typically have, whether it’s the rules of the dreamscape in Inception, the deconstruction of Batman, the non-linear narratives of Dunkirk and Memento, etc. Patrick Willems did a YouTube video describing Tenet as a vibe movie - it was all style and little substance by design, and ultimately it suffered for it. While Nolan’s movies can be pretty cold, they usually try to explain their conceit and if you like that stuff, you enjoy the complexity and his ability to still tell a story within that.

I think where Nolan is a bit overrated for me are his action scenes. I find them somewhat lifeless in their execution, which is kind of interesting in the sense that a lot of his movies can be considered action movies (Batman, Inception, Tenet). But the action is less about the actual stunt work or fight choreography and it’s really about the payoff to narrative tension that he’s built up. Batman’s fights with Bane, for instance, are pretty standard, straightforward fights without a lot of flash that we’d might expect in a movie about a superhero/ninja/fighting machine. But I think we kind of forgive that because Nolan does a great job building up to those moments of action, rather than being a great action director.

All in all, the guy’s movies are must watch, appointment viewing for me. He’s one of the few big directors doing original movies these days, and even if his style is kind of cold, it’s still unique to him.