Tenet: What Went Wrong?
Play World of Tanks here: tanks.ly/3t2BXlZ and use the code GIJOE21 to activate in-game missions to receive free GI Joe emblems to decorate your tanks and also get: 7 Days of a Premium Account, 500k credits, and a Premium Tank T14 (Tier 5). Thank you World of Tanks for sponsoring this video.
We love Christopher Nolan. So why did we all hate Tenet? We think it has a lot to do with some basic lessons you'd learn in any decent Screenwriting 101 class, or by watching one of his other movies like Inception or The Prestige. We'll explain in this Wisecrack Edition on Tenet: What Went Wrong?
Subscribe to Wisecrack! ► wscrk.com/SbscrbWC
Support us on Patreon! ► wscrk.com/32Q7huu
Check out our Merch Store! ► wisecrack.store/
=== Watch More Episodes! ===
The Philosophy of Christopher Nolan (Part 1) ► wscrk.com/CNlnpt1WE
The Brilliant Deception of Inception ► wscrk.com/BrIncptWE
The Dark Knight Rises: What Went Wrong? ► wscrk.com/2Q3N6ok
00:00 - Intro
02:29 - Movie Recap
04:12 - Three Act Structure
06:34 - How to Introduce a Character
12:49 - How to Introduce a World
Written by Thomas Ambrosini
Hosted by Michael Burns
Editing by Brian M. Kim
Video Title Card by Amanda Murphy
Additional Production Assistance: Matias Rubio
Directed and Produced by Evan Yee
Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound
#tenet #christophernolan #wisecrack
© 2021 Wisecrack / Omnia Media, Inc
Rank your fav Nolan films... we're curious! Also don't forget to check out World of Tanks here: tanks.ly/3t2BXlZ and use the code GIJOE21 for in-game perks. Thanks to World of Tanks for sponsoring this video!
The Prestige, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Memento, Tenet, Batman, the rest. The first three I really like. The others are meh.
@Ash Roskell I agree with absolutely everything you said here, including my stupidity at spoiling without a warning.
@Ash Roskell can a movie be faster paced but still make sense ? i kind of did Believe in them... Nothing is Perfect i think run time of the movie does not allow For deep characterization
@Ash Roskell hmm not a big fan of it
@Ash Roskell I think the fact that it works or doesn't work also has a little bit to do with the priming and what you are expecting and what you're expecting to expect if somebody introduced you to the film as what it was supposed to do you wouldn't expect it to give you something it was never trying to do you might feel a little bit of a lack because you usually get it but I think there's a way you can get people who usually want something out of a story to enjoy the other things in the story
Ur take on tenet suck so bad i had to write a comment
Timecrimes did a casual loop better
On first watch in the theatre I loved it, but I had some questions like: wasn't there a thing with a painting? But on second viewing it became my favourite film.
If Nolan had climbed the mountain to seek the advice of the Oracle, she would have said, "Tenet will fall, whole of Hollywood will fall. Do not believe in the judgment of men. Respect the streaming. Respect the the pandemic!"
Ok so Tenet was bad because the movie was going against a lot of concepts established in a usually good screenwriting narrative, which are present in previous Nolan's films, but the outcome didn't really work. I agree with some of what's been said, the protagonist being a blank slate was strange, unncesary and quite the wrong idea, i couldn't emphatize with him and at the end i ended up caring more about the story than him, which is not supposed to happen. What i actually disagree with is the opinion on the world building, i get that going against conventional narrative and doing it right is very hard, but you guys know that Nolan did kept us in the dark until the end deliberately and maybe previously aware of the result for the sake of the story to work. Think about it, part of the way for the protagonist to win the battle was to never be fully informed and operate in a way that fools Saito by making it feel assured that he's always two steps ahead of him, the prota didn't know what he was truly doing and why because knowin could've ruined the plan of his future self, and since we the spectators were placed to know what he knows, i think that the narrative intention was to leave us in the same dark that the protagonist was experiencing, and an unavoidable consequence of that is leaving the viewers confused if they look away from the screen for half a second, or even if they are paying attention cause yeah it's very confusing, but i believe that the intentionally vague worldbuilding was an actually good decision in this case. So anyway my point is that you may have misjudged that part, but maybe i'm wrong since i'm amateur as fuck in screenwriting. The rest makes a lot of sense in being wrong tho, peace out.
Well I respect your opinion, I completely disagree. I loved this movie it was a masterpiece. I'm going see it again soo. Healthy of course
was gonna drop a dislike, but i think this is good criticism.... tenet will settle in as a CLASSIC...in 10 years....just wait.
The Nolan magic is real! And Tenet is his biggest achievement to date: Here is a movie where you can't hear the dialogue, can't follow the plot, and ends in front of you like a plate of uneaten spaghetti -BUTTTT! I loved it!!!! TA-DAH!
It failed because you didn’t care about the characters and character motivation was questionable.
It obviously has a lot of problems, but it’s a memorable and entertaining film, and I would take any film like this over the rehashed superhero trash and worthless remakes of other films any day.
I think in some ways it’s the perfect film for the streaming age because it’s a film that you have to see at least twice to understand
I loved this film. This video is in pretty bad faith. Listen, do you ever believe that Tom Cruise has sexual chemistry with any of the actresses he is paired with in any Mission: Impossible movie? Most James Bond/ Mission: Impossible movies are also about vague doomsday plans, and have nonsense plots. It isn't a coincidence that the youtube criticism industry complex is dunking on this movie; but, filmmaker Sean Baker is on Twitter raving about it; because the tools youtube criticism has established for evaluating films are ineffective. Unlike most action films like James Bond and Mission: Impossible, one thing that I found fascinating about the movie is how the locations and production design always reinforce the ideas of the movie: wind farms, freeposts, abandon cities; and not to mention the salient criticism of capitalism's control of information, wealth and even temporal experience. Unlike this video, here is some actually interesting criticism: terranullius.substack.com/p/i-figured-out-tenet
i think you're looking at it wrong :/ the protagonist is us. character wouldn't tell us spoiler right? the movie begins at a theater and end with one, when the protagonist fight himself it's the fans arguing. there were like 20 times when i was 100% sure the characters are talking to me. sometimes they look at you in a certain way, and it makes you part of the story. because you can always watch a movie in any way you like it isn't straight forward, i felt bad when the blonde guy died (im bad with names) because he was our friend. to sum it up ill say the movie could be laughing at mainstream movies, could be just a way to make us part of the journey or maybe even just a game, and obviously i could be wrong but in order to get a more firm understanding ill have to re-watch/search for a director POV and thoughts. p.s it has been a while since i saw the movie so i might have mixed some stuff up but i still think my main point makes sense.
Unpopular opinion : I love the movie
this is a very popular opinion my friend...
I can't take any of your criticisms seriously because you spend the first 3 minutes of the video purposely misinterpreting scenes and plot that make perfect sense within the context of the film unlike many scenes in this film which are actually hard to understand. This film definitely isn't perfect and Nolan and everyone who knows anything about his career know that this film is a seasoned director's experiment, which you seem to be blissfully ignorant of. Instead, you play into the view of the confused casual movie goer and terribly explain a plot which is already hard to follow to satirise a film which actually has merits. It's literally blindingly obvious that the main character was purposefully made a blank slate called 'the Protagonist' but instead you suggest that it was a mistake. I'm only 10 minutes in. Why people liked this video instead of moving along to actual constructive commentary I will never understand.
Im starting to think Nolan made Tenet specifically for Wisecrack
Nothing went wrong, it’s just people hating on it because their brains aren’t developed enough to understand it.
Horrible movie, this flick only serves the pourpose of proving that you cannot have a good story with only "plot" and without characters
This video and the Cyberpunk one almost make me want to unsubscribe. But I won’t in honor of Jared... I miss Jared.
Why is the movie bad? I always find that to be a stupid jump. Movies are either great or suck. Can't the movie just be good? Good enough? I noticed a lot of the mistakes, but the movie didn't suddenly drop to "bad, really bad". It's easy to mock the movie now that you didn't spend nights tearing your hairs to come up with the concept. The IMDB page of the movie has it right, the movie is a nice 7/7.5 out of 10 movie. If Tenet is "bad, really bad" where does that leave the Twilight franchise, 50 SOG and all those movies?
I will in a birthday party 15 years later with a beer in my hand say: "Oh!! That film Tenet! What about that!!? It is a film but time reverse in it, but how? In the first act there is that explanation scene where is shown that the agent can catch bullets, by reversing time for those objects. But later on all the characters go in a machine and from then on they self are going reserve in time. The people are through a machine going the other direction in time!! So! What is it?!! object or living things are going reverse in time?!! That movie... That movie didn't choose. It was bad."
Like dislike ratio lmao youre wrong and this film is amazing
What went wrong? Nothing
Tenet is plain stupid...
For me this movie was a complete misfire involving nothing characters, incoherent plot and a poorly explained concept, just 2 and half hours of people spouting stuff I couldn’t hear and action sequences that weren’t at all interesting. Far and away nolens worst movie
IMO the biggest problem with TENET is the beginning. I had no idea why the Protagonist was at the opera or if he was officially with the police or not. It's important to at least tell the audience what the setting and reasons for the action are at the beginning. It also doesn't have a reversed scene like most of the movie, so it just kind of doesn't fit in. I'm guessing that the concept was kind of difficult to determine a beginning for. By the third act, I was just taking it as it went, but it would have been better if I knew more of what was going on and what came before.
i kinda agree about not setting up the main character, and yea the main character seems very flat...
If this film was made by any other director, not even one person would have stood up for it. It is one of the worst cinema experiences I have had.
The protagonist being part of a military unit, and dying for his mission does not develope character and set the tone? Doesnt imply that hes done hours upon hours of training and is a trusted asset. That theres no way that he could defect under any circumstance. That his day to day life is a matter of national security. These characters are some of the people who work in armies, militaries and intelligence agencies. Certain freedoms are sacrificed for the mission, the greater good or the benefit of the country. Not having familes, going out with friends, meeting new people for leisure etc etc. Not to mention the main character lost his team, brothers and sisters in arms at the beginning of the movie.
I don't think that the core idea of tenet is that hard to understand, although it is hard to enjoy. Having already watched 3 seasons of Netflix Dark and absolutely loving it, I'm convinced that convoluted plot might not necessarily has to be told in a convoluted way.
Predestination was a better time paradox movie!!
just rewatched it yesterday...it's definitely made to be watched several times because i enjoyed it a lot more than the first time (although i liked it after the initial viewing as well)
I like the title at least. >>> TeneT
Wisecrack: what went wrong? - Jared left and Michael feels “unentertained” when challenged
This movie doesn't challenge you. It puts you to sleep
Sorry wisecrack, but you have no idea what you're talking about. First, confusion in the first act is key to not reveal the twist in the final act, that Protagonist created TENET and traveled trough time and also that him and Neil knew each other for very long. Second, the first act revealed and structured very well the way for all the third act to make sense. I agree the writing is Nolan's weakness, he is not talented in that regard as his brother Johnathan is, but even despite of the poor writing, the structure is very well articulated. One just need to pay attention to details. I am not saying TENET is a Masterpiece, but structure and execution are very well made. Anyways. It is a movie, open to discussion and also to different opinions. What I got annoyed the most about this review is how it kept on hand on making a comparison to the prestige and inception narrative, which makes no sense as they are 3 different movies, plots and settings, only thing they have in common is Chris Nolan as director. So yeah, they can't be portrayed using the same arguments. Otherwise name it Inception 2 or the prestige 2.
What's funny about TENET detractors is that they cringe at things such as handshakes from the officer in the first act or lines like "Including my son" while at the same time complain saying things like "I need emotional arcs for these characters" or "these characters lack of emotional depth"... lol
It’s fine if there are some flaws, but the novel concept of the movie more than makes up for it in my opinion. So many people in the comments are being so negative towards the movie, but it’s my second favorite of all time. I’ve been thinking about the movie ever since I saw it because of how complex and thought-provoking it is. And the lack of information given at the beginning is the only way I would see the temporal pincers working in the movie. Give the audience too much information and they might know what the ending is or get frustrated by the actions of the protagonist. Give the protagonist too much information and he will try rewriting time, going against the plans of his more knowledgable future self, ending in failure.
Yes, you missed the point
You may not have liked Nolan’s film, but he’s not the one peddling World of Tanks.
I haven't watched this video yet but the answer is very little, I loved the film I've seen it twice and will watch it again
Still like it so 🙄
I wouldn’t say it’s bad. It’s just average
It didn't work because it has black protagonist
The protagonist was the issue, extremely dull and not the best of actors.
I went to see Tenent at AMC dolby. Parts of it still felt inaudible, in a "well aligned, great theater."
Trying to explain 1-2-2-1 story structure with a linear 1-2-3 story structure. That's why I unsubscribed from this channel.
Nothing.
The “it does not follow film conventions” arguments are surprisingly narrow minded for WC.
wisecrack use to put out quality videos, garbage channel now
It seems to me that writers and directors are creating content based on the availability of technology and future technologies. So if a budget is cut, the staff has to modify expectations/story/plot, basically gutting the plot because technically they can’t do it anymore.
Hate these click-bate negative connotation titles you keep putting. Creating such bias before you even begin, nothing is 'wrong why not come up with a better neutral title when you do these melodramatic movie reviews
this got to be the worst Wisecrack essay yet
I watched it in reverse and it is still the same...
16:10 I guess Nolan himself proved that even without linear storytelling, we can get invested in a Character in movies like Memento and Prestige.
Sucks that Nolan had to share writing credit with those Sator Squares 🤣
By the end of Tenet I was just happily watching the spectacle of things going boom. I had lost track of the plot an hour earlier, and the atrocious sound track didn't help. I really like Nolan's films, but this one was far too ambitious and simply didn't work.
Movie was fantastic lol
"Quibi and get busy" sounds hella old🤣
You're not pushing the poop, you're pulling it. Tenet-style.
A great example of how a bigger budget, more freedom and a success rate can sometimes work against the filmmaker. The biggest problem to me anyway was bland characters. Even if stories are not exceptional, one would like to latch on to one of the characters and follow their arc. In Tenet I felt there was no character I was rooting for, I did not understand why the villian's motivation was for the world to end and the chemistry between characters was next to zero.
YES, okay. But cmon man, its a very entertaining movie. I appreciate directors/movies who try to make some different stuff. Not all the same bullshit we watch at the cinema these days. Maybe is not the best film of Nolan, but damn it was fun.
This is a film for dumb people to feel smart, without actually being smart. I'm so relieved to hear some reason. Otherwise I feel so lonely in this world of crazy people. I cannot understand why Nolan has his head so far up his own ass and forgot everything about story telling all of a sudden. Probably because of all those mouthbreather around him who never question him.
Nolan is trying to make money off USworlds explanation videos. No money left in cinema tickets
While I agree with most of your criticisms, I still think it's a good movie. Yes, it is a movie about a concept much more than it is about an emotional connection with the characters, but that concept and the way it twists your mind into a pretzel, once you start thinking about all the implications it has for the story, is absolutely genius. I would probably agree that it is Nolan's weakest movie to date, but I still find it utterly fascinating.
You're right about one thing here ....... I'm just way smarter than you are.
It breaks my heart that people hate this movie. Literally one of the most innovative and original blockbusters I've ever seen. In a time when all we get is Marvel movies and Disney live action remake shit.
I think it was a genius exposition of the premise which is "what if we could reverse entropy?" something no one has done before in a story (I think) It has amazing and clever situations, but yes, at the end it's an experience, a case study, but not a regular movie with a character driven story to care about, it's kind of like many videogames where the game mechanics and playable scenarios come first and the story comes second. So, I guess what I'm saying is: I want the TENET game!
Ironic how this video may have missed one key point (and they inlayed that very scene too) where Dimple Kapadia says that that the Protagonist is just ONE protagonist. We're not supposed to care about his personal identity and life because anybody and everybody has the power to change the world. So instead of getting attached to sentimentalities, the film encourages us to think in a "doer" mentality, and to that credit, not one scene in the 2.5 hour long film can be considered filler. Also, it's not some generic "world-ending" plotline. Andrei clearly says how future generations want to reverse the flow of time completely because, "Their seas are rising and rivers are drying" clearly talking about the water crises that we all know are going to happen in the future if we don't take care of them now. They want the seas flowing back into clean usable river-water but since everything else would be inverted, the present-world would die off. Sorry Wisecrack team, this was not the quality of content I expect from you guys. Edit: He has a name, Neil or Robert Pattinson. I think it was in really poor taste to keep calling him Edward Cullen. He did a good job playing this character, so can you focus on that?
Title - Tenet: What Went Wrong? First line - "Michael here to talk about the single cinematic bright spot..." Me - What are we doing here??
Funny how these connoisseur of arts never made a breakdown of this nature for an MCU movie. Feige must be paying you well, guys. That or either you don't bother with their movies because they're not worth pedantic analysis. Which I'd agree with, the MCU is more shallow than a gutted bread.
chris nolan sucks is what went wrong.
There’s no way he could’ve gone back in time to recruit the whole team, because he would’ve had to be inverted for a long time in order to have met Edward Cullen a “long time ago”. They don’t time travel, they move at the same speed just backwards and this is so stupid.
Saying this movie is bad is reductive. It's an amazing film meant to be watched several times. Love your stuff but you're wrong on this one
Dug it but whatever.
I agree. The lead character was not relatable.
The film definitely had some character.
Not a "hand shake" a hand sign.
wait......did we hate tenet?
The hubris of thinking you can reinvent the fundamental laws of causality & still make a coherent story. His scripts are so pleased w/ their own "cleverness" yet even his decent films are dumb as hell.
Just because the characters and story are hard to understand, doesn't mean it makes no sense or that it isn't entertaining. 2001 A Space Odissey wasn't an easy movie to watch, and everyone agreed it was a masterpiece.
the purpose of Tenet is the concept, not the characters. That's like playing Street Fighter because you REALLY want to know and understand Ken's family life. Bro who cares, that's not the point. The protagonist's name is literally The Protagonist, so you're not supposed to get hung up on it.
the purpose of Tenet is the concept, not the characters. That's like playing Street Fighter because you REALLY want to know and understand Ken's family life. Bro who cares, that's not the point.
The sound mixing was done by an autistic deaf.
Exactly these were my problems with the movie, too! i don't like when people say "I understood the movie and it is sooooo complex, hence, it is great" - no. only because the film has a complex structure or a new, "InTellIgEnT" idea doesn't mean that it is a "masterpiece". a so-called masterpiece includes all... Let's take clockwork orange for example: the underlying themes are complex, however, in addition, the protagonist is three dimensional and we learn enough about him, so that, eventhough he did cruel things in the beginning, we actually care what is happening to him. Tenet fails so much in character exposition, this can't be rescued by a "groundbreaking new world". BTW it already annoyed me with inception that people flex so much with: " Whaaat you didn't get this and that part? I fully understand the movie". ...yeaah..get lost :)
For me it was the character acting like we know them and their back stories
This movie is Straight TRASH.
I really don't agree with your points. Tenet isn't a Michael Bay film, you absolutely have to watch it multiple times to appreciate it. I definitely won't say it is Nolan's best work, but saying it is not entertaining is a sham.
I was able to follow the story and I thought the take on time travel was interesting, but I just didn’t care about the Protagonist, I didn’t find the villain engaging, and the “romance” was forced and flat. I found side characters more interesting and wished the movie had followed them instead.
0:47 "While plenty of critic picked apart the film for nonsensical plot". I searched the top article u showed and non of the 10 points given broke the plot.
it doesn't have to be annoying or genius....but entertaining. did the job. not a nolan masterpiece but the visceral experience of the music and time reversal is original and interesting enough.
No it doesnt,check,bad editing,acting,sound which destroys everything that tried to be good in this movie.it sucked
The biggest problem is that cause cannot follow effect. Things "traveling backwards in time" can't even break this basic rule. To break this rule is to break the definition of time. The concept of a palindromic movie is a cool one, but you have to pick a topic that can be the same forward and backwards. TIME is not one of those things. The arrow of time forbids symmetry. Effect -> Cause is nonsensical, so you can't mirror Cause -> Effect.
I just watched the movie and I loved it. After reading a lot of weird reviews, I felt weird towards the movie. I'm a big Nolan's fan because he has proven how good he is with every single movie he has made. So, I was hyped but also a little worried. However, after watching the movie I just loved it. So, I can't relate with your point of view and after 40 seconds of watching this video I was already disliking it with all my 300 youtube accounts. Wisecrack isn't that bad but I get a little tired of a bunch of white dudes telling me if a movie is good or bad just because they think that way. At the end, it's just about opinions and perspectives.
Was anyone else bothered by tenet's finale? I understood that they were fighting and shooting at the russian's private army but at the same time you barley seen them. You see gunfire but you don't see who it the bullets hit.
Gotta be honest, I was confused at the fact so many were confused by Tenent. Guess being autistic has its upsides xD
This movie was great. Who cares if it doesn't follow some stiff paint-by-numbers film school nonsense.
There's one more point I wanted you to touch, the concept of entropy and how it doesn't make ANY sense because it defies physics too much. I wish Nolan had put out some other term for this whole phenomenon because using the term "entropy" just made me feel like "yeah, this is nonsense, that's not what entropy is and I can't watch this movie seriously now".
Why the "reverse entropy" makes no sense? For the little I know, I think entropy is defined by the different possible states in a system (so high entropy=more states). So, if an object is reversed, its entropy lowers with the forward passage of time. And if the object is for an example a bullet, its entropy is lower when it's not fired yet, so, that's the direction it wants to go.
It's almost deliberately bad. It rests totally, absolutely, entirely on its main conceit and all the other bits of a story are just totally missing.
nah, Tenet was awesome