Tenet

 

3 Reasons to See It: 1) the story, 2) clever editing, and 3) just the right amount of visual effects. 

3 Reasons to Not See It: 1) the story, 2) the occasional shot that wasn't lit well, and 3) Covid. The story was great, but it does bend your brain. I'd recommend seeing it twice. Some people do not appreciate that so fair warning. As far as Covid goes, there were only a few people in the theater when I went. Hardly anyone was there, but I know some folks are not ready to brave the theater yet.

Popcorn: 9/10. This was such a fun movie. Lots of action and sci-fi to bend your brain a bit. I plan on seeing it with the kids. It's one of those really good sci-fi movies with plenty of action. Many people compared it to Inception but this is a different level.

Art: 9/10. This is a solid movie. There was good acting, wonderful story, and interesting artistic use of music. There were some parts that were confusing for me, but I'm not sure if that's because I need a second viewing or because of a plot hole. I choose to believe the latter.

Acting: 7/8. Really good. Kenneth Branagh is always a treat and I've seen Elizabeth Debicki in a couple of films. I saw John David Washington in BlacKKKlansman and was really happy to see him in a new role.

Music: 6/6. The music would have been so-so, but I've played enough midi to recognize something special they did with it. But no spoilers. See if you can figure it out :)

Filming: 4/6. Not much to say here. It wasn't bad, but the strength of the movie was in the editing.

Art Dept: 4/4. Props to the visual effects crew. I think some of them were done with clever editing, but I think they would animate something in CGI just to make a point.

Editing/Mixing: 4/4. There's one shot in my head that I can't get out and I'm pretty sure it was a clever edit. When I was thinking through it, I think a lot of it was editing. More than the standard fare here.

Story: 9/10. This is very well thought out movie. It's complex and moves around quite a bit. It doesn't create too much confusion, but leaves enough to be open-ended. All the characters land well. There are a couple of things that plain didn't make sense but for the most part, this was one of the best stories I've seen in a long time.

Directing: 8/8. Christopher Nolan. 'Nuff said.

Production: 4/4. This was very much worth seeing on the big screen. Some moments are even noteworthy in IMAX.