Tenet reviews note film’s James Bond vibe

Tenet poster

A lot is riding on Tenet, Christopher Nolan’s combination spy-fi and sci-fi movie. It will be a test whether people are willing to return to movie theaters amid the continuing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Critics have now had a look and writing reviews. Some note how director Nolan, a Bond fan, channels 007 in the film.

What follows are non-spoiler excerpts.

DANNY LEIGH, FINANCIAL TIMES: “Bond gets a subscription to New Scientist. For all the cryptic packaging, Tenet is really an action spy movie of the oldest school, built on supervillains, plutonium and holiday brochure photography in world tour locations.”

LESLIE FELPERIN, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: “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.”

JESSICA KIANG, NEW YORK TIMES: “(Tenet star John David) Washington is basically James Bond, forward and backward, a kind of 00700, right down to the occasional wry one-liner. And if it takes megastar charisma to be able to memorably inhabit so vaporous a role, he is also blessed to be playing off an equally unflappable (Robert) Pattinson.”

JAMES MOTTRAM, SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST: “Laced with references to theoretical physics, Tenet comes across like a tentpole movie with a PhD. Fan forums will be unpicking the intricacies of the plot for years to come, while Nolan’s narrative daring leaves other spy movies looking infantile.”

GUY LODGE, VARIETY: “Like ‘Inception,’ which used the essential language of the heist film as an organizing structure for Nolan’s peculiar fixations of chronology and consciousness, “Tenet” tricks out the spy thriller with expanded science-fiction parameters to return to those pet themes.”