I didn't like it. Not because of the acting (tho Michael Caine was obviously on a one-day contract and Branagh overdid the Russian oligarch thing), not because of the cinematography, not because of the time warp, but because of the script and the concept. In retrospect, I notice that Nolan does everything right except the human dimension. Here, why does the Russian oligarch decide to destroy the world (including his son) because he's dying? Yes, maybe his past attachment to his son has just been a ploy to torture his wife, but he's been collecting the instruments for annihilation for years. Why does the Protagonist spend so much effort helping the oligarch's wife when the world is in jeopardy?

In short, it was James Bond with time travel. I read that Nolan spent 20 years on this concept. Maybe it would be better if someone else wrote the screenplay next time. ( )

The Protagonist (Washington) is hired by the Tenet organization to help in a cold war with the future. He's tasked with finding a weapon the future is planning to use on the past. Pretty interesting and technically compelling. Needs at least 2 watchings.

2021 movie #147 ("Tenet") Liked this the 1st time I saw it but decided I needed to see it again to really understand it. Watched it again yesterday. Still like it but still don't really understand it. ( )

Don't Try To Understand It... Feel It
Review of the Faber & Faber Kindle eBook edition (September 2020)

Don't except any further explanations here of what is going on in the film. This is the screenplay with a bare minimum of scene and setting descriptions. There is an appendix section which displays the storyboards for several scenes, esp. the encounter inside the Oslo freeport.

The main benefit of this is to be able to understand the dialogue which was often obscured by the FX noises in the film. Once there is a streaming or home release with subtitles that will be the ideal way to watch the film.

Trivia and Link
Someone has modelled various forward & inverted scenes of the film which may help in some understanding (SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY). It is still confusing to follow though. The highway scene (Filmed in Estonia, yeah!) is here. Forward characters are in red, inverted characters are in blue. The orange case and the "Plutonium 451" piece are orange and silver. The box at lower right represents the inversion machine. ( )

Armado con tan solo una palabra –Tenet– el protagonista de esta historia deberá pelear por la supervivencia del mundo entero en una misión que le lleva a viajar a través del oscuro mundo del espionaje internacional, y cuya experiencia se desdoblará más allá del tiempo lineal. (FILMAFFINITY)