Submarine Channel

Tenet, Interstellar and emotions

/Yassin/ Did you know that Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate, worked on Interstellar?

Nolan was so keen on getting the physics right—especially the black hole—that he didn’t hesitate to hire the top dog in the field. Don’t expect any of that in Tenet. When a scientist introduces the film’s protagonist to the world of inverted time, she simply says: “Don’t try to understand it.”

But it’s not just the scientific concepts. In comparison with Interstellar’s, Tenet’s characters are shallow and lack motives for doing what they do, too. John David Washington’s The Protagonist is just a goody-two-shoes who happens to save the world. Period. Throughout the film, I couldn’t care less about his fate. You don’t get to know his motives and personality at all (not even his name!)

At the opposite, in Interstellar you do get acquainted with Cooper, the main character, and the motives behind his actions are well explained. Interstellar hit me right in the feels repeatedly. Tenet not so much.

Push forward! ⏩

⏪ Time to take a step back

This article is part of Submarine Channel’s interactive review of Tenet. You can start exploring it here.