Probably no movie—except maybe the eternally delayed James Bond flick No Time To Die—has come to represent the difficulties of releasing films in COVID World better than Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. Thanks to delays, arguments about digital distribution, worries about pandemic exposure, and the implication that the fate of the entire theater industry was resting on its back, Nolan’s perfectly serviceable action flick has taken on layers far beyond what its admittedly delightful explosions and intentionally convoluted plot could ever probably support. In fact, it’s picked up so much symbolic weight that people started doing intentional art projects just to spite Nolan, including the hilariously mean-spirited act of squashing the entire film down to the point it could fit in five tiny Game Boy Advance cartridges.
And now, at last, it’s come to this: Tenet is coming to HBO Max, once dubbed “the worst streaming service” by the film’s director, who was royally pissed off about Warner Media’s (now firmly executed) plans to release movies on the service simultaneous with their theatrical releases. That’s not the case for Tenet, obviously—Nolan managed to secure its long-demanded theatrical run last year, and the film’s been available VOD for months now—but the thought of the movie now resting atop a structure that he’s spent the last several months blasting is the sort of rich irony it’s hard to say no to. Also, there’s the more basic fact that, if you’d yet to see Tenet (on account of the deadly global pandemic) this’ll probably be a pretty good way to finally see it.*
*This viewpoint is not supported or endorsed by Tenet director Christopher Nolan.
90 Comments
Are we pretending that Peacock with its insane amount of ads, horrible user interface, and really bad discovery doesn’t exist???|
I’m not saying HBO max is good, but it is better the Peacock.
Nobody other than Christopher Nolan thinks HBO Max is the worst. It’s one of the best, and probably better than Netflix at this point. But he did call it the worst. That’s why it’s in quotation marks.
It’s got a shitty interface and is buggy on a lot of platforms.
It’s dense with good content, though, as opposed to, yeah, Peacock, Paramount+ and a bunch of others.
It’s almost impossible to select a high number season of South Park. It’s like they never tested it.
Prime has pretty decent content but the interface makes me never want to use it
Is Paramount+ bad? I have Amazon Prime and was just considering adding the Paramount channel this weekend; it turns out they have a lot of content I’ve been looking for.
HBO Max is the best streamer from a pure content perspective and as a person without kids, it’s not even close.HOWEVER, its performance on PS4 is fucking ghastly. It hits snags at least once per episode/movie where you have to back out to the home screen and resume, its fast forward is borderline unusable, god forbid you accidentally rewind because you’ll probably have to close/reopen the app to get back to where you were, there’s no dedicated watch list tab and they restrict the length of your watch list on the home screen, and it routinely has a weird controller bug where it just scrolls in one direction until you move it in another direction. BY FAR the worst UI and overall performance of any of our streamers. Note that we have Peacock through Xfinity and it’s about as bad as your average built in DVR (so our expectations were already pretty low), and will never touch Paramount Plus
I honestly thought that the issues I had with HBO Max on my PS4 were due to my internet connection. On several occasions, have just given up watching a show on it and flipped to endless reruns of whatever show is on The Food Network (Chopped if I’m lucky).Also use Peacock through Xfinity and IMO it is a bit worse than On Demand. It forces you to go to a 2nd screen to start an episode now.First world problems.
I used to think that too until I realized we only had issues with Max and Disney Plus; Netflix, Hulu, and Prime run without an issue. Fwiw, either going back to the home screen and then resuming, or closing and reopening the app, solve like 99% of the problems. Still totally frustrating
I think he meant that they had the least amount of subscribers of the major streaming services (which at the time was true). He made this statement when WB decided to move a bunch of movies to HBO Max without consulting most of the co-producers / directors / cast who were going to lose out on some of the revenue sharing they had in their contracts. And his point was basically that these directors signed up to make the film thinking they’d be released to theaters worldwide and instead were having their films move to the worst (again IMO in terms of subscribers) streaming service instead.He wasn’t the only one speaking out either – a lot of directors did. WB has been compensating those impacted since and that seems to have appeased them.I mean do we really believe Nolan has ever used HBO Max to judge its UI?
Actually if you share your password with a person you cut the cost in half which is cheaper then Netflix’s cheapest plan. I just got Netflix again after canceling my cable. There’s alot to watch but I get the feeling I’m going to run out of things to watch in a couple of months.
I have it, I think it’s fine. At least I haven’t had any issues with it.
I will agree that for the moment HBO Max is on par with Netflix.
The reason I say “for the moment” is that i’m seeing a lot of content that should have been on there already, and other content that may be taken away to another subscription channel.
Like Venture Bros. is on Hulu, why? How can a show that defined Adult Swim not be on the Adult Swim sub?
I’m getting pretty vexed at the prospect that they many of these subscription channels are around to take content for ad revenue only, but don’t actually care about having consistent entertainment.
HBO Max has all the movies alphabetized. Just for that alone it wins.
Right? User interface and multi-platform functionalities aside, HBO Max has a huge catalog of quality content spanning a wide variety of genres and interests. IMO: Its currently the best of the streaming services. That being said, I see that many people commenting here apparently think the article is saying that “HBO Max is the worst”, not that Christopher Nolan said it’s the worst.
The inability to fast forward or rewind easily is by far the worst part of Peacock. It’s maddening. But at least with shows you CAN rewind. If you’re watching sports, you can’t even rewind to see a play again.That said, HBO MAX is pretty close to the worst. I get signed out like every other time, and the interface is putrid and is definitely the worst. Everything has a glowing effect so you can’t even tell which icon you’re selecting. I hate it so much.
My favorite part of Peacock is how if you use the back button on your phone while navigating it EXITS THE APP no matter how many layers deep you are in a menu.
HBO Max has a horrible user interface. HBO wasn’t much better, oh and can we add Hulu to the list of bad…and also Prime.
Same with Prime too. Why can’t they copy the rewind/ fast forward from Netflix’s?
I use HBO Max more now than probably any other streamer because of its breadth and quality of content, but my biggest complaint about the platform is that there does not seem to be any trailer-watching ability or functionality for either series or films on there.
Also Peacock has buffering issues. Pluto tv is lucky that’s it’s free because that would be the worst if you actually had to pay for it. Way to many ads not to mention the same ads and they repeat episodes alot.
I hear Paramount+ is giving both a run for their money in the worst department.
I find Peacock is more reliaable than HBOMax, but I watch much more on Max than the ‘Cock.
HBO Max needs to have dedicated app on other TV brands beside Samsung because browsing through its interface is clunky as hell through third party on LG.Even so, the playback is quite good with little buffering or stuttering. Looking forward to finally watch Tenet after refusing to go to theater during pandemic for any movie.
WWE is moving their Network content to Peacock and it’s an absolute nightmare trying to find anything.Someone paid people millions to make that.
Ugh, don’t get me started. And no RAW or Smackdown pre-2008 (the pre-PG era). Methinks NBC Universal isn’t going to bother loading “problematic” WWE programming. Which I sort of get, but just slap a content warning on it!
RIP Bryan and Vinny’s retro reviews.
I just got Peacock so I can’t comment on it too much, but if I never have to fast forward or rewind anything on Hulu ever again it’ll be too soon.
I subscribe to Prime, Netflix, Disney+, Peacock, Hulu, ESPN+, and Paramount+.This is, of course, entirely subjective, but for me Peacock is probably the worst in terms of content. The Paramount+ app, however, is by far the worst and it’s not particularly close.It doesn’t have a watchlist function, and thus if there are shows that you want to keep up on, you have to hope that you closed out of its most recent episode if you want to see the next one pop up. Peacock is similarly terrible; it has a watchlist, at least, but it’s almost entirely useless because it’s straight-up just an opaque list of shows that doesn’t help if you want to be aware of new episodes.It does have profiles, which is a plus over Peacock. But it has a looooooong way to go to be usable. Peacock does as well, but IME it hasn’t been quite as terrible.I can’t speak for ads because I pay for the no-ads tier for every service I’m on; I figure if I’m paying anyway, a few extra bucks to avoid ads is worth it.
I only have Peacock to watch Premiere League, and I have to pay extra for that. Otherwise, I have no interest in anything else on the platform.
Fuck, Chris. Try watching Netflix in Australia (actually, try to follow your own films, if Batman doesn’t turn up). It doesn’t carry half its own content … Man, I’d like to see ‘Q: Into The Storm’, but instead, I get a whole array of fucking rom-coms … I guess I’ll never know if ‘Q: Into The Storm’ is a rom-com …
I’ll say it…HBO Max is good. It’s not as easy to navigate as Netflix, but it’s got a lot of good content.
The only streaming service to ever have a genuinely good user interface was FilmStruck, RIP.
I have HBO anyway so I get HBO Max free.I watch The West Wing. It seems like it’s getting better, but for a while if I got on the internet while watching, it would buffer & stall til I restarted it. Otherwise, it doesn’t seem to offer much. As much as I love The Office, it runs 5 days a week on Comedy Central, so I’m good. There is nothing else on it I care about. My new binge/comfort show is Modern Family on E!. I watched an episode with Mitch thinking he had a baby in a stroller and it was a doll. I was lmao. I know it’s on Peacock but I just dvr a bunch of episodes and watch them whenever.
Nolan’s not really speaking as a viewer though. He’s speaking as a creative, and HBO Max/Warner’s treatment of the creatives recently has been basically objectively bad.
HBO Max has been my favorite streaming service for the last couple months, just from a content perspective. App works fine on Roku.
I know! How dare a renowned director have opinions! I mean if the writer actually paid for HBO max it might land a little harder but payola is payola and poor shlubs who.work the weekend shift on avclub are more important
Peter Rabbit 2 is another strong candidate, it’s moved like eight times.It’s going to miss TWO Easters
Seeing Tenet at home with closed captioning will improve the movie immensely over seeing it in a theater. The sound is terrible. Understanding what people are saying is difficult. Worse than Bane and then the masks make it even worse. I do think the humor in the movie works well.
Seeing Predestination (by the Spierig Brothers with brilliant performaces by Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook among others) in place of Tenet will improve the experience even more. Integrating the past and future through the entire events of the film from start to finish as opposed to at the end saying “By the way X was behind it all from the start.” is much more satisfying.See also Timecrimes, The Infinite Man, quite a few other time travel movies etc.
I just watched Predestinationfor the first time yesterday! Loved it!
Closed captioning won’t save the film from the laughable “backwards” fighting sequences and the completely nonsensical third act. While Inception was complicated, it could be followed and enjoyed. Tenet was written like Nolan started microdosing on page 1 and he upped his intake every day. So much money spent on such high production value and yet the whole “does the script even make sense anymore” question was apparently never asked.
Pretty sure that is why the music overshadowed the talking so much. Nolan was just like “None of the words actually matter anyway, it is all hand-waived pretentious gibberish. Even the movie title is only Tenet because it is a palindrome.”
It actually went to HBO Max last, starting at the other services and going backward in time, and some of your friends say it was the best decision ever, even better than Rises Knight Dark The!
“Mmmmmm, begins, the Batman does.”
i ride pretty hard for Tenet but this is a funny ass comment.
I love HBO MAX. Especially with the Turner Classic movie section
Won’t watch it there either.
The hilarious thing is that seeing Tenet in the theater is probably the WORST way to see it. This is the sort of movie that demands subtitles and the ability to rewind, both of which you can’t get at the theater (but on the other hand, only in the theater can you witness an entire room full of people rolling their eyes in unison when they find out the movie’s main character is named “The Protagonist.”)
idk man at the screening I saw the problem wasn’t that I couldn’t hear dialogue so much as everything was too loud, but in a bombastic action flick, that’s part of what I go see movies at the theater for (tinnitus)
That’s Nolan’s M.O. Dial everything to 11. There are times it’s very cool and immersive, but more often than not it just drowns out the dialogue. The mixing in his movies is infuriating.
Nolan’s opinion of HBO Max is from a director’s POV, not a home user’s. And deciding which service is best/worst is totally subjective anyway—everyone is going to have a different opinion. As a home user, I think it’s certainly not the best platform but it’s far from the worst. In terms of functionality it’s much better than some other services, such as Peacock.HBO Max has got a pretty decent catalog of content, especially considering Disney is actively trying to scoop up anything worth watching. All the series HBO’s produced over the last few decades are there, so that’s something. There’s also some content from other Warner properties, so that expands the choice a bit.I still like Netflix, but its algorithm hides so much content that it requires a deep dive to find anything that’s not a Netflix Original. While I don’t mind that too much if I don’t have anything to do for the evening, it’s annoying when I just want something different. Of course, once I find a new and interesting movie Netflix then tries to throw everything they have that’s even remotely related because the algorithm assumes that’s all I want to watch now. I watched a couple of Spanish series a couple of years ago and Netflix still throws a couple of dozen telenovelas at me every time I log in.
I fucking hate Netflix’s algorithms. Like you said it’s almost impossible to find something different to watch. At least Youtube lets you tell them you aren’t interested in that damned video their algorithms think you want to watch.
It would be great if Netflix did that. As I recall, the only time I was asked about what I wanted to see was when I first signed up for it. In the years since, there hasn’t been any effort whatsoever to actually ask me what I’m interested in seeing.
It feels like as they’ve lost more and more of stuff that belongs to other studios and had to push more of their original content the algorithm has mattered a lot less than it used to. If you go see the content on the Netflix you’ll find the genre sections for movies are incredibly small for movies and they have very few things older than the 2000s. I gave them up last year for HBO.
Here is the thing with HBO Max. There plan to same day release movies and the way they sprung it on creators kinda sucks. That being said, as far as content goes they are probably one of the best services out there right now. So it’s a double edged sword with them.
I have been loving the content, especially watching all of the old Looney Tunes. My son is a fan now. I haven’t had issues with the service myself. I can understand how that might be frustrating for directors.
The way they sprung the plan on directors may suck for them, but it’s definitely a good thing for us viewers. As someone who lives in an area where the majority of movie theaters still aren’t open (I live in a rural part of Vermont, there were only maybe 5 theaters within an hour’s drive, and all of them shut down completely except for one), I’m extremely grateful that they are providing a way for me to see these new movies.
Directors may hate HBO Max, but I’m so down for being able to watch Mortal Kombat and Godzilla vs Kong and Dune day 1 from the safety of my couch (or bed depending on how lazy I’m feeling).
I previously didn’t give a damn about KvG but now that it’s coming from Max I took the time to watch King of Monsters (meh) and will probably rewatch Skull Island soon enough in prep.
I finally started to watch the new ‘zilla movies. First one was decent. Got mad at the second one about 1/4 the way in when they killed a character off so stupidly and haven’t gone back yet.Really liked Skull Island, but that one I actually sawr when it came out.
I think I know what you’re talking about and it was so unceremonious I totally forgot it was someone from a previous movie.
I guess they never really gave that character much to do anyway so it was kind of a wasted role for an actor/actress I am very much a fan of. Still pissed me off.
I cheered when Farminga’s character died because the whole thing was her fault and she not only acknowledged but REVELED in it.A character like that doesn’t get to make an evil villain “purge humanity” speech then turn around and get a redemption arc. And I laughed at this movie for trying to make me care.
Ah well thanks for that spoiler. As I said am only 1/4 the way through. I guess not really a spoiler though since she heel turned pretty fast and she isn’t credited in the next movie. Plus it’s a Godzilla film who cares. I knew the one guy was gonna die early in the first one, didn’t affect my enjoyment.
Oh sorry I had forgotten. But the thing is Vera’s “arc” is all about her relationship with her daughter.Who witnesses her big heel speech and then it’s like “well of course she’s gonna hate you…”It’s then an entire sub plot running through the movie.
KotM did kinda pick up later (though the movie literally forgets about the terrorists after a point) but they definitely wasted Sally Hawkins.
Honestly the human parts are the worst part of the film. I just wanna see Godzilla brawl with Ghidorah.
Meh is right, what a disappointment.
It’s to the Zilla verse what BvS and JL were to the DCEU.We went from Zilla to HOLY FUCK MOTHRA RODAN AND GHIDORAH in one movie.
Honestly, it would’ve worked if they hadn’t planned on going straight to Godzilla v. Kong. As is, it just seems like Godzilla repeatedly saved the world from bad Titans (3 times if you include the tie-in comics) and humanity keeps trying to kill him. Just from the trailer alone I’m like “Seriously guys, every time G’s acted out, there has been a world ending threat at play that you guys didn’t even know about until it was awake and attacking. First it was the mating pair of Titan bugs that would’ve had thousands of offspring, then it was the even bigger Titan bug, then it was the 3-headed alien dragon that changed weather patterns, was outright evil and spiteful, and forced other Titans into attacking. If Godzilla is doing it again, you need to prepare for the worst and provide backup. Not try to use a missile designed to kill him or bring in a rival Titan who the writers have to give a bunch of plot armor to be an actual threat. “Seriously, they gave Kong magic electricity power in the original and now you want to make it so Godzilla doesn’t just instantly murder him with atomic breathe from a distance? Thats like Superman actually letting Batman be in Kryptonite using range when Superman could’ve vaporized him/froze him/smashed him with a building from orbit if he wanted to.“
i feel you ants I can’t wait to safely go see godzilla in the theater also on day one!
Adam Wingard has made some great movies (The Guest, You’re Next), so I’m cautiously optimistic.
God I hated Tenet. The most idiotically complex movie I’ve seen in a long time. Zero character development, horrible (and I mean HORRIBLE) sound, and a plot hole nightmare. Its a movie trying to be too clever for its own good that gets completely crushed by the weight of its own overbearing and ridiculous concept. Cool special effects but a shit pile mess of a movie.
if you found tenet to be complex perhaps YOU are the idiot lmfao.
Hahaha, The fact that you think Tenet isn’t complicated is a very good indicator of your ignornace.
oh okay, that makes sense LOLthere’s a scene ten minutes into the movie where a character we’re told is credible looks DIRECTLY at the audience and says “try not to think about it” hello!
Yeah that’s just playing dumb. Nolan was attempting to make a super smart movie and ended up making one of his dumbest films. Saying “Try not to think about it” is saying “None of what we give you makes sense to us either so just go with it.” That’s a garbage way to make up for a shitty screenplay.
look dude if you wanna shoot yourself in the foot be my guest but don’t shriek at me because you can’t walk loli had zero trouble understanding the plot of Tenet, and i think that was because the script is fine and because i am not a moron.
Dude, fuck off. There are literally hundreds of reviews for this film that cite how comically confusing it is so stop acting like its shocking that anyone could be confused by this shithole film. Go spread your super genius elsewhere.
dude imagine the hill you want to die on in an internet argument is that you are in fact, stupid. cheers to you xDMGx, wish you well in your journey lmfao
“Dude” you do realize that you are calling someone stupid because they didn’t like a movie and found it complex. Does it get you off or something calling someone dumb just because they didn’t understand something that you apparently did? I’d really hate to have your life, I know it sucks but at least you understand Tenet so you have that going for you. Good luck to you as well.
I’m not calling you stupid because you don’t understand Tenet, although, I’m genuinely not sure what’s so complex about the movie. I’m calling you stupid because you called me stupid for understanding Tenet.Being able to understand a popcorn blockbuster is merely one of the great many good things going on in my life, but I certainty wouldn’t wish it upon you.
Lol you literally wrote that I was the idiot in your very first post. But you do you pal, you are the superior being.
that’s true, and I will.
The plot of Tenet when all is said and done is basically just this scene from Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey.
Man I remember a time when I gave a fuck about this movie. I went from willing to pay to stream it day-and-date with theaters to now I don’t even know if I’ll watch it once it’s on Max.Nolan’s attitude about “it must be in theaters!” during a pandemic combined with reviews.Nah. I’ll just use the time to finish the second season of Shivering Truth.
Are they going to show it in 4:3 aspect ratio, which I am given to understand is the bestest artiest aspect ratio?
I feel like Black Widow is another strong contender for movie best representative of film in the time of COVID.People have wanted a Widow movie for YEARS and on the cusp of its release COVID happens and throws off not only its release….but the entire MCU that makes up a cornerstone of not only Disney, but theaters themselves.Like, ALL OF IT. We were supposed to be like three movies deep by now, so who knows how that’s messed up Feige’s plan to roll out the story of this phase.The D+ content is going to reach a point where you’d think they’d run in to stuff you needed movies to have come out by now.
HBO Max has South Park, Home Movies, Harley Quinn, Rick and Morty, Alan Partridge and The Sopranos so they’re pretty cool in my book.
this Nolan’s perfectly serviceable action flick has taken on layers far beyond what its admittedly delightful explosions and intentionally convoluted plot could ever probably supportis more because of you idiot bloggers than anything Nolan said or did.