Shaun Smith

This is a film that happens to have Batman in it, rather than feeling like a Batman film. That's not a negative, as here we are more pared down and real world than in the Nolan trilogy, with a Batman much more integrated (whilst not always accepted) with those serving the law. The voiceover and accompanying visuals are reminiscent of Rorschach's mumblings in The Watchmen, the dark and brooding Gotham (is it ever any other way) is beautifully shot. It's been stated elsewhere and I agree, there really is a heavy Se7en influence to the visual aesthetic. Pattinson is hard to judge as Bruce Wayne, so little is he in that role, but he plays an aloof troubled Batman well. All the characters are well drawn and acted, with particular kudos to Paul Dano as Riddler. Perhaps the relationship between Batman and Selina Kyle feels a little rushed in a film that takes its time. Bouts of action are fewer and far between than in past Batman films, and there's a sense that the final section of the film might have been put there to redress that balance. Overall, this is a thoughtfully paced, well acted film that keeps you interested, with a grim palette that keeps things feeling ominous. A great score helps too. It's Batman, but not how we know it.

A powerful drama with top class acting all round. There is no showy building of sentiment here, only raw truth and it packs a punch.

Tenet is a curiosity, and with many things new sampled for the first time it will undoubtedly improve with further viewings. At first it is not so complex, breezing along (a little too fast, the film could’ve benefited from an extra twenty minutes) in a spy thriller fashion. The visual aesthetic as you’d expect from Nolan is cool, muted, like the characters who are hard to be invested in. As the plot thickens so your head might too. Even the linear time sequences were headache inducing as the brain deals with forwards and backwards time at once. There is peril, lots of it: and I sort of knew what was at stake at times. Sometimes it was hard to catch what was being said under the audio bombast of the loudest film I’ve ever seen. There is clever stuff going on here, and I know i didn’t catch it all making seeing it again a must. It is not a film that washes over you, and is not the easiest ride, but it is one you will want to take again. Just have the paracetamol ready.