The time travel stuff is brilliantly executed but the film is too muddled for that to matter. It clearly requires several viewings but that's an investment I'm not willing to make. First and foremost, you need to entertain me before I commit to coming back.
This film didn't. It was all over the place. The (exposition) dialogue was clunky. And I really didn't find Washington's acting very compelling.
I liked the temporal themes... Yeah, it's a trope in most Nolan's movies, even managed to use it cinematicaly in Dunkirk, but he has a different twist on it in every movie...
Also, in this movie it makes sense, because it is the characters belief in the idea of time travel (the tenet) that even makes it possible for the plot to hold together... They're all basically deracinated strangers, apart from, ironically, the Branagh character's bond of possession with his estranged wife... So it's also a movie about human agency, faith and duty.
I think the main actor was a bit on the weak side. A bit goofy. He's certainly no Denzel. Also, the movie relied a bit too much on explaining, whereas inception, memento, intersetlar and Dunkirk where able to show the time concepts visually as well...
My friends hated Inception when we watched it in the cinema... They came around to it eventually... This isn't at that level of a movie, but it's good to see someone being ambitious and trying something new with a decent budget...
I liked it