Christopher Nolan often directs impressive films and Tenet was certainly no exception. He’s the director behind “The Dark Knight” (2008), “Inception” (2010), and “Interstellar” (2014).
Now, Tener sure is one of his best, partly due to constant delays from other productions. However, its premiere came with controversy:
Fans criticized Nolan’s insistence online of promoting everyone “to go to the cinema to see the film and appreciate as it must be seen” despite the risk of the pandemic.
One fan, in particular, made one of the most notable criticism, as he managed to reproduce Tenet on a Game Boy Advance. Perhaps what he wanted was to show the director that today there are many safe alternatives to watching a movie.
Through a video on his YouTube channel, Bob Wulff documented the entire process needed to carry over the movie on the portable console. As you can expect, Tenet plays at a very low resolution (Game Boy’s Advance SP screen size is 2.9 inches).
So, Wulff decided to take Nolan’s meme to a whole other level. That’s when he came up with the worst possible way to see his new film, an old Nintendo console, quite the opposite of what the director wanted.
As a final aesthetic touch, Wulff recorded the film on five cartridges, each identified with different labels. All this can be seen on the YouTube video.
What does Nolan think of Tenet’s premiere?
While Nolan doesn’t consider Tenet’s theatrical release a flop, it certainly grossed less than expected. With at least $350 million worldwide, Warner Bros wasn’t satisfied with what the company has decided to offer the film for other alternatives.
Nolan stated that he doesn’t see it as a bad premiere. Instead, that the results were predictable.
Certainly, today’s article is more about the experience of bringing a modern movie to the screen of a Game Boy Advance than it is about the movie itself.
Wulff’s achievement is astonishing and has its merit. This can now be added to the collection of laughable-but-genius gaming inventions, like the original Doom copy that was adapted to be played on a calculator, a smart fridge, and even a watch.
UPDATEd: In case you didn’t know, it’s officially possible to Play DOOM: Eternal on smart Samsung Fridges (through xCloud):
Bethesda’s famous game, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, is another title that has been lucky enough to be able to play on all kinds of devices. This guy played it (at a familiar low FPS rate) on his watch:
And here’s a not-so-parodic “Very Special Edition” released by the company itself:
So we do not believe that Warner Bros will decide in the future to step forward and start releasing movies for the Game Boy, but we can certainly continue to enjoy incredible productions on the screens we are used to.
But, the premiere could have been better? Is the film good after all?
You won’t find out until you see the film, but preferably on the format that Christopher Nolan recommends, on a large smart TV or your preferred cinema, after COVID restrictions stop.
