This is Nolan's weakest film by far and it's not even close. The premise is interesting but the execution is beyond flawed. I thought I was being left cold by it because I was having trouble keeping up but on a rewatch, it's the near total lack of humanity.

Starting with the main character, obviously Washington is poorly cast and the there are a laundry list of actors who could've pulled it off better, but a lot of the problems with the character go back to the script. The lack of charisma is seemingly intentional, given it's a blank slate character literally named "The Protagonist". Washington has done comedy before, it's probably his strongest area (the one moment that got a laugh in the theatre was the hot sauce line) so hiring him to play basically a stoic character, which is hard for any actor, is mind-boggling.

Then there's the lack of any love interest. Elizabeth Debicki is not one, and at no point is a romantic connection even hinted at. She's just there. The Protagonist is far too much of a distant, boring cunt for any sort of romance. Is there anything to be said for romance in movies anymore? Is it not basic human impulse to want to fuck someone? It's like Hollywood is afraid that if they have a man fall in love with a woman it could come across as sexist or homophobic or something. Instead of giving the lead characters some fucking humanity, she is basically wearing a porcelain expression all the time, and is repeatedly humanised by references to her son leading to one of the stupidest lines I've ever heard in a film
>Everyone and everything that's ever lived, destroyed instantly. Precise enough?
>Including my son?

The villain sucks. It's just Kenneth Branagh doing a dumb accent. Ironically, he's one of the few characters that actually displays emotion regularly.

Robert Pattinson is head and shoulders the best part of the film. The biggest shame in all of this is that it feels like he's the star of a more entertaining film happening just off screen.