Since a couple people have asked, a quick update...
As of last night, I've finally made it halfway through Tenet... twice. It's not that the audio's bad, it's that Nolan seemingly ALWAYS chooses either masked individuals or foreign actors with thick accents to deliver important exposition, and it drives me insane. I'm all for diversity. I'm all for hiring foreign actors in prominent roles. But good gosh, if they have a thick accent they SHOULDN'T be delivering important information in a complex sci-fi movie.
All of this to say, I made I through the first hour until I knew I had missed so much important dialogue that I started completely over with subtitles. Then, last night, I made it literally one scene past where I had made it previously (we just left the yacht), before my power went out in a crazy rain storm and I finally just went to bed. The power is back today, but I just got an email saying that a couch I ordered in August will likely FINALLY be delivered this week, and I may save the rest of my watch for that glorious moment. I moved into a new place in August, ordered a new, custom-made couch when I did, but it's taken so long due to Covid that I've been sitting in a single, not-very-comfortable chair in my living room ever since. All I want is to be able to sit and lounge on a couch again, and I can think of no better inaugural watch for doing so than finally finishing Tenet. So I might wait for that.
Overall, though, the movie itself is good so far. It almost feels like a CliffsNotes version of a Nolan movie - it moves so fast and hardly wastes any time with character-building moments - but that's also kind of what I like about it, in a weird way? It's like Christopher Nolan: The Video Game, with 0% fat, which is a little disorienting, but also strangely refreshing. At the very least, having seen the first half twice now, I'm 100% up to speed and feel completely ready for the second half.