THIS week, for the first time in five long months, a major studio release launches in UK cinemas. That’s right, a brand new, A-list Hollywood feature. And, boasting a budget well over $200m, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet means business

Whereas the likes of Scoob, Artemis Fowl and Trolls: World Tour have lost their cinema slots to Covid-19 - in favour of video on demand releases - Tenet could never have accepted such demotion. Here is a film that demands the very biggest of screens and fills every last inch of it. Indeed, be warned, Tenet is rather overwhelming on first viewing.

Fresh from his acclaimed turn in BlackKKlansman, John David Washington leads as the film’s unnamed ‘Protagonist’. He’s the good guy in Nolan’s surprisingly traditionalist set up. Opposite, Kenneth Branagh has fun with the big bad Russian arms dealer - Andrei Sator - who, quite simply, seeks to destroy all life on Earth. How he intends to execute this, on the other hand, is anything but. Sator plans to use weapons grade plutonium to set off a device that will reverse entropy for the entire planet. Time travel is also integral to his scheme. You may wish to preserve a special spot on your scalp for all the scratching it will receive as you untangle the sci-fi.

Elizabeth Debicki plays to cool type, as Satar’s estranged wife, whilst Robert Pattinson enjoys a fine linen suit as the Protagonist’s handler Neil. In more minor roles, stars paper the scenery. Watch out, in particular, for Michael Caine, Clémence Poésy, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Himesh Patel and Hindi icon Dimple Kapadia.

As with any Nolan picture - most recently: Dunkirk and Interstellar - plot and performance tell only half the story. A crew of over 250 worked across three continents and seven countries in the film’s suitably epic production. Whilst realism was sought by special effects supervisor Scott R. Fisher in the archives of World War documentaries, the film’s more fantastical visuals found construction in London.

Hoyte van Hoytema - the Dutch-Swedish cinematographer of Spectre, Ad Astra and a number of Nolan hits - deployed both 70mm film and IMAX shooting methods in capturing the film. A booming score, meanwhile, finds gravitas from the pen of Oscar-winning Black Panther composer Ludwig Göransson.

Whether you love or loathe Tenet, it’s hard to imagine a more fitting return to big screen entertainment.