Terrible

Rating: 3/10 (1 January 2020)

Saw Dunkirk with my wife and we were both seriously underwhelmed. I went out to the 70mm screening and everything. I found myself struggling to care about anyone in the movie and the story. I found the asynchronous time lines to be more irritating than clever. I found the lack of any real meaning in the deaths to be boring. There was a serious lack of any real grit or bite to the film. In the end, every emotional scene felt more manipulative than earned - a problem that was literally and figuratively amplified by the scoring by Hans Zimmer forcing emotions upon the viewer, instead of letting the story and its characters accomplish that. At times the music was unbearable.
Other people I know who went out to see the movie thought there was something wrong with the scale of the battle (apparently it was much, much bigger in scale in reality) but that didn't bother me personally. The cinematography was excellent.
Everyone is giving it so much praise and I just genuinely don't see what other people like about it. Can someone explain to me what I'm not getting?