Dunkirk is Okay but Underwhelming

Rating: 6/10 (25 July 2017)

Dunkirk is the latest film by Christopher Nolan. As usual people are praising his film as a masterpiece. I'm a fan of Nolan so I wanted to love this film like everyone else. However, I have to be honest; this is one of his weaker films, in my opinion. I'm not the biggest fan of war movies, so that doesn't help either. I would put this over The Prestige and The Dark Knight Rises, but every other film he's made I think is better. I would even put Interstellar over this. I'm not the biggest fan of war films, so that doesn't help either. Though, this is certainly not the best war movie I've seen either. The film isn't bad, but it's painfully average.
The plot is very simple. The Germans have pushed the British and the French back to the beaches of Dunkirk. Military vessels and plains are in short supply so civilian boats are mobilized to rescue the stranded troops on the beach. The rest of the film is the soldiers surviving on the beach as the civilian vessels make their way there.
The film does some things well. From a technical aspect Dunkirk is amazing. The film looks great, and the effects are amazing, as one would expect from a Nolan film. It has the typical gray, bleak look to it, like in most Nolan movies, but it fit the tone of the film and gave it a good atmosphere. The music also fit very well.
The action scenes are alright for what they are. This is not action-heavy war movie, but a survival war picture. Do not expect wall-to-wall action in that sense. I also like how the Germans are never seen throughout the flick, but there presence is still heavily felt. The few fight scenes we do get are okay at best. Some of the action gets confusion, and becomes difficult to tell who is fighting who.
The issue with this movie is that it gets dull. This is one of Nolan's shorter films, at two hours, yet you can still feel the length at times. Some scenes feel unnecessary or are dragged out for too long.
The characters are also dull. That's the film's main problem is that all of the characters are boring. The acting is fine, but the characters they are not that interesting; none of them. Cillian Murphy, a great actor, is wasted in this role. It's not that I hated any of the characters, but I wasn't invested in any of them either.
That's a problem, because characters are essential getting invested in a story. If you have good characters the viewers are on that journey with them and feel what they feel. Since I wasn't invested in the characters the film did not hit nearly as hard with me as it should have. The message of Dunkirk is the same as any war film. It wants to convey to the audience how terrible war is. However, there are so many war movies that do this better because they have a better cast that resonates with you.
Overall, Dunkirk is a mixed bag. It's an okay movie that's worth one watch. However, there are better war films, and certainly better Christopher Nolan movies, out there.