Dunkirk: The Disney version.

Rating: 7/10 (19 July 2017)

"The best world war 2 movie to date"? Really? As a guy who have been brought up on ww2 movies, I had to attend the first showing. Especially since there were so many "best ever" headlines. So there I went.
This movie is one long action sequence that stretches 106 minutes. But if you deduct the number of times that the exact same situation is shown, but from a different camera angle at another time in the movie, it barely passes the 60 minute mark. And after Hardy shoots down his fourth German plane, a stuka divebombs for the fifth time towards the beach, or Branagh looks up in the sky for the 7th time, it gets repetitive.
This actually felt like one long teaser prologue to 'Battle of Britain'. (If the rumors are true that Ridley Scott is doing his take on Battle of Britain, all I can say is: get busy!)
In 'Dunkirk' there's almost no dialogue, no conflict between any of the characters, no character development at all and the enemy is completely faceless. So this makes it a rather forgettable movie for me, unlike 'Hacksaw Ridge', 'Saving Private Ryan' and many of the other great world war 2 movies, that show war like it is: bloody. 'Dunkirk' is rated PG-13, which will sure please all the young Harry Styles fans.
In retrospective: The 5-minute Dunkirk segment (all shot in one take, an available on You Tube) from the movie 'Atonement' still makes a much larger impression to me, than I think Nolan's first (and hopefully not last) world war 2 movie forever will be doing.
But besides that - what Nolan (and collaborator Hans Zimmer) always do really well however is to create suspense, and there are some real nailbiting scenes in there, which make the ticket almost worth it.
I left the theater disappointed, though. Expected it to leave a larger impression. It didn't.
If you would have preferred 'Titanic' to be a movie that started right when the ship began sinking, 'Saving Private Ryan' to be all about the Omaha beach landing, and 'Braveheart' to be all about the battle of Sterling and Fallkirk, you don't mind cardboard characters, and you often find yourself muttering "when do they get to the action-part?", then 'Dunkirk' is definitely for you. For people who enjoy movies for emotional context, also: be advised that you won't find it here.