Utterly underwhelming as a piece of storytelling and a piece of entertainment

Rating: 6/10 (26 July 2017)

I cannot tell you how disappointed I was with this film, being a fan of about everything Christopher Nolan does.
There were 2 ways the story of Dunkirk could be told:
1.An epic which showed broadly the scale of the operation, the death toll and the effect on the war.
2. Follow a group of characters and experience the story through their eyes as they go through it all.
It attempts the latter and falls short in a big way. Paper thin characters across the board left me completely disinterested in the story. Even Tom Hardy failed to evoke an emotion. What were his character traits? I couldn't name one except the obvious bravery.
The effects are seamless, I will give it that, but the quantities of everything are somewhat baffling. I think I saw less than 10 aircraft in the whole movie, yet dive bombing is largely the focus of the film. Did they run out of budget?
I think I watched a different film to the other reviewers.