The film that almost saved 2017 Cinema

Rating: 7/10 (23 July 2017)

Listen, Christopher Nolan is a very talented director; most of his movies are good, some are rather great, but only one film he's made has really felt that it had a bow wrapped around it, and that was "The Dark Knight". Dunkirk fell the shortest of this achievement, while still being immaculately beautiful and a tremendous technical accomplishment.
This is the biggest film shot on IMAX and 70mm, both, to ever be released. Dunkirk told a painstakingly true story of World War II, in a new way, with very little dialogue (and when there was any it was very plot heavy), little personality in characters, and contained feeble amount of emotional moments.
Dunkirk just wasn't what I want out of any film. I appreciate going against conventions, many of my favorite directors and film are know to do that. But still, I seek a more emotional connection than this repetitive, near documentary style war film. It was kinda boring. Character, ethos, and anticipation are what mostly keeps me interested in a film. And for those things to be established, characters usually need to speak about something other than the plot.
The cinematography while containing some stunning, and beautiful shots, was in all not overly brilliant. I was a big fan of the close ups, the ultra wides that just look beautiful on large format film!, and a few others scattered throughout. I've seen better dog fights. I served it's purpose. The color grading was amazing however! And the sound was stellar, honestly some of the best gunshot and bomb sounds effects I have ever heard. For all of these things is why this film gets a 7 instead of a 6.
But where it counts, in the story, this film just does not fulfill my desires, nor my expectations for Nolan. Like Interstellar, there is still an empty hole in this film, something isn't quite tightly wound. It was a great undertaking of a film, and a new technical frontier for what is possible with large format, still when you compare this to another true story like Titanic, I can surely imagine that there could have been a more emotionally involved way of telling Dunkirk. When side by side, this is one of my least favorite Nolan films, ie. the Dark Knight, Inception, Interstellar, The Prestige, Batman Begins, Momento, heck I'm still debating it over Dark Knight Rises.