Disappointing Snoozefest

Rating: 2/10 (13 May 2018)

I am a huge WW2 movie buff and enjoy pretty much anything WW2 related. However, this movie was a letdown of epic proportions. Pearl Harbor set a low-bar for WW2 movies, but this movie was actually worse. At least Pearl Harbor had action, comedy, and character development, albiet cheesy. Dunkirk was reported to have a 150 million budget. How? Where did the 150 million go? It surely wasn't spent on actors. To buy positive reviews? That is the only plausible explanation.
The evacuation of Dunkirk was a major desperate battle involving over 400,000 British and French troops, thousands of planes, and hundreds of ships. This movie fails to capture the magnitude or scale of the battle. No historical or educational context is given other than brief exposition at the beginning and end. In total, we are shown only 5 planes, 3 British destroyers, and maybe a few thousands ground troops lined up on the beaches. The enemy is rarely seen and there are no fight scenes. 95% of the movie is British troops standing around moping on the beaches. The action scenes involve ships sinking and troops diving overboard. It is like Titanic on steroids.
The movie focuses on 3 ridiculous subplots that are not worthy of explanation. All characters are nameless and undeveloped. The ground troops are lead by a skinny coward who repeatedly tries to skip the line to escape. The armada of private boats that arrives towards the end involves maybe a dozen vessels. It looks like a small town boat parade festival. One of the faceless, nameless pilots is revealed at the end to be Tom Hardy. He makes a brief 15 second cameo with no dialogue before being captured by faceless enemy.
What the movie lacks in characters, dialogue, and action, it attempts to make up with constant eerie musical scores that are like running fingernails on a chalkboard. The music is supposed to create a suspenseful gloomy atmosphere, but becomes an annoyance and overshadows the conversations. Half of the dialogue is barely intelligible. I'm American and I understand British is a different language practically, but that wasn't the problem.
The fact that the enemy is never shown is a huge disservice to this movie. It would have been interesting if they showed the perimeter battles and thousands of planes fighting in the skies. Instead all we hear are distant gunshots and a few occasional mortars. They could have shown the opposing forces and strategies of each side.