Lacked a true villain and gives little reason to support protagonists

Rating: 4/10 (23 July 2017)

With great expectations for Dunkirk as Nolan has an incredible resume, I was extremely disappointed with Dunkirk. He does a time shift for the three POV's which gives an interesting layering of storytelling; however, what was the benefits to telling to story in this way? In Memento, there is a clear purpose to how Nolan uses time, but in Dunkirk it just seems trivial.
Furthermore, there is no villain, Nolan just relies on "The Germans" as an excuse for us to undoubtedly support the British soldiers without ever showing an evil thing that the Germans do besides bomb the soldiers, which is what the British were presumably doing to the Germans. That being said, I had no real reason to support the protagonists. Moreover, Nolan appears to rely on the audiences knowledge of Dunkirk from school and such, but as an American I had no emotional connection to the battle as I had never heard of Dunkirk before.
The Soundtrack seems to be just a lot of noise and doesn't build to anything, especially with the three POV's clashing at points. Also, the British accent can be hard to understand at points as an American.
In conclusion, I feel Nolan did little to establish an emotional connection between the audience and the characters. There was no battle scene, which was disappointing. I left the theater feeling disappointed and unimpressed.