a disappointing cinematic experience

Rating: 1/10 (30 August 2017)

Well, that was an experience! I've just seen 'Dunkirk' the film. Hard to be rational about it after all the hype and expectation but I can honestly say that it is one of the worst films I have ever seen. A film with no meaningful story-line or content but plenty of bombast. And noise. Oh, the noise, the noise! It was loud, excruciatingly loud, unnaturally and unnecessarily so, far beyond the pain barrier for my ears. Which I had to cover for much of it as I found it so physically painful. Why so loud? I came out of it reeling and shell-shocked. And as for the 70mm IMAX giant screen experience, what nonsense. I get sharper and better quality pictures on my home TV. It was just very much bigger. The actors wee Mark Rylance and wee Kenneth Branagh were cruising, not having to act at all, just look heroic, misty-eyed and lantern-jawed from time to time, and think of the money. And given given the budget it was disappointing to keep seeing the same three Spitfires, one German Me109 and a single Heinkel He111 in the same shots over and over again. And as for that near-end shot of a burning Spitfire on Dunkirk beach set to Elgar's jingoistic music, that said it all.