People are missing the point.

Rating: 7/10 (15 September 2018)

This will be a quick review, as having watched it for the second time recently I feel I understand was Jolie was trying to do here. I've read a lot of reviews saying it's just 2+ hours of grim and hopeless misery, save for the last 5 minutes of the film. It might shock people to know that that is the point.
The whole point of the spending so much time on the raft, or in the POW camps was to showcase how bad it was for the longest time possible - it mirrors what Zamperini went through, and isn't supposed to make you feel triumphant or warm. No matter what happens to you, you stick through it - but sticking through it doesn't mean every little victory is felt as such. For those waiting for the fanfare of surviving being punched by every other prisoner, I got news for you - there wasn't. The movie only takes liberty in this regard with the lifting of the timber.
The point I'm getting at is that the movie does away with the traditional 'stiff upper lip' theme that a lot of war movies present, despite the fact that the mantra of "If you can take it, you can make it" being echoed throughout the runtime. There was no reward and no accomplishment felt when Zamperini continued to endure the torture and the starvation, and the movie hammers it home by making sure we endure as much of it as possible.
Of course this doesn't' make the movie perfect, the flashbacks to Zamperini's childhood are all too cliched, and stand out like a sore thumb in contrast to the rest of the film's subversion of expected emotion. The ending also feels a bit weird, and suddenly goes upbeat as we read what happened to Zamperini after the war. This was possibly due to the tragic fact that he passed away the same year the film released, and it felt only fair to celebrate his life, despite that not being the point of the movie.
In summary, the movie is not going to be for everyone. It is grim, dark and showcases the endurance Zamperini made in detail, and thats exactly the point. It is also shot fairly well, and Desplat's score is something to be noted.