Review of Dunkirk (2017) by Olle H — 20 Jul 2017

'Dunkirk' is a shockingly shallow movie with fantastic cinematography, great sound design and beautiful sets, all accompanied the most lifeless, boring, uninteresting characters you could've imagined putting in any film.

There are no characters in this movie. That is simply a fact. I saw actors, but no characters. Nolan is a master at his craft, and I love most of his films. He's one of my favourite directors working today, but he seemed to be so focused on the event itself that there was no time developing anyone actually there.

It was like spectating a real event, and you could argue that was Nolan's intention, but that's no excuse for the lack of development of character motivations, names or even backstories. This is a movie, not a historical lecture that your unattractive teacher shows you in class.

This should've been cinematic and truly outstanding, but instead left me questioning why he even made this film from the begin with. Characters are what sucks you into a movie, and an event just isn't enough to please.

Well, then all hope is rested on the dialogue, but the dialogue isn't anything special either. Is this a well made movie? Yes. Is it good? No, because in my eyes, it doesn't qualify as a film, really.

The lack of developed characters are what murdered this film. No developed characters leads to no tension, no tension leads to no real sense of urgency. The score was underwhelming, but I don't blame Hans Zimmer at all.

I'd say it's a pretty daunting task to score a movie as emotionless as this.