Review of Dunkirk (2017) by Seriousreview — 21 Jul 2017
It is a good movie, but it could have been so much more. First off, roughly 900 vessels were involved in the Dunkirk evacuation and about 10 are shown. I understand not wanting to use excessive CGI, but it really detracts from what should be a turning point in the film.
Numbers like 400,000 men are bandied about in the film, but all of 500 men are actually shown, even from a distance. Furthermore, Nolan sacrifices character depth and any kind of backstory - even going so far as to have most of the characters pretty much nameless - in order to showcase his artistic vision.
The upshot is that I found it difficult to emotionally invest in any of the characters. Whilst his gritty portrayal is beautiful and it has its moving moments, of which the opening scene is particularly memorable, in general the film fails to capture the scale of Dunkirk and at the same time manages to underwhelm in character development.
It isn't a bad film, but it is often boring and what really sucks is the squandered potential it had.
This review of Dunkirk (2017) was written by Seriousreview on 21 Jul 2017.
Dunkirk has generally received very positive reviews.
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