Movies in Review: "Dunkirk"

I used to enjoy war films very much. However, I noticed with age I've acquired a small distaste for them, and often can't stomach the reasons behind the killing of men, women and children. So when I watched the trailer for Dunkirk, I wasn't as excited or impressed as I guess I should have been. Again, critics are giving it critical acclaim, which is the only reason I even went to see it. Although I think war is dumb, I'm always interested in a good story, and this is what I expected to receive from this film.

I hadn't heard of the Dunkirk evacuation before this film. So I went in expecting a war film that involved fighting, and instead got a movie that centered around over 400,000 men just trying to survive and get home. Needless to say, the story was really exhausting. It was well filmed, and the story was decent, but offered me very little to keep me totally interested. It was actually a little depressing. Imagine watching men for the next 2hrs continuously jumping out of ships that have been bombed, dodging bullets, and trying to keep from drowning...Exhausting. This is what you have to look forward to in this film. I think it's a beautiful story, and it did have some thrilling moments, but critical acclaim??? Nah...Don't get me wrong, it was a good film, but I was definitely expecting more.

If you like war films, just note, there are little battles to be seen in this film, just in case that's your thing. It is a very well written, directed and performed film, but it's not the best movie out in my opinion, as a movie-goer. I do believe sometimes what critics want and viewers want differ. This is one of those films...B+