When a movie is based on actual historical content, it's hard not to go into it without having certain expectations. From what I knew on the battle of Dunkirk, I was expecting a gripping story on the heroic effort and sacrifices made by the French Army on the defensive line to keep the Germans at bay long enough for hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops to escape; to live to fight another day and win the war. I was expecting to be awed by a true appreciation for the grand scale of evacuating hundreds of thousands of soldiers under enormous pressure. And while I understand going into a movie with high expectations isn't always a good idea, it's hard not to expect anything less than an impressive story, particularly when you know that story is true.

Although the movie had initially appeared to be ready to deliver on these expectations, it didn't take me very long at all to realize that, sadly, Dunkirk would ultimately fail to deliver on any of it.

There were no battles on the defensive line and air battles were portrayed in this film in a way that made German pilots seem like unworthy adversaries; easier to shoot down than ducks in an Atari video game. The film also fell disappointingly short on portraying the true scope of the operation. I've seen longer lines of people waiting to buy the new iPhone than the lines of soldiers portrayed on the beaches awaiting evacuation.

I had found it disappointing that 20 minutes into the film I was still wondering what the plot was on a story I was already familiar with. The lack of dialog was also so obvious and overdone that I had started to grow annoyed by it.

In the end, I was left wondering why this movie received so much hype and such high ratings. The only possible explanation I could provide is that there must be an awful lot of people out there who like to analyze movies scene by scene, in a DIY director's cut fashion, so that they can offer an interpretation on what they think the director is trying to portray though his artistic creativity, because these high ratings seem to have absolutely nothing to do with this actually being an entertaining movie.

Director Christopher Nolan seemed too lazy and bothered to even halfheartedly attempt to deliver on anything that made the battle of Dunkirk so historically significant, choosing instead to focus far too much on creating some new kind of Tarantino/Pulp Fiction-esque piece of story telling that Hollywood elites and snobby critics can adore him for.