Was not thrilled by it.   Should have listened to my gut... that when thou dost protest too much, as in the over amplification of commercials, buzz, pronouncements of grandness, etc... something is amiss.  It was.   Too many clever tricks.  Writing was pedantic.  As historical events being explained during what should have been just normal conversational exchange.  Flashbacks were way too clever-ly exploited.  Too much cleverness.   This epic story did not leave one feeling one was experiencing expanse. This extraordinary historical event that could have changed the world was made, small.  Characters were not really allowed to develop.  Exposition was the ticket, but due to the unevenness of the writing, as in people don't talk like that, it didn't work.  For me at least.  The whole thing had a sense of blocky-ness... as in film this sequence here, film that sequence there... never had a sense of flow.

And the overuse of rah rah historical clichés was that, overused.  If you're going to go for it, go for it. Vamp up a cliché. I don't know how many times "home" was used... but fer crissakes, it has to be a build up and culmination of a moment. It never was, each time. Where there should have been moments that swelled up to the sense of grandeur, they were more like deflated balloons.  I was in particular wanting to see the much touted scenes and representations of the Hurricanes and Spitfires.  A lot was made about how this was filmed using different techniques than before.  Yawn.  It would have been far better to utilize real footage of aerial combat.   The air combat was less than interesting.  In large part due to the breaking up of the exposition due to flashbacks.  The expanse of for instance the Heinkel aircraft doing its attack was so unrhythmic, it created far more distraction to flow of those moments in the film. So the aerial scenes were a let down for sure.

And methinks I just nailed what bothered me the most. Felt the writing was poor. But more so felt the sequencing of the scenes jerky, bothersome. One never got the full sense of a scene, and event, because the whole movie attempted to tie itself together through over-cleverness of sequences. Made it very hard to get fully engaged.

A snarky way of saying... I was mostly bored trying to let the flow, flow. There was little flow. The direction attempted to make the story metaphorical. Story flow or metaphor... both failed.

The only character was a father who brought his pleasure boat into the fray.  He was the only one with real moments.  Everything else was unremarkable.  Even the epic-ness of saving 300,000+ men from the shores of Dunkirk was a dud.  They never developed an immense sense of what this was about.  The portrayal of what should have been hundreds of small boats instead of British destroyers was less than remarkable.  Even the officer who was a character meant to provide exposition, Kenneth Branagh, was a yawner.  The story which should have been epic managed to be small, and the dialogue which should have given the actors a sense of epic-ness, or at the least metaphor on a grand scale, managed to create a sense of smallness.  So while am at it... the biggest annoyance was the damned soundtrack. Could not be clearer... the incessant drone of the soundtrack was a huge distraction. Drone is the right word. Loud, pounding, distracting. When you pound away like that, you exhaust the theme and have no where to go. This was repeated, over and over. It grew absolutely tiresome hearing this... made the entire movie which was already uneven in its writing and sequencing, even more distracting. Seriously folks, you have no where to go when one pours in a loud, neverending, repeated theme. You have no where to go. And it got there early on. No bones about it... I hated the soundtrack. It gave distracted support this already difficult to be engaged with film.

OK, this is an unremarkable review but mainly because it was an unremarkable flick.  Had to write it out because I was left disappointed in every aspect.  I so wanted at least the Hurricanes and Spitfires to be cool because I understood they used real vintage planes.  But nawp.  How they managed to make this extraordinary historical event small was a disappointment.  As mentioned, the only real moment was the father and the events with the son.  Give it a 4 out of 10.  And by the way... we went and expected the theater to be packed or at least populated two days after the opening.  Also nawp.  It was spartan.  Not even 10% full.  Says a lot there. Oh well...  wait for it to come out on DVD.  I enjoyed the previews on a big screen far more than the movie which managed to make this extraordinary historical event, small.  Or a better wrap up would be... the film managed to make a remarkable event, unremarkable.