Why ‘DUNKIRK’ is the most underwhelming movie of Christopher Nolan

So the other weekend I booked the ticked for Dunkirk in what was a 4D theater. I was looking forward to this movie since the first trailer was launched. Sitting in the theater with anticipation, the movie began. I was soon introduced to the three story lines and that’s when I was intrigued but then..

Dunkirk Poster

Before I take you through my remaining experience at the theater let me take you through my experiences about watching some of this earlier movies. The ones that you see this poster boast about but I don’t think his next movie will boast about Dunkirk. Also I must inform the reader at this stage that you will only like this blog if you are a Cristopher Nolan fan. Also this blog is full of spoilers of five of Cristopher Nolan’s best films namely ‘The Prestige’, ‘Inception’, ’The Dark Knight’ , ‘Dark Knight rises’ and ‘Interstellar’ and I could have added ‘Dunkirk’ too only if had any.

If you have watched these movies I am sure you will still remember the surprise revelation in Prestige informing us that Cristian Bale’s character actually has a twin. Remember the surprise look on Hugh Jackman’s face when he finds out. The audience reaction is no different at the scene. A pretty big revelation in the end for movie which already has a lot of plot twists.

Source: cinemablend.com

Inception dealt with something so extraordinary that it cannot be described in words. It was a dreamy world, literally. The movie is hard to grasp in the first viewing and I can say this of some of this other movies too but this one definitely takes the cake. Maybe it was meant for repeat viewing. Whatever maybe the case I think everyone can still recollect the departing scene of the movie of a top spinning endlessly till the director decides to leave it up to the audience to decide if it stops, but he very well knows the audience can’t, and this is precisely what the audience loves. Such is his grasp on the craft. The movie also had strong characterization.

Source:The Independent.co.uk

With Interstellar, the plot kept the audience hooked with the whole concept of time difference between different planets and signals from outer space until we are told that Mathew’s character is stuck in a black hole where he somehow manages to reach the past and change the very course of his whole life. Very difficult to digest, but one must appreciate the film’ enormity and the directors depth of thought. I must admit that I loved the movie until it went out of orbit in the last 45 minutes. However, none of us could have seen the end coming. The books changing places to form a Morse code was being done by an astronaut flying in outer space was beyond anyone’s imagination baring Mr. Nolan.

Source: wired.com

Dark knight is one his other movies that became a classic. The older batman movies seem naive in its comparison. To be fair to the other directors a superhero movie was not expected to be a classic. It was only expected to have a healthy does of action and adventure.

This was the first time that the proceedings in a superhero movie were dominated by its Villan — The Joker, played by Heath Leader, who even won the academy award for best actor in a supporting role, posthumously. The Joker was not funny but cunningly funny guy and we all loved to hate him. The movie had several twists and multiple layers, each equally important in the movie. One can argue that the Joker’s character was much more powerfully than that of batman but we think so because the director had the courage to show that even if there are superheros, in real world good people die, good gets manipulated, very good can also become very evil and it is up to us to follow this trend and become bad or be the bigger person and sacrifice your pride and needs to do what is right and good. Bruce Wayne giving up on being a batman to portray Harvey Dent as the hero of Gotham so that people continue to believe in good is a pretty big sacrifice which went mostly unappreciated as compared to the Joker’s antics.

Source:IMDB

Christopher Nolan went on to make the last installment of this series — Dark Knight Rises but it was not as good as the earlier version. However, it still had the strong characters and good suspense. The introduction of Robin in the end also sets up a base for another installment but I suppose that’s not happening. nevertheless it was a good movie. I would have also narrated my experience of watching the first installment of the batman series but unfortunately I haven’t watched it till date.

Source:pludggedin.com

…..but beyond the fact that the story was being told in different time sequences through different perspectives there was nothing in Dunkirk. It was established quite early in the film that the civilian boats have been hired to get the soldiers back and that’s pretty much what happened in the end. No layers to the story, no suspense,no great character, no twists, and no big revelation in the end. The movie did not make anyone bat an eyelid. Were we supposed to be thrilled by watching multiple boat sinks or multiple dogfights. I mean we have had enough war movies showing just that plus we were excited to see it. Just looking at a war from different perspectives and timelines wasn’t intriguing enough.

Having said this let me also clarify that Dunkirk is a good movie but Nolan’s worst one. But then to err is human and we can’t blame Nolan but our own expectations. He set the bar so high for himself that anything less than extraordinary coming from him is disappointing. I am sure someone would have already passed on this message to him and we would soon see something extraordinary from him.