Give me Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor over Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk any day. At least Bay told his story on a straight line. In Dunkirk, Nolan’s script jumps all over the map, leading to diminished results. His film concerns survival, specifically the evacuation of Dunkirk. About the only heroic actions on display involve Tom Hardy’s Spitfire pilot.

Pictorially, this production appears most efficient when dialogue takes a back seat. Unlike The Dark Knight Trilogy where characters spoke too much, Dunkirk thrives on economy. However, the big bomb soon lands. Quite simply, the film ends up ruined by Hans Zimmer’s score. For me, it’s the most droning and annoying musical accompaniment he has ever bashed out of a keyboard. One cue overstayed its welcome to such an extent I nearly screamed at the projectionist so they would turn it down. Thankfully, propriety won the day.

Meanwhile, character and emotion became casualties too. Leaving aside Hoyte Van Hoytema’s painterly combat sequences, the people seem underdeveloped. We don’t know anything about them, even if they have loved ones waiting at home.

Once more, Nolan ignores humanity to tell a relatively mundane yarn. By journey’s end, Dunkirk felt like enduring the war itself.

(Released by Warner Bros. and rated "PG-13" for intense war experience and some language. )

For more information about this film, go to the IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes website.