War movies are as familiar to moviegoers as popcorn, Coca-Cola and Nicole Kidman’s AMC launch, but Steve McQueen’s newest film, “Blitz,” puts a new, if slightly muddled, twist on the genre. “Blitz” follows young George (Elliott Heffernan), who is sent away from London by his mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) during Germany’s World War II bombing campaign. George escapes the train into the countryside and tries to return home, but is drawn into a series of harrowing experiences that plunge him into the heart of war-torn London.

“12 Years a Slave” director Steve McQueen tackles the war movie from a unique perspective and brings technical excellence and obvious passion to the project. But “Blitz” ultimately lacks the emotional substance that the grand narrative desperately needs.

“Blitz” is very impressive. Bombs are falling on London, British society is trapped in chaos, and it is easy to become disconnected from the horrific scenes. But the performances at the core of the film help ground the narrative. Saoirse Ronan plays Rita, a young mother who is particularly worried about her son’s escape. Ronan’s performance balances joy – audiences see her passionate singing, dancing and pure love for her son – with deep pain – she cries mournfully for her lost child and rages at Britain’s racism towards mixed-race children. Elliott Heffernan brings complexity to his role as a confused and frightened boy, and his performance is even more impressive considering he is only eleven years old.

The war anxiety in “Blitz” is further emphasized by the film’s excellent soundscape. Hans Zimmer, whose own mother lived through the Blitz, composes a collection of eerie, shrill music that highlights the fear that World War II ingrained in daily life.

In an interview with NPRZimmer recalls a conversation he had with Steve McQueen: “I said to Steve, look, the only way I’m going to know how to do this is maybe to write the most unlistenable, the most terrifying, the most terrifying music possible, because I want adults to feel that.” the way a child would feel.”

Zimmer achieves this effect perfectly. Music makes the images of fire, bombs and collapsed buildings even more terrifying and makes the audience uneasy at all times. McQueen places Zimmer’s anxiety-filled music both in heart-pounding moments of the plot and in pulsating moments where nothing is happening; this highlights how fear was integrated into daily existence during World War II. The sound team complements Zimmer’s music beautifully, and sonic elements such as fire, train engines, and water create their own thunderous symphonies that complement Zimmer’s work. “Blitz” impressively uses sound to its advantage at every level.

McQueen also uses “Blitz” to make some of the most impressive historical set pieces to date, combining special effects and set design with beautiful effect. “Blitz” aims to encapsulate the various perspectives affected by the war, so viewers are taken from factories to crumbling nightclubs to subway stations that serve as bomb shelters. One memorable scene takes the viewer on a whirling journey through a nightclub, then silenced by the hiss of a dropped bomb.

The set design (Anna Pinnock) and costumes (Jacqueline Durran) are stunningly gorgeous and contrast sharply with the simple, impoverished world in which George and Rita live. The final shot of the film, looking at bombed and burning London, is also striking and uses CGI to realistically expand the historical horizon. The film’s set design and special effects place the viewer in an incredibly realistic version of the past, making the events of the narrative seem even more meaningful.

But among the epic sets and special effects, McQueen’s vision seems to have lost track of its deeper purpose. “Blitz” attempts to be an encyclopedic, Dickensian vision of World War II London, looking at the Nazi bombing through the eyes of historically underrepresented groups. Viewers see how immigrants, minorities, women, children, the disabled, and the elderly grapple with conflict while navigating a society not built to protect them. McQueen attempts to make the predictable war drama more than just a reassertion of Britain’s strength in the face of conflict, injecting commentary on the city’s underbelly of racism, prejudice and cruelty.

But in trying to be so wide-ranging, “Blitz” fails to give sufficient weight to every part of its narrative. The film wants to be a swirling portrait of a city in chaos, but it also wants to be a heartfelt mother-son story and a depiction of a young boy coming to terms with his identity, but neither of those themes ever do it justice.

Steve McQueen’s films have taken audiences from the pre-war South to Northern Ireland to New York City, and it feels only fitting that he’s brought his grand directorial vision to the capital of London. “Blitz” revels in everything McQueen excels at – beautiful visual sequences, outstanding sound design and historical plotting – but fails emotionally. McQueen’s film is epic, awe-inspiring and ambitious; and at the end of the day it doesn’t leave much of an impression.

—Staff writer Hannah E. Gadway can be reached at: [email protected].