Steven Spielberg’s new film is inspired by the 1972 kidnapping and killing of eleven Israeli athletes at the Olympic games in Munich by Palestinians gunmen. In response to the murders, the Israeli government secretly hires a group of Jewish assassins to track down eleven Arab terrorists with links to the atrocity.

There’s no denying Spielberg’s eye for detail, and every European city we encounter looks just as it did in the 1970s. The acting too is good, without anyone really standing out. However, the central core of the film, the hunting down and killing of known terrorists, fails to hold the viewer’s interest. Avner (Eric Bana) is the only member of the Israeli team who we can identify with as his character is fleshed out. He has a pregnant wife whom he must leave for months at a time to carry out his mission.

The other four members of the team that Avner leads are all shadowy individuals. At first this is interesting, as you attempt to guess as to their real selves, but soon it just becomes boring. Considering the amount of time the hit team have on screen, we learn very little about them. Ciaran Hinds as Carl is the only one to offer any depth, and he is the best actor on show. Spielberg seems more interested in banging on about higher themes- Avner as the son of Israel undertaking a mission of vengeance, the rights and wrongs of revenge and so forth. But these themes can only engage you if you care about the underlying actors, and in Munich you don’t.

The film is packed full of action and suspense- Bombings, attempted murders, spies who may be double agents (maybe Sinn Fein should avoid this one), one full blown military assault in North Africa. Thus the film is never less than watchable. But essentially it all boils down to Avner as a sort-of personification of Jewish reaction to the kidnapping. Eric Bana, so excellent in Chopper and the one saving grace of Troy, struggles here to really stamp his mark. Spielberg unsuccessfully narrates the film through Avner’s viewpoint, to the detriment of every other character, and the result is a surprisingly unemotional story.

Every so often Avner has a nightmare or we see flashbacks to the tragic events of the kidnapping, but all this is just padding a hollow shell. By the end you’re wondering are you going to have to sit through the killing of all eleven of the targets, or will Spielberg hopefully cut it short.

Spielberg clearly wanted to cloak Munich in ambiguity, to avoid reaching any overbearing conclusions on his opinions on the subject. Geoffrey Rush’s character Ephraim, a covert Israeli government official, carries across the sort of mystery and greyness that Spielberg seems to be after. But because Munich never finds a voice at all, it comes across as a dull action film with lofty ideas, nothing more.