The book is usually better than the movie. “Unbroken” is no exception.

“Unbroken,” based off Laura Hillenbrand’s nonfiction book, tells the story of Louie Zamperini. Zamperini, played by British actor Jack O’Connell, was an Olympic runner and World War II veteran. The film opens with Louie flying in a B-24 over Japanese land. In the middle of the battle, the scene flashes back to Louie’s childhood, showing how as a child, he was a delinquent. More periodic flashbacks show how Louie became a track star and Olympic athlete. Once Louie takes off on his final flight, the flashbacks inexplicably end.

While on a military base, after running his fastest mile ever, Louie is immediately called on to fly on a search and rescue mission. His plane crashes into the ocean and he is left stranded on a raft with Phil (Domhnall Gleeson) and Mac (Finn Wittrock). During this lengthy portion of the film, the three men fight sharks, catch food and rainwater, and try to get rescued. (Spoiler Alert) Mac dies for seemingly no reason, as the men have food and water, and the two remaining soldiers are found by a Japanese ship.

While in a series of POW camps, Louie faces off against a prison guard known as “The Bird” (Japanese musician Miyavi) and gets beaten intensely multiple times. In a much advertised scene, Louie is forced to hold a wooden beam at gunpoint. This scene differs from the book, where Louie was not threatened with death for dropping the beam, only beaten.

Overall, “Unbroken” is a pretty dull film, whenever Louie is feeling downtrodden, whoever he is sitting next to happens to have the perfect inspirational saying. For example, Louie’s brother, Pete (Alex Russell), advises, “If you can take it, you can make it.” These cliched inspirational quotes are surprising, considering the film was co-written by the Coen brothers, who are known for writing such great lines as “that rug really tied the room together.”

The film lacks real moments of tension, or a climax. In the aforementioned beam scene, the closest thing to a climax, all the prisoners stop and watch Louie hold the beam for hours and chant, “Do it, Louie,” while in actuality, there was nothing he could do that he wasn’t already doing.

The only thing that keeps a viewer from dismissing “Unbroken” as a muddle of formulaic Hollywood cliches is the fact that the story is true. While many incredible aspects of the true story are included in the film, some of the best parts are left out, such as Louie’s personal meeting with Hitler, and his postwar fall into alcoholism and obsession with “The Bird.” Other parts of interest that are left out are an encounter with a Japanese spy who Louie knew back in California, and “The Bird’s” years spent in hiding.

Angelina Jolie, who directed the film, spends too much time on some topics and breezes through others too quickly as a way to move the story along. In one scene, a Japanese official tells the men of Roosevelt’s death, and almost immediately, without any context, a new day is shown.

Despite its many flaws, “Unbroken” could have been much worse. While the film is visually interesting, it isn’t as engaging as a story that incredible should have been.