Yet another war movie about a manly men doing manly things. Yay! Yay. Yay?

Rating: 6/10 (3 February 2018)

Where have all the real men gone, some have asked. Well, they have moved onto the silver screen, to star in movies about modern American war, of course.
There has been a notable number of these lately, so the real men are almost constantly busy. And here comes another one, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer no less.
"12 Strong" starts, well, strong and has all the hallmarks of what has made him the legendary Hollywood action producer that he has been for more than 30 years now.
To state it more clearly, it's so Bruckheimer, it will bite you in the ass. No one does this patriotic shit quite as well as Bruck! All the American warriors going to Afghanistan are so patriotic and macho in a good way (yet tender and loving to their families) than you can't help but like and respect them.
The cast is very nice too, starting with the star Chris Hemsworth who has gathered fame with all these hot "Thor" superhero movies and always makes a good action man because of his buffed-up body and tendency to look slightly mad when his face is covered by dust, grease and/or blood... which tends to happen in war movies.
There can only be one hero, of course, but we have also Michael Peña and William Fichtner (the always solid supporting men), and, er, all the other ones making up the American or local armed forces.
And then there's Michael Shannon, thinking man's Hollywood star. As an actor, he's always had the best of both worlds really - this larger than life presence that just commands the attention when he's on screen but he's also smart and intelligent, being able to do any kind of project he damn well pleases.
There's not enough of him in "12 Strong", because producers think Hemsworth needs to be central to everything, but then again, is there ever?
Having watched some, you may notice that for a war movie, there's not a lot of action. In fact, you don't get any battles some 55 minutes have passed from the beginning.
It's not just that war movies are notoriously expensive, the story is also character-based, so the emphasis is on the team members, their state of mind and relationship with local allied warriors who fight the same war but for very different reasons and with a different attitude.
We see how being in a battlefield is, all this dust and mostly waiting and sitting around in your army pants, waiting for something to happen (which sounds a lot like my 20's, minus the dust and army pants).
Then the battles happen, and I gotta say, they turn out to be not the strongest part of "12 Strong". I mean, they are as visually attractive as they come these days, but not standing out in any significant way, except maybe the good work of make-up department creating wounds on the bodies of actors. In short, nothing we haven't seen before enough times.
The suspension never rises high enough because the American soldiers are mostly invulnerable and don't carry heavy losses.
How invested can you be in a firefight where you just know that "our guys" are gonna be left standing? It feels like a videogame, not a authentic chaos of war.
Sadly, the story which is meant to be the strongest part of "12 Strong" is actually not that strong too. It's always a'ight, but not delving deep enough into the characters or their relationships with local allies (although the contrast of two sides is one of the most important points in the story). Which makes it surprising to see how friendly they are in the end.
Ultimately, it's perfectly OK war movie but it doesn't distinguish itself enough in any significant way, to really offer more than two hours worth of passive watching.
The stakes might have been high in real life (it's based on true story), but they sure are only middling on the screen.
I wish they'd used the original title "Horse Soldiers", it's more intriguing. But I guess "12 Strong" is a cleaner and better fit for a mainstream project.