Good But Could Have Been Better

Rating: 5/10 (18 January 2018)

In short: "12 Strong" is based on the book "Horse Soldiers" by Doug Stanton. In the weeks following 9/11 an elite squad of soldiers from the Army's Fifth Special Forces Group were flown into Afghanistan and dropped behind enemy lines. Their mission: work with a local, CIA-paid warlord, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, and his "Northern Alliance forces", defeat the Taliban, and secure the strategic city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Whoopsy, no one told this group of "12 Strong" American badasses, led by Captain Mitch Nelson (Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth), that the fight will have to be done on horseback. Oh, and "you have six-weeks to do it." Says Thor: "We'll do it in three."
If you're expecting an action-packed two-hours, you'll be disappointed. When the action does eventually start, it moves quickly from location to location with carpet-bombing-B-52's doing most of the heavy-lifting. Sure, it's fun to watch American air-superiority blow the shit out of the Taliban, but I paid to see Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Peña and Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight) gallop and shoot their way to glory. But, this is a true story and the truth can be anti climactic sometimes.
Two things you'll LIKE about "12 Strong": 1) Although the action scenes are short, they are awesomely intense and loud. 2) This is a guy movie. There isn't much in the way of romance, only bromance (if you're female, well, there is Chris Hemsworth but you may as well stay at home with the book version and a bottle of Chardonnay).
Two things you'll DISLIKE: 1) There's a lot of reading to do. It seems like every five-minutes the team is going from Taliban stronghold to stronghold and apparently we need to know exactly who is who and where they are, in white bold, CAPS-LOCKED titles on the screen. 2) There's no emotion, and very little chemistry between the characters.