Been angry ever since the half way mark...

Rating: 9/10 (16 January 2016)

I am a retired Air Force vet. NO, I would never claim falsely to be "one of those guys" portrayed in the movie. But I've met "those guys" I know some of what they have done and how they do it. I have nothing but respect for them.
First off, haters are going to hate, because the is a movie about an American Ambassador, being sent to a very dangerous area, and abandoned to die and it really rankles them, because there was no excuse and everyone in charge is lying and hiding.. So of course, those haters will deride the authors of the book as liars, even though they weren't on the ground, in the s#$t as they say and rattle on about all the investigations that supposedly led nowhere. I ask you, if you were in the loop and an Ambassador died, you would freely set yourself up for some serious jail time, voluntarily? Or a least lose your comfy safe desk job, sucking off the teat of the American taxpayer?
It's tense, right from the start, partially because we know the story. Bad stuff happening in a very bad place. Bay sets the tone almost immediately, showing how real men protect and save lives of people that don't respect them and maybe even hate them. It's their job and they do it to the best of their abilities.
You see also, though not much, that they are human, wives, kids, a desire to really be anywhere but where they are. And in a movie like this I wouldn't expect too much ancillary "character development"; that comes later, but not much.
That development comes in the portrayal of courage and willingness to stare at what seems to be overwhelming odds, protecting people who view you as being no more that "drivers", or gophers for those "Harvard and Yale grads".
Bay delivers on what he can do well, lots of action and explosions. Except, these are robot in disguise, or asteroids, or some other unbelievable scenario. This was a real fight, real guns, bullets, with real people dying.
Dialog? what would you expect, being under fire for 13 hours, long soliloquies about the meaning of life? Did you want a sex scene between a beard and the female lead?
What angered me most, was what was lacking, and this is what is true and none of the haters can deny it. No other American help, outside of the other contractors and Deltas from Tripoli. There wasn't even an American transport, to fly the remains of the fallen Americans when the dust settled.
And I can say this on absolute authority. Our government is flat out lying that no assets were ready, available or had the time to provide assistance. I speak specifically in reference to the F-16's whether they were in Aviano or Sig, or on an "exercise" in Turkey. I worked with F-15's in what was mostly a very low threat environment on Okinawa. Every night, before the squadrons would bed down after training all day, each one was MANDATED to have 2 each aircraft, fueled, locked and loaded for any real world scenario. AND one KC- 135 fueled, ready to fly for midair refueling purposes. On an exercise in Alaska, same thing. so again, our government is lying or they have decimated the services so badly, that they cannot provide any war assets fro any real time threats. Either way....
Go see 13 hours. Go see real patriots.