Patriotic, militaristic and too long

Rating: 6/10 (29 May 2016)

The original cut of the film was 4 hours long. They 'managed' to cut it down to 145 minutes, the length that most Michael Bay films seem to have but it's still too long. Cutting another 25 minutes would have made it snappier. '13 Hours' is a rather patriotic flick about soldiers protecting a CIA compound in Libia after an ambassador is killed. The characters are not very properly introduced or fleshed out so you won't care much about them. They use a lot of military slang which might help to make it sound more authentic it also adds to the confusion. The battle scenes are in Bay's tradition filmed in a very chaotic fashion, sometimes it's difficult to see what's going on. In reality it probably was that way but it doesn't have to be for the spectators. All in all it's an okay film -I wasn't bored or anything- but it feels too patriotic (the word 'American' is used plenty) and military centric (the diplomats and chiefs come off as incompetent nerds while the soldiers save the day).