Just the typical Bay unfortunately

Rating: 4/10 (14 April 2017)

"13 Hours" or "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" is an American Oscar-nominated movie from 2016. The director is Michael Bay, which usually means style (especially special effects) over substance, but the fact that Chuck Hogan is the writer here and I quite enjoyed "The Town" gave me some hope. He adapted the book by Mitchell Zuckoff. But my hope was dashed relatively quickly. This is a war movie as generic as they come. I may be slightly biased as I am not only not a great Bay fan, but also military films are certainly far from my favorite genre, but as an Oscar nominee I still thought I'd give it a go, even if it is "only" in the sound category. It is set in Libya and plays pretty much in the now, not too long ago really, so an interest in current politics may help. Or it may hurt perhaps too as you will recognize the inaccuracies here. Cast includes not too many big names really, even lead actor Krasinski is not a star when it comes to the big screen.
Anyway, people who really enjoy army-based movies, even if the story is not really that good, may have an okay time with this one here. One of my main criticisms about this film, however, is that it never elaborates convincingly on the characters in a way where it would make sense to go all emotional at the very end, where we care enough about the characters and are touched by their actions and what happens to them. But this is also a criticism that is valid for several Michael Bay movies. It's perfectly fine he tries to come up with something memorable, but the quality and talent is not there and when the film then starts taking itself so seriously, then that is a huge problem that leaves a negative impact on the entire project really. But admittedly, it is not just Bay's fault, but you also have to blame the writers at least for the same amount. Besides, at considerably over 2 hours this movie also drags a lot. For me, it is definitely one of the weakest Oscar nominees from this year that I have seen so far. I give it a thumbs-down and only recommend it to those that I already mentioned previously.