Wasted opportunities in a nutshell.

Rating: 5/10 (27 May 2020)

I watched this movie with 2 friends: One of us was occasionally keeping us updated on whats going on, the others were bored to death.
13 Hours is, once again, a movie based on a true story in a warzone where america saves the day. It starrs characters who look the same, act the same and have those cringeworthy lines of "cool" dialogue which should make us feel sympathetic towards them.To the writers: No it doesn't! Never in the history of any army movie this has ever worked for me. It's just cliché. Please stop. (And don't ever bring that "If you don't do anything, americans will die" line. There literally are allied non-americans fighting with you, and you're killing off hundreds of family fathers, that's just nasty.)
The characters are by far the worst part of this movie. Especially in the last few minutes, where we should feel something as one of them gets buried under what was once a house. But I was just horribly confused as to who died, because they all look and act the same.
I have to admit, when I heard that Michael Bay directed the movie, I expected worse. Of course, there still are some really unnecessary slow motion sequences, but the explosions were almost non-existent. Proud of you Miky <3
The locations are extremely gorgeous, gotta give 'em that.
The actors are fine, they do the best they can with those characters. The effects are quite nice. Nothing special about them. The rockets looked nice I guess.
Now comes the story: It's based on true events, which can be interesting (see Kursk). And here, it's also an interesting event, almost unbelievable. And yet, the writers messed it up with uninteresting, replaceable characters.
In essence, this movie is a giant wasted opportunity to create a menacing atmosphere in an unescapable situation.