A fine film that left a lot to be desired.

Rating: 6/10 (24 January 2016)

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is a film that I wanted to love. Michael Bay tackling something more serious, coupled with a great cast; what could go wrong? Quite a bit in my opinion. The first hour of this film is completely run of the mill if you've seen any modern war film. We're introduced to our characters and quickly informed of their past and the fact that they're fathers putting it all on the line for their families. However, the decent performances and humorous dialogue kept me engaged for the most part. Once you get past the uninteresting first act, the bullets start flying. This is where the film should completely shine, but in my opinion did not, mostly due to the poor cinematography and shaky shot selection. What's the point in staging fantastic action sequences if you're not even going to film it properly and in a way where it's comprehensible for the audience. I enjoy the use of shaky cam. When it's used tastefully, it can add a visceral edge to the shot, however, 13 Hours completely overuses this concept to a nauseating level. If you can look past the poor shot selection, you can see that the film does do a decent job of building suspense during certain scenes and it also properly portrays the relationship of soldiers on the battlefield. That being said, when characters started to bite the dust, I did not care in the slightest and the film really expected me to. In the end, 13 Hours is a decent war film that takes entirely too long to become interesting. When it finally does, I found myself wishing and hoping for a steady, wide shot or something a bit more smooth. There are a few sequences that I found really cool, and the audio design is spot on. Put up against other films like Saving Private Ryan, or Band of Brothers, this film doesn't stand a chance. On it's own, this film is completely fine while paying respects to the men and women who serve to protect us daily.