Review of 12 Strong (2018) by Connor S — 30 Jan 2018

It's easy to forget, but America is still at war. As each year brings us further away from the shock of 9/11, it becomes harder to grasp its impact. 12 Strong tries to remind us how much everything changed by being the same-old war film.

What does separate 12 Strong from most action movies is its depiction of Afghanistan. Culture shock is the true driving force behind this movie. It motivates much of the humor and the drama. By far the most suspenseful scenes are when the freshly arrived Americans can't understand the locals' intentions. On the technical side, this movie is scenery-chewing in its attempt to make Afghanistan a character in its own right. It can't help but constantly provide sweeping vistas of the mountains and battlefields. Dust gets used to set a literal fog of war. Things do get excessive to the point where it seems like the camera only moves so much to give an excuse to show off the lens flare effects 5 times in a single shot.

This repetitiveness extends to the action as well. After the 3rd battle scene, you start to expect that you're seeing the same footage as the previous two. 12 Strong is the most Michael Bay film I've seen that wasn't directed by Michael Bay. It can't help itself but show off excessive amounts of explosions and fighters gunning each other down. This is a war movie, after all, but 12 Strong is so caught up in its jingoism that it neglects everything else. Non-essential scenes are skimmed over in order to get straight to the next fight. Most of the characters get very little characterization, and their families appear so rarely, it's unclear why they're in the movie at all. It's also clear that Chris Hemsworth was cast for his star-power, rather than merit. It's not that his acting is bad so much that his accent keeps slipping.

Even worse is the character of General Dostum. Having seen the documentary, The Convoy of Death, it's bizarre to see Dostum lionized as a battle-hardened leader when immediately after this movie's events, he had 2,000 prisoners of war massacred. Of course, this movie depends on its moral clarity, so anything more than glossing over Dostum's war crimes, which by the way, American soldiers also participated in, would only get in the way of this movie's goals. That simplicity prevents 12 Strong from being a truly great, or even competent war film.