Review of 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) by Matthew O — 05 Feb 2016

I had almost no expectations for this movie. For what the story is, it sounds like something I would really like to see. I hold a lot of interest in films that focus on war. They usually tell intriguing stories based on the experiences of soldiers who have been through the hardships of war. The people who created movies like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, FULL METAL JACKET, BLACK HAWK DOWN, and INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS managed to pull off those qualities really well. But with director Michael Bay involved, it seems like this movie would blow. His movies are usually executed terribly, especially ones that tell a true story, such as PEARL HARBOR and PAIN & GAIN. So since this is a Michael Bay movie based on a true story, I had no interest to see it. But I want to review as many movies as I can this year. And since this was the best reviewed movie of the weekend, I decided to see it. 13 HOURS is not that bad actually. I got to say, this is probably Bay's most mature movie he has made...ever! He actually took advantage with the story and added a lot of dignity to it. For a lot of people, their main issue is that the motivations for the soldiers to go after the people that are attacking them were not at all clear. But that was actually the whole point. It's said that the soldiers don't know what they're attacking for either, so the audience should be unclear of what is going on. That was actually very clever. But my main issue is that we have almost no time to get to know these people. There is not nearly enough development with these characters for us to understand. So when they finally go into battle, you can't really get as invested nor even care what happens to them. When you tell a true story, one of the most important aspects is to get to know these people more so we can connect with them since the characters are based on real people. Another thing is that in there is WAY too much shaky cam and quick cut editing, especially in the first hour. It actually gave me a headache. The dramatic aspect the movie is going for gave it a good balance with the gritty action. But it does at times get kind of overly sentimental and it doesn't seem very natural. All in all, 13 HOURS is probably Michael Bay's best movie since THE ROCK, which came out almost two decades ago. But when you think about it, that doesn't really say much since almost all of his movies since then were pretty terrible. This is not a movie you need to see. I can't really say this is even a good movie in general. It left out some of the most important aspects that a film like this should have. But if you want to see that Michael Bay has finally done something decent or if you're interested in the war genre of movies, then give it a watch.

Grade: C+.