13 Hours movie review
The secret soldiers of Benghazi.
I am going to see this movie tomorrow afternoon, and I’m actually looking forward to it. I really like John Krasinski and I’m excited to see him tackle a serious role. Also, the trailer for this movie looks pretty good. I’m not trying give my political opinion or anything, I’m just judging this as a film trailer, and the trailer has me kind of interested. My big concern is Michael Bay. The man is practically a joke now. We know what to expect: Big, dumb, action. I’ve never loved a Michael Bay film, but this might be a good entry from the man. We’ll see!
Wow! This movie had a few surprises for me. The first one was John Krasinski. The man was able to pull off a really solid dramatic performance. I think he’s slowly becoming an actor who can do it all. James Badge Dale was also very good in this movie. I liked the chemistry between the two leads.
It seems to me like the goal of this movie was to put you in the soldiers shoes. They never really dive into the political side of the situation, which some might see as a flaw. Personally, I think this was done to keep your attention on the soldiers. The movie really is about these characters.
This movie has some great tension. There were a few times where I was on the edge of my seat. In this first hour of the movie, you actually get to see how these soldiers do their jobs, and I thought that those fast paced establishing scenes were directed very well!
Michael Bay can’t always keep his style under control. He loves to shake the camera, he loves close ups, slow motion, fast editing, and that often was very distracting for me. It honestly gave me a little bit of a headache. I will say that towards the end of the movie, he puts his style on the back burner and the movie benefits from that.
Aside from the two leads, the characters in this movie all felt a little one dimensional. I think this was a problem with the script. There was an attempt to give the characters a little more personality, but at the end of the day Krasinski and Dale have the most interesting characters in this film.
Lastly, they try to ease the tension with humor every now and then, but it doesn’t always work. At times it just adds to the run time of this film, which does drag a little in a few places.
I think you were interested by the trailer, this movie will work for you.
13 Hours- C+
