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12 Strong (2018) (65%)
12 Strong was a January release directed by Nicolai Fuglsig and written by Peter Craig (The Town) and Ted Tally (The Silence of the Lambs). It follows Captain Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth) and his team as they embark on an operation to respond to the 9/11 attacks by taking down Taliban strongholds.
12 Strong is a mediocre film. The action is entertaining and intense, but it is largely contained in the second half of the film which is by far the stronger half. The first half moves a bit too slow and it's pretty obvious that at least 10 minutes of this film could have been cut and the first half would have felt less...bad? I guess. The entire first half is an attempt to make you care about the American soldiers, but it never succeeds and this is probably the film's biggest problem. The characters never fully develop, and I never felt super invested in any of the team's members. The stakes also never felt very high, but I will admit that accomplishing that in a film based on a true story is never easy. Like I said before, the action is the best part of this film, but it still doesn't completely save this film as a lot of the combat is too unrealistic. American special forces are good, absolutely, but they don't kill enemies with every shot they take. Chris Hemsworth's character could probably start shooting while laying on his back with his eyes closed and he'd still hit every enemy he aimed at. And while that's cool and badass, it is unrealistic to a level where it took me out of the film at times. So, yeah, the action is entertaining, but it isn't as good as some other films in this genre (like 13 Hours). I was also somewhat disappointed with the script considering who wrote it. It's not terrible, but with two accomplished writers behind it I definitely expected more.
Overall, I think this is a film that may be worth seeing as a matinee if you are bored or just want to see a military movie, but otherwise I'd wait until it hits one of the streaming services.
12 Strong was a January release directed by Nicolai Fuglsig and written by Peter Craig (The Town) and Ted Tally (The Silence of the Lambs). It follows Captain Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth) and his team as they embark on an operation to respond to the 9/11 attacks by taking down Taliban strongholds.
12 Strong is a mediocre film. The action is entertaining and intense, but it is largely contained in the second half of the film which is by far the stronger half. The first half moves a bit too slow and it's pretty obvious that at least 10 minutes of this film could have been cut and the first half would have felt less...bad? I guess. The entire first half is an attempt to make you care about the American soldiers, but it never succeeds and this is probably the film's biggest problem. The characters never fully develop, and I never felt super invested in any of the team's members. The stakes also never felt very high, but I will admit that accomplishing that in a film based on a true story is never easy. Like I said before, the action is the best part of this film, but it still doesn't completely save this film as a lot of the combat is too unrealistic. American special forces are good, absolutely, but they don't kill enemies with every shot they take. Chris Hemsworth's character could probably start shooting while laying on his back with his eyes closed and he'd still hit every enemy he aimed at. And while that's cool and badass, it is unrealistic to a level where it took me out of the film at times. So, yeah, the action is entertaining, but it isn't as good as some other films in this genre (like 13 Hours). I was also somewhat disappointed with the script considering who wrote it. It's not terrible, but with two accomplished writers behind it I definitely expected more.
Overall, I think this is a film that may be worth seeing as a matinee if you are bored or just want to see a military movie, but otherwise I'd wait until it hits one of the streaming services.