13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi review: Michael Bay tells the true life story of the 2012 attack on a U.S. compound – and it’s actually pretty good.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi review
It would be quite easy to dismiss Michael Bay‘s latest effort after the damp squibs that were the overblown Pain & Gain, most, if not all of the Transformers movies and, not forgetting, the awful Pearl Harbor – but 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi could just be his best film – yes, better than The Rock and Armageddon.
Okay, so we’re not measuring this up against much, as Bay has not had the best of luck when it comes to critical reception, but his films have grossed a combined amount of $5.7 billion worldwide. With 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi, Bay tells a true story about a group of six ex-miltary operatives who find themselves in a situation where they must go up against terrorists who stage an attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound on September 11, 2012.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi review
Our main protagonist is Jack Silva, an ex-special forces turned security officer, played by a totally built-up John Krasinski (The Office). Alongside him is Tyrone Woods (James Badge Dale), a seasoned vet and a personal friend of Silva. What follows is a two and a half hour epic featuring the elite team up against an enemy that can’t be clearly seen, and a situation that they are unable to avoid.
For the most part, Michael Bay’s latest is an engrossing, hugely gripping effort, only let down by its bloated running time. It’s a film full of your Bay watermarks; slo-mo shots, fast editing and lots of scenes apparently set at sunset. There’s even a sequence towards the end where we follow a mortar bomb falling from the sky down onto its target below, destroying it completely. It’s one that looks to have been carbon-copied from the aforementioned Pearl Harbor, though luckily that’s where comparisons end. What Bay has managed to do is surprise us with a hugely watchable affair that while it does throw a lot of flag-waving, chest-thumping material at us, it also engages us pretty much from the off which ensures we can see past huge amount of debris and overdone gloss to see the true horrors of a modern war.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi review
While this won’t set the world on fire like the similarly themed American Sniper did last year, it’s still quite a captivating affair that we can definitely recommend.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi review by Paul Heath, January 2016.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi is released in UK cinemas on Friday 29th January, 2016.
