I had high hopes for this one, i really did. Michael Bay's best is what i kept hearing, so i thought hey maybe it will break through the typical Michael Bay stereotype, which it does and doesn't at the same time. I will explain what i mean later on but in short i found myself bored to be honest. I was thinking to myself about all the other things i could be doing which isn't how i want to feel during a movie.
I would compare my view on 13 hours to that of M. Night Shamylan's 'The Visit'. Completely different films but hear me out. Both films were described as the director's return to form. I watched both and by the end i wasn't sold on either of them. I came out feeling 'that was alright, but to be honest doesn't sell me that this director will be making great movies again in the future'. Bay's films are bad but i enjoyed films such as the first Transformers, heck i even enjoy Bad Boys II. They are stupid but a lot of fun. What Bay has tried to do here is make a serious Biopic, he did Pain and Gain and probably realised it was a bad idea to make it a comedy, but making a drama like this just comes across as boring and you cant even have fun with the "badness" because here he tries too hard to be serious which is fine to do in a movie, but Bay doesn't really know how to do it well. I mean, it is a good story and a real life event involving Benghazi soldiers and the death of an ambassador which could have translated well. But making it 2 hrs 24 minutes, not a great deal happened and a lot of it was filler.
At times in the movie we are watching something really exciting and i think, the movie really could redeem itself here, then the next scene is something really boring that i wasn't interested in. This happens for the entire runtime which is almost like watching 2 different films. One scene involves the main character running across a battlefield in slow motion with a beautiful sunset behind him whilst things are constantly exploding behind him. To me it perfectly describes Bay as a director. Brilliant style, poor substance. The film wasn't terrible, but nothing overly memorable happens which has me sold that he is a good filmmaker either, so in the end it's just an average film that doesn't stand among the rest of the true story films out today.
I would compare my view on 13 hours to that of M. Night Shamylan's 'The Visit'. Completely different films but hear me out. Both films were described as the director's return to form. I watched both and by the end i wasn't sold on either of them. I came out feeling 'that was alright, but to be honest doesn't sell me that this director will be making great movies again in the future'. Bay's films are bad but i enjoyed films such as the first Transformers, heck i even enjoy Bad Boys II. They are stupid but a lot of fun. What Bay has tried to do here is make a serious Biopic, he did Pain and Gain and probably realised it was a bad idea to make it a comedy, but making a drama like this just comes across as boring and you cant even have fun with the "badness" because here he tries too hard to be serious which is fine to do in a movie, but Bay doesn't really know how to do it well. I mean, it is a good story and a real life event involving Benghazi soldiers and the death of an ambassador which could have translated well. But making it 2 hrs 24 minutes, not a great deal happened and a lot of it was filler.
At times in the movie we are watching something really exciting and i think, the movie really could redeem itself here, then the next scene is something really boring that i wasn't interested in. This happens for the entire runtime which is almost like watching 2 different films. One scene involves the main character running across a battlefield in slow motion with a beautiful sunset behind him whilst things are constantly exploding behind him. To me it perfectly describes Bay as a director. Brilliant style, poor substance. The film wasn't terrible, but nothing overly memorable happens which has me sold that he is a good filmmaker either, so in the end it's just an average film that doesn't stand among the rest of the true story films out today.