12 Strong - Film Review

12 Strong is the directorial debut from Danish film director Nicolai Fuglsig, it's written by Ted Tally (wrote the screenplay for The Silence of the Lambs and... Red Dragon) and Peter Craig (co-wrote The Town and... The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and 2), and it's based on the book Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton. 12 Strong's about the first U.S. Special Forces team deployed into Afghanistan after September 11th to undergo an extremely dangerous mission against the Taliban and it's al-Qaida allies. 12 Strong stars Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pena, Navid Negahban and William Fichtner.

I enjoyed 12 Strong, it's a fun little movie but I don't think that's the reaction they were going for given the subject matter, but that's what it is! It's not a film that leaves you with any sort of lasting impact because it feels a little too much down the America, fuck yeah! route which is hard to take seriously. There are moments when the film tries to expose the horror of war but there are more moments when it indulges in it. For example, there's a 'cool guys don't look at explosions' moment, it's that mixed with the tragic death of children which is an awkward mix but it worked on a popcorn sort of level.

Like I said, I enjoyed the film, it's fun, it's exciting, there's moments of tension and I like the idea of this team of soldiers being dropped into enemy territory with a dangerous mission to complete, I was invested in these characters and I was invested in the story as well. It's often obvious and there's a lot of morality for children sort of stuff but I enjoyed the build and I found the ride entertaining. It definitely gets worse towards the end, the last half an hour or so lost me a bit but not completely, it's not as bad as Lone Survivor for example, it manages to stay within the confines of reality, but only just!

The performances were all good, nothing to write home about but everyone was sufficient. Chris Hemsworth serves as a great lead, that accent's questionable though, it's not far away enough from how he sounds as Thor which was a little offputting but I got over it fairly quickly. I've been a Michael Shannon fan since he played Nelson in Boardwalk Empire and I was glad to see him in this but his performance is just the performance he always gives, and it's good! Michael Pena's also in this, he's fine, as is William Fichtner, also fine, and Navid Negahban was good too, no complaints with the cast.

All in all I liked 12 Strong, it's not the best war film I've seen and it's not the best September 11th war film I've seen either, that would be Zero Dark Thirty! It's a fun action movie with more edge than your standard action movie and I had fun watching it. I'd recommend it to the more casual film fans than the hardcore ones, there's definitely entertainment to be had here, there's just nothing to learn and no new ground is broken, that's the main problem with it but if you're stuck for something to watch tonight, 12 Strong's more than sufficient. I'm gonna give it a 6.9/10 and a half recommendation!

What did you think of 12 Strong?