12 Strong

So I've come to realize that the same way we're going to have a Star Wars movie, and 3 Marvel movies, and a couple of DC movies, and other franchise movies every single year, since the release of American Sniper back in 2014 that had mad box office returns we are going to see a "Based on a True Story" war movie every January till the day we die. Maybe that's the reason people think we are going to North Korea, Hollywood needs to keep doling out war movies.

Now I don't necessarily mind this trend. I enjoy a good war movie. I think there are so many movies that misrepresent the military that it's okay to have good old America kicking ass movie from time to time. Sometimes they can be interpreted as propaganda... and believe me I will talk about that in this movie, but just because something is propaganda doesn't necessarily mean it's not entertaining.

12 Strong takes place in 2001. One of the first scenes is these Soldiers seeing 9/11 occur. From that point on, they spring into action. Captain Mitch Nelson (played by Chris Hemsworth), a green beret assembles a team together of special forces to go into Afghanistan and kick off the United State's retaliation offensive to knock down the Taliban in Afghanistan.

On his team is a Warrant Officer by the name of Cal Spencer (played by Michael Shannon) and a bunch of other Soldiers, most notably one played by Michael Pena named Sam Diller.

Unfortunately, this is where I need to take a step back and point out a criticism of this movie. You've got a group of 12 United States green berets and unfortunately I could really only remember Chris Hemsworth's character's name. Everyone else was really only recognizable by physical traits. Of course you recognize Michael Shannon and Michael Pena and maybe you'll remember their names, but then there's one with glasses, there's one with long blonde hair they make fun of, and there's the black one. I honestly couldn't tell you what any of their names were or really anything about them. In fact you only see the three big name actor's families and even then their good byes are pretty rushed.

The movie seems a little bit more focused on getting straight to the action and describing the events that occurred, and that is important by all means. But when you forgo the background on these guys, they're just extra non-playable characters similar to a video game. They don't have much of a backstory at all and it's hard to get invested in them when all I know about them is that they are Soldiers.

The team is sent into Afghanistan to join up with a warlord by the name of Abdul Rashid Dostum (played by Navid Negahban). Dostum is one of many warlords of the northern alliance of Afghanistan that want to take control away from the Taliban. However, the warlords are thirsty for power and don't like each other either. This creates an unstable environment for Nelson and his team to enter into as their mission is to embed with Dostum's forces, support them with air strikes, and take a city that was said to be the headquarters of Taliban control.

And while this all sounds like a military war movie with all the political and military jargon I just threw at you, there's also an element of this movie that feels almost fantasy like than modern day warfare.

There is a Taliban leader in this movie that is somewhat of the main antagonist of the film who looks like the most stereotypical arab villains I've ever seen. I'm not saying it's not accurate but they portray this guy like Jafar from Aladdin. That along with the fact that you've got a bunch of guys riding on horses, pulling off battlefield warfare with a mysterious warlord who talks about having the warrior heart, it all just felt like a modern day fantasy movie more than a war movie.

Let me be clear, I am nothing but respect for the people this story is portraying and while I haven't read the book it's based on or really done enough research into the situation, a lot of details are probably accurate.

However, they do take a lot of liberties with this movie in order to make an entertaining war movie. And when I say war movie, I mean a popcorn entertainment value movie, not a heart wrenching war movie like American Sniper or Saving Private Ryan was.

And that's the problem. I have a lot of friends in the military that say that Saving Private Ryan and American Sniper is Hollywood fluff and overblown to get an emotional reaction. 12 Strong is definitely Hollywood fluff, but it's more in the way of hyping up the action rather than making something that makes you feel. It's more the Michael Bay route of things than the Steven Spielberg way.

I don't care how unrealistic the story of Saving Private Ryan is, when Matt Damon's character is older and he asks his wife if he's a good person, I lose it every time. I know I just brought up Michael Bay as a bad example but even the characters in 13 Hours had a lot more character background than the characters in 12 Strong.

At the end of the day, 12 Strong felt like two things. A really long, more in depth Call of Duty cutscene with a lot of really cool action but was pretty light on the story.

The other thing it felt like was military propaganda.

As much as I liked the music in this film, I cannot think of a movie that had so many scenes that could have replaced the music with that theme music you hear in every Army recruiting commercial and it wouldn't have felt much different at all. There were so many money shots that just made Chris Hemsworth look badass, made Michael Shannon look amazing and more importantly, made the Army look amazing.

Now there is a lot of research you can do about the involvement of the military in Hollywood. I won't go over it now but if I'm a movie producer and I want to get the most accurate representation of the Army or I want to represent the military in my movie, I have to sign a contract to help promote the military in a positive light. Some people call that manipulative but I honestly don't have a huge problem with it... for the most part. And while 12 Strong does feel like a two hour long recruitment video for the US Army, I still enjoyed it.

I will give the movie some credit. It is a pretty good tribute to the military and it does portray a significant victory for the Army back in 2001.

It also does do an okay job at the very least of giving Chris Hemsworth a developing character throughout most of the film.

According to the movie, Mitch Nelson was a fairly green Captain and didn't have the combat experience his men did. So when he sets out on this mission, he is required to put his metal to the test and prove himself to his men and the Afghan warlord he is assigned to accompany.

Now I don't know how much of that is true, or how much of what happens with Nelson in the movie is true, I will have to read the book. I know that a bunch of my military friends would say that it's Hollywood bullshit and when you're in the midst of battle, you don't have time for leaders who are going through personal development. Everyone needs to join together as a team and complete the mission or people die. But regardless of the accuracy of the movie, it does give Chris Hemsworth an opportunity to do something really interesting and dynamic with this character.

For the first half of the movie it is really well done. There's an interesting scene where Dostum only wants to talk to Nelson's subordinates because they have the "eyes of a killer". That scene and scenes like it are interesting development for a character. While the other members of the team really get no development at all, Chris Hemsworth gets a lot and it's done fairly well until about half way through when he kills a bunch of people, has one scene where it bothers him and then it's never mentioned again. And that's kind of a theme throughout the movie, it doesn't really address any fallout of any of this.

Not only is there not really any fallout to Chris Hemsworth's character and the development he goes through, since this movie takes place at the beginning of the war in Afghanistan you'd think it would end on a more somber note or at least one that fully addresses the fact that this war went on for 17 years later, marking the longest military conflict in US history, and took the lives of over 2000 US military forces alone. But instead we get a couple of lines of how they won the battle but not the war, a oddly prophetic line from Dostum about how blurred the lines will become in the future between the United States and the warlords, alluding to insurgent warfare. But then they do the obligatory true story facts that come after each one of these movies that honor the Soldiers who fought in this conflict and kind of ignore the whole there was a 17 year long war that followed this battle.

Overall, there's a lot of fun to be had with 12 Strong. I wouldn't say it's a really deep or heart felt war movie. At the end of American Sniper the entire movie theater was silent as we walked out. There were parts of the movie I was in tears. I never got that feeling from any moment of 12 Strong. There was a lot of good action and it felt like the Call of Duty movie that we never got. But it's not going to be a war movie that I'm going to feel like I need to own to experience again. If it's on TV or Netflix, I might watch it again, but more than likely, I won't feel the need to spend money on this and I don't think you should either beyond maybe seeing it once.

If you like military movies, you might find this interesting. It is an interesting story and a good tribute to the military. But I think there are better movies out there. It's probably better than most January films that come out this time of year, but don't expect the next American Sniper.

But have you seen 12 Strong? What's the next military movie to come out and is it going to have the number 11 in it (13 Hours, 12 Strong, 11?) Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts @MovieSymposium as well as your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. A fun little piece of trivia in this movie was seeing Rob Riggle in it. In case you didn't know, Rob Riggle was a Marine Officer and made it to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. I believe he plays a Colonel in this movie who he actually worked for after 9/11 and if you knew that it was entertaining to see him in this role. Enjoy!