13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi - C

John Krasinski

Rated R, 147 minutes

One thing that Michael Bay's fact-based new military drama "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" has going for it: it isn't "Transformers." Based on Mitchell Zuckoff's military book "13 Hours," it certainly brims with explosive intensity, and while it's certainly more mature work than Bay's usual stuff, it fails to capture the full complexity of the event of itself, essentially telling one angle of the story. On the evening of the eleventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a group of Islamic militants attacked the American diplomatic compound and a nearby CIA Annex in Benghazi, Libya. CIA security contractors with considerable military experience (including James Badge Dale, Toby Stephens, Pablo Schreiber and John Krasinski) undertake a desperate defense of the American Ambassador and his staff within the diplomatic compound. Peppered with some entertaining, gripping moments that go on too long, "13 Hours" is better than Bay's "Transformers," though the story is painted in such broad strokes and shows Bay's penchant for filling the screen with a load of explosions for about 30 minutes too long. The difference with this from "Transformers" is this is a true story, not to mention Bay's intent to honor the operatives, many who were contract workers for the CIA, who put their lives at risk to defend the American Embassy, and while that's an honorable (and very ambitious) task, they deserve a better treatment than Chuck Hogan's (writer for the TV show "The Strain") simplistic script or Bay's lackluster direction give it. Like the novel it's based on, it's primarily told from the military standpoint and overlooks many of the political themes, and while that certainly adds some exciting action, there's much more to the big picture than the even-handed "13 Hours" gives it, making it feel like Bay, whose expertise is big blockbuster action films, is in over his head. He has the action scenes and the many explosions down pat, with the rest of it as creaky and awkward as an old military jeep, with the handsome, muscular cast, including a buffed-up Krasinski, who's forte is usually comedies, going through the motions, with Badge Dale and Toby Stephens, among others, adding support as key players, some of whom don't survive. "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" isn't dull and certainly not "Transformers 4" terrible, but Bay has essentially taken a complex subject and dumbed it down, leaving too much to be explored.