Better than black hawk down

BLACK HAWK DOWN: 3/10
13 HOURS: 1/10

No way. 13 Hours is a pretty good action movie but even in his most tempered and reverent mode, Michael Bay can't help but be Michael Bay. It's not just in the big explosions but the writing and directing that leads to poor characterizations and overall tone. I can't really fine tune it to specific lines but he just doesn't have the artful touch of someone like Ridley Scott. He's not even in the same league.

Black Hawk Down is a modern war classic and unsurprisingly, a lot of the elements that held that movie down were the kinds of commercial elements completely devoid of subtlety that are very much characteristic of Jerry Bruckheimer, Michael Bay's best buddy.

I notice your English gets better when you want something.

I completely disagree. Black Hawk Down is in its own league and this movie has nothing on it.

I honestly wanted to like this movie and anticipated its release, but as soon as we were in the car and hit that road block and the "I'm a big tough American" persona oozed out of that Rone character I was completely turned off, and unfortunately that attitude was something that continued throughout the movie.

Another thing that disappointed me was how the characters weren't definable. They looked and felt like they were the same. Except for Tanto (who was obvious comic relief) followed by Tig because compared to the others, he felt like he didn't belong there. But with that said they weren't exceptional characters. I didn't care for them or about them. I wasn't moved in the obvious "emotional" scenes which is disappointing because it's real life events, I wanted to be invested in the story.

I suppose I felt like 13 Hours was messy. The character building scenes just didn't have any real depth to them. We were given stock standard [insert missing family references] without actually developing the characters, and when they tried it was sloppy and amateurish. When Jack called home and was speaking with his wife and children, and his wife makes that passive aggressive comment about "it's nice having a man in the house" - what the...? And then later on in the movie with his daughter being the one to tell him his wife is pregnant? In what world would you tell your child before your husband that you're pregnant? It was just blatantly obvious they were building this tension between Jack and his wife, and Jack and himself because he didn't want to be home. I get the idea, but the way the writers went about making it happen was awful and had me rolling my eyes.

At times I found the acting atrocious and that the scenes didn't have much direction. The acting in the scene where Oz was arguing with the Chief because he wanted to leave the compound in order to defend the embassy was mediocre. It's like they hired dudes with beards instead of actors who can just grow beards.

I'll give you examples in BHD where they seamlessly developed characters and how they had a clear direction.

When the second black hawk was hit and Mike Durant was stranded with hundreds of Somalis fast approaching - Shugart and Gordon (Delta snipers sitting in another chopper overlooking the chaos) requested to go down and secure the crash site knowing full well - after being told several times - that JOC doesn't know when reinforcements will be able to assist them and they're going into extremely hostile territory by themselves. They went anyway, which says a lot about the kind of people they are.

When Mike Durant's looking at photo of his wife and son in what he thought was his last moments. Seconds later we see him being beaten and strangled by a swarm of Somali's. The photo he held keeps dropping from his hand in the struggle to keep air in his lungs but he keeps reaching for that photo regardless. That persistent grasping for his family's photo says more than any stock standard "I miss my family" spiel.

When Danny McKnight's convoy has been shot at left, right and center and he's carrying more injured soldiers than able-bodied, they return to base. McKnight is told that he doesn't need to go back out, and yet the next scene we see is McKnight leading another convoy back out into battle to collect the remaining soldiers.

All these characters (and more) were developed wordlessly; they were developed by their actions. A cast with 20+ characters were developed better than this cast of 6.

I feel like 13 Hours tried developing their characters with words instead of actions which will always be the weaker of the two. If you want a tough character, you show how that character is tough, you don't talk about how the character is tough.

BHD is clear with the direction and clear with what's happening even when something that wasn't supposed to happen, happens. We hear them communicate which is important for the audience so they can understand what's happening and why. It states in big bold text that 3:42PM is when their mission starts, and we know it's October 3rd because of the time-stamp earlier in the day. Later on it shows it's now 5:45AM October 4th. We know, clearly, how long they've been battling for; how tired they'd be, how exhausted both mentally and physically they are.

Not everyone who watches 13 Hours knows that it's called 13 Hours because from when the embassy was first attacked to when it all ended, it had lasted *13 hours*. The time-stamps weren't shown like they were of any importance. The siege was 13 hours long but the movie didn't emphasis this. It's in the title yet the time was off in the corner not marking anything significant.

Just my opinion, but 13 Hours will never be anything like Black Hawk Down.

13 Hours is good but nothing special, BHD is one of my least favorite movies ever. No story at all, just action and explosions and it didn't have to be that way.

"I really wish Gia and Claire had became Tanner" - Honeybeefine

I would say that Lone Survivor is better than both of these two movies.

~If the realistic details fails, the movie fails~

this film wishes it was Black Hawk Down.

I agree. I loved this. I thought Black Hawk Down was alright, but extremely overrated and lacked substance.