“12 Strong” is the definition of a bland military movie, falling into nearly every trope in the genre. The film is based on the true story of the horse soldiers, twelve US soldiers who were deployed in Afghanistan to take out Taliban targets following the September 11th attacks. While the true story it is based on is interesting, director Nicolai Fuglsig was unable to translate it to the big screen.
The strongest aspect of “12 Strong” was the chemistry between the actors. No one puts on an Oscar winning performance, but Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Peña all make for a believable group of soldiers. At times their acting can be a little stiff, but for the most part their banter and exchanges feel realistic.

At best, the rest of the movie is just mediocre. The score tries to make the action scenes feel epic, or the pep talks inspiring, but it just feels unearned and falls flat.
There’s nothing visually interesting about “12 Strong” either. The brown deserts of Afghanistan don’t really allow for much variation in scenery or color, but it doesn’t seem like anything more than the bare minimum effort was put in to filming. Not every war movie has to be the next “Apocalypse Now” or “Full Metal Jacket.” However, it would have been nice if there was at least some artistic merit to it.