'12 Strong' Review: Winning the Battles but Losing the War

Hitting theaters on Friday is the new Chris Hemsworth film "12 Strong", which tells the story of a Special Forces team sent to Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks to dismantle the Taliban.

I'm not really sure what the point of 12 Strong: The Declassified True Story of the Horse Soldiers is.

After a couple years training with his unit of Green Berets, Capt. Mitch Nelson (played by Hemsworth) has transferred to a cushy desk job when he and his family watch in horror as two planes strike the World Trade Center. But as war stories go, 12 Strong amply provides yeoman's service to the genre and to actual history. It's a story of the US Special Forces team called Green Berets deployed in Afghanistan after the events of 9/11.

The upcoming movie, 12 Strong, may seem a little far-fetched, but the US soldiers who inspired the film are sharing details about the incredible true story.

But stirring and solid, "12 Strong" is the kind of film that might make you think twice about January releases. We have seen it happen in the past but this time we have something bigger! The actress, who plays Hemsworth's character's wife, joked about her role Sunday on Instagram.

Directed by Nicolai Fuglsig, the film stars eminent actors Chris Hemsworth, Elsa Pataky, Rob Riggle, Michael Shannon, Geoff Stults and Navid Negahban along with several others.

Unlike his non-superhero star turns in Blackhat and the Huntsman movies, Hemsworth's charisma and physical presence really pop here; in the insane situation of soldiers on horses facing off with an armored division, he at least looks strong enough to survive the experience.

Instead, it's just another rote war movie that would rather be an action film rather than consider the weight of war, whether it's this conflict or any conflict.

One of the problems is that there have been so many war pictures, this all feels so familiar.