Michael Bay has become something of a shorthand in the film world over the past decade or so.

Gone is the affection that was once earned from hugely entertaining (if somewhat cerebrally challenged) blockbusters like Bad Boys, The Rock and Armageddon, replaced instead with scorn for a seemingly endless litany of Transformers movies, which somehow managed to render giant alien robots doing battle boring and rote.

‘Michael Bay’ is now a euphemism for ‘big dumb terrible film’. It even comes with its own catchy tag: ‘Bayhem’. It’s not an entirely unfair reputation, but with 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Bay attempts to craft a serious film; something with more substance to it than the vapid CGI monstrosities he’s become synonymous with.

Based on a true story, 13 Hours takes place in Benghazi, Libya, which after the toppling of Gadhafi, became one of the most dangerous places on Earth.

Pretty much everyone has pulled out of the city, but one secret American base remains, guarded by six incredibly macho CIA special forces contractors. When a US ambassador visits the troubled region to try and reassure the local citizens, his compound comes under attack by militants, and the six soldiers take it upon themselves to run to the rescue – against the orders of their superiors.

13 Hours may represent a step in the right direction for Michael Bay in terms of being regarded as a serious filmmaker, but unfortunately the execution leaves plenty to be desired. The screenplay piles cliché upon convention upon trope, particularly in the early going. There are the painfully earnest phonecalls home to far-away loved ones; a soldier who’s just found out he’s going to be a father; the chief who’s nearing retirement… it almost feels like a spoof at times.

Our six heroes are also ludicrous caricatures of manliness: the kind that refer to one another exclusively as ‘brother’, and who shirtlessly haul massive tyres across courtyards on their downtime. They’re also completely indistinguishable from one another – the film stars six muscle-bound blokes with short hair and beards, and if you can tell any of them apart, you’ll have done well.

It’s difficult to say who in the cast performs well; so indistinguishable are they from one another. But John Krazinski – better known as Jim from the US version of The Office – is one of our heroes, and should garner praise for transforming so completely against type, convincing entirely as a macho jarhead. By virtue of being something different, David Costabile as the company’s officious chief is perhaps the other standout, along with Paymaan Moaadi as the group’s non-military translator and local aide.

The screenplay by Chuck Hogan seems to take forever to get going, which might be okay if it spent the opening 50-odd minutes getting us to understand or care about our main characters, but that isn’t the case. Thankfully, when the action kicks in, things pick up.

If there’s anything Bay is known for, it’s having an eye for an action sequence, and that still proves the case here, with the human combatants proving far more exciting to follow than the robotic ones he’s more used to putting the wringer of late. A frantic road chase in which the enemy tries their best to crack into an armoured car is thrilling, while the meat of the film brings to mind the claustrophobic siege-fare of John Carpenter classic Assault on Precinct 13.

The music, while rather too obviously saying “feel uneasy” in the film’s early sections, kicks into gear well once the action begins; the propulsive score complemented by great sound design, as explosions rock the screen and bullets whiz and impact on all sides. If you can see 13 Hours with a good sound system, do so.

There’s even – if you want to go looking for it – perhaps a few serious points being made alongside the shonky screenplay and decent action. The gung-ho, macho American patriotism exists overtly among the main characters, but crucially, the United States itself is reluctant to offer any help whatsoever, and is of zero use to anybody throughout the film.

The American individual is strong and capable, the film seems to suggest, while the nation as a whole is rather inept and ineffectual.

For the most part, though, the film is filled with alpha males being awesome, and earnestly uttering lines like “you can’t put a price on being able to live with yourself”. What it does do well, though, is convey the confusion of battle. Who, amid this country in disarray, is an ally and who as an enemy?

The language barrier, as well as the frenetic way the chaos unfolds, means that nobody is ever sure whether the person around the next corner is working for them or against them, and it’s a true-life facet of war in the middle-east that 13 Hours conveys very well.

It’s tempting to suggest that Michael Bay has simply made yet another dumb action movie, but despite a LOT of elements that stray towards that (the editing and continuity is inconsistent at times, unsure of whether the sun has quite set or not…), there is just about enough that’s good in 13 Hours to make it mildly diverting.

Action has always been Bay’s strength, and here he delivers on that front, as long as you’re willing to tolerate the poor characterisation.

At one point the film directly references Black Hawk Down. It shouldn’t: it’s just a reminder of what a better version of 13 Hours looks like.

Released in UK cinemas on Friday 29 January 2016.

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