Review: ‘Thirteen Lives’ Gets Lost in Sprawling Rescue Story

This image released by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures shows, from left, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton and Viggo Mortensen in a scene from "Thirteen Lives." (Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures via AP)
This image released by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures shows, from left, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton and Viggo Mortensen in a scene from "Thirteen Lives." (Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures via AP)
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Review: ‘Thirteen Lives’ Gets Lost in Sprawling Rescue Story

This image released by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures shows, from left, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton and Viggo Mortensen in a scene from "Thirteen Lives." (Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures via AP)
This image released by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures shows, from left, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton and Viggo Mortensen in a scene from "Thirteen Lives." (Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures via AP)

Twenty-seven years ago, Ron Howard’s “Apollo 13” saluted men with the right stuff — quiet courage and grace under pressure. This summer, he’s returned to that magic number for a similar rescue tale but traded the vastness of space for a film deep underground.

“Thirteen Lives” is a dramatization of what happened in July 2018 when 12 boys and their football coach were trapped in a flooded limestone cave in Thailand for several weeks. Like his space flick, it will take a lot of on-the-fly can-do to get them out.

This particular cave rescue is natural fodder for drama: A group of cave-diving hobbyists from Europe alongside Thai Navy SEALS and hundreds of farmers, engineers and helpers came together for a happy ending — all the boys and their coach survived. (That’s a spoiler if you’ve been in a literal cave for the past four years.) “Thirteen Lives″ is available Friday on Prime Video.

There’s already been a cracking documentary — “The Rescue” from the “Free Solo” Oscar-winning filmmaking team of E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, who used body-cam footage of the rescue — and a Netflix six-part mini series that debuts in September.

Each of those has a focus — “The Rescue” explores how two slightly odd middle-aged British men became central to the operation, and the upcoming Netflix series will tell the tale from the perspective of the trapped kids.

Howard and screenwriter William Nicholson have admirably widened the scope to include everything from the frantic families and religious figures to the governor, as well as how a water engineer helped the rescue effort by diverting rainfall away from the cave and the farmers who sacrificed their crops to flooding.

The overall effect is a more inclusive storytelling — no white savior narrative, great — but the cost is a flattening of the narrative. There are pockets of diffusive heroes everywhere — no bad guys at all, unless you want to blame the rain — and that means a lack of tautness or through-line. Neither the divers nor kids, government officials nor families and volunteers really come into focus, staying as murky as the miles of submerged cave.

There is also some clunky dialogue and daft Hollywoodization, like the heavy use of cellos when things get dramatic and the appearance of slo-mo ambulances. “This could be a long night,” the governor says out loud at the beginning of the crisis, a line unlikely to have ever been uttered at the time. And international film stars Viggo Mortensen, Joel Edgerton and Colin Farrell try hard to be straight-shooting, unglamorous biscuit-eating cave enthusiasts.

“I have zero interest in dying,” Mortensen announces in dialogue that could be ripped from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Farrell has his own: When rescuers debate various rescue solutions, he opines, “Crazy is better than nothing and we’ve got nothing.”

The film gets better once viewers submerge into the flooded cavern and Howard can rely on production designer Molly Hughes and director of photographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. Here you can hear the hiss of respirators, the clunk of metal cylinders on rock and divers pushing through tight spaces, a camera impossibly close. Much of the film was shot in Australia, not Thailand.

The very heart of the film is the rather insane-brilliant idea to heavily drug the children before pulling them out, essentially turning each into an inert, pliable weight to be yanked and frequently re-sedated over the several hours spent getting them out. “They’re packages and we’re just the delivery guys,” one rescuer says.

That makeshift, off-the-cuff solution-finding means the difference between life and death and is also what kept animating Howard’s “Apollo 13.” Unfortunately, this time underground, he just seems like the delivery guy. Our advice: Fire up the documentary instead.



‘Superman’ Aims to Save Flagging Film Franchise, Not Just Humanity

 David Corenswet, left, and Rachel Brosnahan participate in the ceremonial lighting of the Empire State Building on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP)
David Corenswet, left, and Rachel Brosnahan participate in the ceremonial lighting of the Empire State Building on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP)
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‘Superman’ Aims to Save Flagging Film Franchise, Not Just Humanity

 David Corenswet, left, and Rachel Brosnahan participate in the ceremonial lighting of the Empire State Building on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP)
David Corenswet, left, and Rachel Brosnahan participate in the ceremonial lighting of the Empire State Building on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP)

Superman is often called upon to save the world from evildoers, but in his latest big-screen incarnation, he's also being asked to swoop in and save a franchise.

James Gunn's "Superman," which opened in theaters worldwide this week, is a reboot aimed at relaunching the so-called DC Universe of comic book-based superhero movies, which also features Wonder Woman and Batman.

The celluloid efforts of Warner Bros. and DC Studios have been widely eclipsed by Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe -- the world of Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther and the Fantastic Four, who are getting their own reboot later this month.

"Warner Bros. has invested a lot of energy and money in trying to refocus and renew DC Studios, and this is going to be the big release from that," analyst David A. Gross from Franchise Entertainment Research told AFP.

The heavy task falls on the shoulders of Gunn, the writer-director who won praise from fans of the genre with Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy.

The movie's rollout has already encountered several headwinds, including a right-wing backlash to Gunn's comments on Superman's role as an immigrant, and skepticism from fans of the previous Superman films helmed by director Zack Snyder.

Gunn has shrugged off the high stakes surrounding the movie's box office success.

"Is there something riding on it? Yeah, but it's not as big as people make it out to be," he told GQ Magazine.

"They hear these numbers that the movie's only going to be successful if it makes $700 million or something and it's just complete and utter nonsense."

The hype around the movie is real -- the White House even superimposed President Donald Trump onto one of the movie's official posters with the caption "THE SYMBOL OF HOPE. TRUTH. JUSTICE. THE AMERICAN WAY. SUPERMAN TRUMP."

- 'A diminished genre' -

Warner Bros. hopes the DC Universe can catch up with Marvel which -- after years of huge successes with the "Avengers" movies -- has seen more muted box office returns with the recent "Thunderbolts" and "Captain America: Brave New World."

Gross explained that superhero films hit a peak right before the Covid-19 pandemic, with box office earnings and audience enthusiasm waning ever since that time.

"It's really a diminished genre," Gross said.

However, the analyst said early buzz for "Superman" was "really good."

The film stars up-and-comer David Corenswet as the new Superman/Clark Kent, with "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" star Rachel Brosnahan playing love interest Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as arch-villain Lex Luthor.

The story follows the Man of Steel coming to terms with his alien identity as he finds his place in the human world.

The supporting cast boasts a selection of other DC Comics characters, from the peacekeeping Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) -- who is scheduled to reprise the role in upcoming TV series "Lanterns" -- to the mace-wielding Hawkgirl.

Gross noted that July "is the top moviegoing month of the year," leading tracking estimates to forecast a total of more than $100 million for the film's opening weekend in North America.

- 'The story of America' -

DC Studios however must shake off a reputation for producing mediocre films that did not score well with audiences.

The last round of "DC Extended Universe" films included the well-liked "Wonder Woman" (2017) starring Gal Gadot -- but also box office flops like "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" (2023) and the under-performing "Aquaman" sequel with Jason Momoa.

"The success was mixed, and they were spending a lot of money on some of the new spinoff characters who were not working particularly well," Gross said, pointing at 2021's "The Suicide Squad" -- directed by Gunn -- as an example.

The last films featuring Superman, starring Henry Cavill and directed by Snyder, were relatively successful for Warner Bros. until "Justice League" -- DC's effort at recreating the "Avengers" vibe -- which lost millions of dollars.

Fans of Snyder have stirred up negative buzz for the new "Superman" movie, voicing hope online that the reboot fails out of a sense of loyalty to the previous films.

The backlash was further widened after right-wing pundits groaned about Superman's specific characterization as an immigrant, lamenting the superhero had become "woke."

Gunn addressed the criticism, telling The Times newspaper that "Superman is the story of America," with the character reflecting those who "came from other places and populated the country."

"I'm telling a story about a guy who is uniquely good, and that feels needed now," he added.

Ultimately, time will soon tell if Corenswet's chiseled looks and Gunn's directorial vision will be the superpowers that DC Studios need -- or prove to be its Kryptonite.