(CNN) Since "American Sniper," Hollywood has been searching for another breakthrough war story, with decidedly mixed results. "12 Strong," a harrowing fact-based tale of heroism set in the immediate wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, would appear to have the right armament, but this by-the-numbers movie ultimately falls short of completing that mission.

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and directed by Nicolai Fuglsig, a Danish director and photojournalist making his feature debut, the story opens with a video montage leading up to Sept. 11, racing through the key characters' goodbyes to their families in roughly 10 minutes.

After that, Capt. Mitch Nelson ("Thor's" Chris Hemsworth) and his Special Forces team, codenamed Task Force Dagger, are quickly dropped in northern Afghanistan. There, the foul-mouthed dozen link up with a local general, Abdul Rashid Dostum (Navid Negahban), in an orchestrated assault on the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Vastly outnumbered, Nelson -- heading up what's described as the military's "most venomous snake" -- must rely on helping target U.S. air power to level the playing field. Just to ratchet up the tension, he tells his commander (William Fichtner) that he intends to complete the perilous assignment in a mere three weeks, before the weather can thwart their plan.

What follows, in the script adapted from Doug Stanton's book by Ted Tally and Peter Craig, is essentially a tick-tock of that stretch, with a series of bloody battles in a march toward the strategically vital town of Mazar-i-Sharif.

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