There have already been movies about the extraordinary true story of the Tham Luang cave rescue in 2018 and even a Netflix documentary series on the way next month, but none have come with quite the pedigree of Thirteen Lives.
It's not to downplay The Cave or documentary The Rescue (which you should absolutely watch on Disney+), but they didn't have Ron Howard behind the camera and he knows a thing or two about true-life movies. Add in a starry cast, including Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen as Richard Stanton and John Volanthen respectively, and expectations were high.
So it's a slight disappointment that Thirteen Lives is merely good, rather than another potential Oscar troubler for Howard. There's no denying the care and attention that's gone into paying respect to the true story, which did lead to the loss of two lives (one during and one a year later), but it's made the movie curiously uninvolving.
Watch Thirteen Lives on Prime Video
The real-life rescue was a huge international effort that didn't just involve rescuing the football team and their coach from the cave. Howard has tried to cover every aspect of the complex operation so the movie is very faithful, yet perhaps a tighter focus could have made the movie live up to the compelling true story.
Of course, if you're coming to Thirteen Lives relatively fresh, there's still a fascination to be found in the rescue itself. It takes up a large chunk of the movie's second half and features elements you'll find hard to believe, but it's all accurate, even if some creative licence has been taken for the sake of dramatic tension.
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The diving sequences are the real draw here as they were largely shot with the actors rather than stunt people. If you're claustrophobic, it won't be a pleasant experience and even if you aren't, you'll feel like you are. As a technical achievement, they're on a par with Top Gun: Maverick's flight sequences – and just as compelling.
There's nothing wrong with the rest of Thirteen Lives as the cast put in solid performances, although Mortensen and Farrell's accents (though faithful to the real-life people) take a bit of getting used to. Howard is also careful to ensure there's a focus on the Thai divers involved too, as well as the other local people key to the whole rescue.
It's all a very worthy affair, arguably to its own detriment as it ends up feeling like a documentary at times. Thirteen Lives is certainly watchable and the diving sequences are excruciatingly tense and brilliantly delivered, but if you know the story, there's little else to find here.
How to watch Thirteen Lives online at home
If you fancy some claustrophobic tension in your life, Thirteen Lives is available to watch right now on Prime Video for all subscribers.
Not a subscriber? It'll cost £7.99 a month, or £79 for a full year, to sign up to Amazon Prime to give you access to all Prime Video has to offer. It's worth noting there's a price increase from September 15 with prices rising to £8.99 a month and £95 a year.
In better news, if you've never subscribed to Amazon Prime or haven't signed up in the past 12 months, you can get a 30-day free trial, which will give you all of the benefits of Prime for the whole trial duration, including Prime Video.
If you don't want to sign up to Amazon Prime, Thirteen Lives is still playing in select cinemas, but you won't find it in any of the major UK chains.
Thirteen Lives is available to watch now on Prime Video.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
