That's more or less how I felt when I played 13 but instead of thinking the characters were dumb, I thought the dialogue was dumb but still enjoyable in it's own cheesy way. I did however like the characters.
I guess the reason I got so defensive about it soon after finishing it was because I could not believe how overblown the hate was.
Played it like 1-2 months ago after hearing years of vitriol against it.
Also, and I am most likely in the minority with this, I was really intrigued by the world with the different societies on cocoon and on pulse. Too bad the game never really fleshed out this story arc. And who in the right mind thinks it is a great way to prevent the story by hiding most of it in datalogs?