Netflix’s ‘War Machine’ review: Explosive dad action movie with ‘crazy’ ending
Tom’s Guide Verdict: “War Machine”
- Rating: 2.5/5 Stars
- Decision: The ending of this movie is confusing, as it drags on for a long time and only serves to set up a sequel that we may never get. But this action film is very coherent, and Alan Ritchson is well cast. Unfortunately, for all its explosiveness, “War Machine” is too complicated and fails to make full use of its star.
- Start date/time: Available to stream now
- Where to watch: Stream “War Machine” on Netflix
“War Machine” was the obvious choice if you were looking for a movie to watch on Netflix this week. It’s an action/sci-fi war movie, starring “Reacher” star Alan Ritchson, who looks like he’s acting right in a war game. It clocks in at less than two hours long, which means you don’t need to invest a ton of time in it. In short, the recipe for success is there.
The result is a movie that, while very good, fails to deliver any memorable performances. Ritchson, who is the perfect combination of charm and bulk, should put in a great movie role in “War Machine.” But the only time the play really grabbed me was when one of the soldiers, “15” (Blake Richardson), snaps and lets go of Ritchson’s character, “81,” with coldness and emotion. Ironically, my biggest complaint about the film.
Alan Ritchson is not abused, but abused
Let me be clear, I love Alan Ritchson. In fact, I would even say that he was the one who sold me on this movie. In “Reacher,” he manages to be handsome, even smart while maintaining his physical strength and ability to kill anyone in an instant.
It’s that combination that makes Ritchson a great actor and fun to watch. But, whether it’s because the script was probably not written by him directly or some other mistake, the old team behind “War Machine” failed to get half of that figure. Instead, we get a thoughtful, lonely, quiet person, who begins to come out of his shell in the second half of the film.
Watch it open
This is done by design. As we learn in the opening act of the movie, 81 (almost every character in this movie is designated only by a number) is written mainly by a recent trauma that motivated him to join the Selection Program of the Ranger Test, despite being just shy of being too old to join.
If this movie was a drama about the horrors of war and what makes a soldier, then the decision to make 81 mainly a silent person haunted by this darkness would work. But “War Machine” is not. It’s an action film full of death, destruction, explosions and a car chase that lasts for several minutes in which an invading alien attacks a US military Humvee. The ending feels ripped straight from the 1986 movie “Aliens,” only Ritchson uses a bulldozer instead of a power loader.
Verdict: ‘War Machine’ is too formulaic, but it can set up a good sequence
The real wonder of this movie isn’t Ritchson’s bad use. That the movie, which plays so well (I love that it clocks in at under two hours), uses its final scenes to push a sequel that doesn’t need a sequel. We may not even get a sequel.
But if we get a sequel, i hope for it. There was certainly potential for this man vs. machine, and a global war against alien invaders is a sci-fi staple that should be easy to put into an action movie. If the follow-up to “War Machine” could just use the lead actor properly, we might be talking about a really good action movie instead of a good but depressing one.
“War Machine” final rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
