War Machine (2026) Review

I'm a bit late to the party but today I have watched War Machine from Netflix and here is my review for the film. The premise of the film sees a group of soldiers on a training mission when they come up against an unexpected enemy. 

Main Character

Alan Ritchson plays 81 and he is decent in the role. I think he has been an actor who has found his niche when it comes to being an actor and he does excel in these action roles, he is definitely the driving force in this film and does rise it up. However, I didn't really care to much about the character, I think he is a really basic character and I just didn't think he was written well enough to make me really care about him. 

Supporting Characters

There are some big names in pretty small roles here. Jai Courtenay, Esai Morales and Dennis Quaid are in this film and do fine with the very little screen time but it was nice seeing some star power on display. 

Unfortunately, the crew that are with Ritchson are super annoying and are not likeable at all. I mean the soldier numbered 7 played by Stephan James is fine but the rest of them aren't good and to be honest you are just watching to see how they are going to get taken out. 

Story

The story though is really where the film falls down. The whole concept of these troops trying to escape from this unknown enemy has been done thousands of time and this film offers nothing new to the genre. We have no idea why the enemy wants to go after them and very little character development, even that is very bland. With an ending that is basically just trying to set up future instalments of this franchise. 

Script

The script also has plenty of problems. The main one being a clash between trying to be this super serious film or trying to be this 80's action film that has some funny one liners. It doesn't do either particularly well and it does feel like this was a big afterthought here. 

Style

The best part of the film has to be the style. For a Netflix film it clearly has a big budget and it does have some pretty impressive action sequences with plenty of violence. It is also a pretty brisk watch, I was never bored during the film and it was an easy watch in terms of runtime. 

Overall

Overall, War Machine is a Below Average Action Film that feels like a slightly higher budgeted version of a thousand films that get made. I would say to give this one a skip unless you really have a desire to give it a go. 

Rating - 4/10