One good action movie deserves another, and currently tonight’s movie is tearing up the most watched charts in the old Netflix watering hole. Don’t get me wrong, it does sometimes feel like any movie does that as long as it’s freshly added to the service, probably on account of all the other movies getting hidden behind the same thirty recommendations it usually throws at you - but I enjoy me some scifi military mashups, so either way I should have fun. Get ready for trauma introspection and a whole lot of explosions - tonight we watch War Machine.

Our lead goes out on a mission to help out a convoy that happens to be his brothers. After some banter, his brother talks him into doing what they always dreamed of - going after that ranger certification. It’s all fun and giggles - until the explosions happen. Things look bad, and given the fact the lead is alone on a bus to ranger certification tests we can pretty well guess the brother didn’t make it. You’ll get a good thirty minutes of character building-like moments and rigorous physical and emotional training test action. So much so, in fact, that when we hit the thirty minute mark and things actually start happening, you’ll already forget the movie’s description about involving a giant robot - until it shows up about five minutes later. Then the body count rises, and it becomes a “objective: survive” situation for the remaining ranger hopefuls as they try to make it back to somewhere safe unarmed and outmatched.

Actors do a good job. Yeah, it might be a little surprising to hear me say that they don’t really get much character out of more than two of the characters really after saying they do a good job, but I feel it’s a fair assessment. They may not be getting their character built out, but they all have plenty to do and are selling the shell shock and hoo-rah drive that would come from being a ranger hopeful and also having just been in close proximity to people whom have gotten absolutely deleted from existence by a giant walking tank that’s dropped out of the sky. The lead gets to have moments sure, but a lot of his more meaningful acting moments are going to come from the interactions with the others go on. I wouldn’t say a crazy range necessarily, but with what the movie needs they do a fine job giving it to the screen.

Character-wise we can pretty nearly ignore everyone but the lead. His development largely comes from interacting with his brother in the start of the movie, becomes his defining character trait, and then through the steady progression of the movie’s more harrowing events because of his interaction with his squad (one in particular, although he’s out of commission for most the movie). It kind of uses the main to spark some thoughts on stuff for the thinking person’s part of the reviews, but fully embraces that it’s kind of an action movie when it comes to people having depth. What I mean to say is that as far as the movie is concerned everyone is fodder, but unlike a slasher movie they are at least fodder that you could like or not hate them being on screen.

The action is very explosive when it happens in this. Not really only in energy levels - there are booms all over this movie. Now, it’ll mostly feel like a horror movie and be very one sided for most the run time - our “heroes” as it were are on a training mission, their guns don’t have live ammo meant for doing diddly squat and their only explosives were used up trying to blow up what they thought was the training exercise objective and turning into an angry robot with guns and grenades. That said, there is still a lot of action - river escapes, crashing down hills, swerving around trees and gunfire, even a car chase scene. It’s all pretty good - but I wouldn’t blame you for not really knowing who you are looking at half the time between the hectic nature of what’s happening and how similar every clean shaven face can look when it has a military crew cut and the same gear. Costumes thus far are pretty on point - but given the realism approach it in turn doesn’t really stand out to the viewer because that’s not the point.

Visual effects are pretty here. It looks good all around in my opinion as well. Yes, our robot is like something out of a video game and I would get mad at people when they were finally armed for not going after the glowing spots - because everyone knows those are weak points in games - but it still looked quite good. At times it look phenomenal even. We get some fun particle sim stuff going on with the smoke as well. Violence in this one is pretty violent as well - you won’t find the movie shying away from holes in people at the center of the camera. Although it’s largely not a gross out zombie-level, there are still a few explosion wounds that can look pretty extra and I don’t think anyone ever really likes looking at fingers that “aren’t supposed to bend that way”. I don’t think too many folks will complain about the effects work - no, they’d be far more likely I think to complain about how the story seems remarkably familiar and doesn’t stand out as much in a crowd.

Audio balance is good, and I had no problems hearing things even with raging rivers and explosions. Things had a suitable punch to them when it called for them, leaning into that spectacle side of things at times. Music was there to do it’s things and try and add some extra emotion to scenes, and who doesn’t like themes that evoke that Terminator, Battlefield, or Pacific Rim vibe with the bass? Line deliveries come out fine, largely hitting exactly what I imagine the movie wanted. For the thinking folks, you wouldn’t think a movie about ranger trainees running from a giant robot would bring much to the table, but it ends up having a bunch to say thanks to giving our lead some trauma to haunt him throughout the movie. It then uses that to shade events around him and his interactions to people. I’m sure it’s perhaps done more subtle and impactful elsewhere, but the fact that it’s here does help add some layers to the movie that feels dangerously close to a horror movie at times.

Overall a pretty fun ride. It doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, but it does have a bit of a front-end to it to build up the main character and what he’s dealing with internally before getting to the part I’m sure a lot of folks probably signed up to watch. It might be a bit violent for some - what with really not walking too far away from showing off some pretty brutal details - but it’s also not a constant gross-out fest either. It’s got some exciting action to it with plenty of explosions, although oddly enough perhaps the best way to go in and enjoy yourself would be to think of it as more of a scifi thriller with modern military with a few action segments. Still, it keeps up the energy levels of an action movie, has plenty of variety in where things happen and how to deal with those moments, and has some character stuff that I didn’t really expect, so perhaps there’s a reason this one is in that highly-viewed category. I’ll say it’s because the giant robot in hopes that anyone who happens about this will decide that their should be more giant robot movies - because there should.

@IMDB

War Machine (2026)