War Machine – Movie Review
Every now and then, a movie comes along, with a title like War Machine, and for 100 minutes, it just delivers an action-packed, testosterone-filled, thrill ride that makes you go, “Hell yeah”. War Machine is a blockbuster flick that is for the boys.
Co-written and directed by Patrick Hughes (The Expendables 3, The Hitman’s Bodyguard), this actioner follows an unnamed soldier, played by Alan Ritchson, who survives an ambush in Afghanistan, but leaves him with traumatic injuries and the grief of losing his brother. Two years later, despite a restrictive knee injury and survivors guilt, the now numbered recruit, 81, attempts to complete a dream his brother had – to complete the Army Ranger selection course.
Determined and driven by the demons of his past, 81 overcomes incredible adversity to make it through the final stages of selection, but he hasn’t made any connections with other recruits along the way, a lot of whom only know him by notoriety and legend of surviving the ambush two years earlier. During the final stage of selection – an in-field retrieval mission – the recruits soon discover that the target they initially find turns out to be an alien robot that intends to invade Earth.
The first 30 minutes of War Machine is just pure macho Ranger selection montage. Knowing what works within the genre, the film plays into all of the tropes – the screaming seniors, the brutal all-night physical challenges, the rejection parades, the muscles, the grit, and the pure testosterone. It’s ultimately a montage of 81 (Ritchson) just dominating each challenge in the most badass, grit-filled way possible. And it’s awesome.
Hughes and co-writer James Beaufort do manage to also sneak some story development and context in there as well, mostly during the gossiping nature of the other Ranger recruits trying to figure out what the deal is with the mysterious chunk of human concrete while he keeps mostly to himself. The various soldiers who are in the film also understand the assignment, and whether they’re male or female, bring the gruffness and machismo right out of the movies of the 80s that harken the same tone and spirit.
But, it’s during the final stage of selection when the film’s sci-fi turn takes place, and for the hour that follows, it is a relentlessly thrilling, action-packed adventure that blends jaw-dropping practical effects and stunt work, with awesome, explosive action choreography, and Hollywood level special effects. War Machine becomes a brutal chase scene as these Ranger recruits try to escape this alien robot without any weaponry (they’re given dummy rounds for the selection exercise), which leads to a riveting and tense river rapid set piece and an adrenaline pumping car chase. But the film’s truly jaw-dropping highlight is the machine vs. machine climatic battle that serves as the movie’s truest “Hell Yeah” moment.
War Machine isn’t high art, and it’s not trying to be. It leans into the tropes of the war film, then pivots to what audiences love about the sci-fi-action genre, resulting in a fiery, fast paced 100 minute romp that can only be described as ‘awesome’.
War Machine is in Australian cinemas February 12, and on Netflix March 6
