War Machine premieres Friday, March 6 on Netflix.
Not to be confused with Netflix’s 2017 Brad Pitt war satire of the same name, this War Machine stars Reacher’s mammoth Alan Ritchson. He’s a nearly aged-out Army Ranger hopeful (with a haunted past) whose two-hour Armed Forces commercial gets interrupted by a giant death robot from outer space that’s a bulky combination of Aliens-style Power Loader and Tron-esque Recognizer. War Machine is an action/sci-fi mashup in the vein of Predator that stands slightly (on its tippy toes) above most of streaming’s unchallenging, disposable rabble, mostly due to a ferocious mass casualty event of a second act.
War Machine‘s threat of a giant boxy contraption, instead of an alien monster, saves us from possible shoddy CGI, but it also adds to the film’s visual dryness. It’s mostly a drab, brutalist shoot ’em up that lacks the uniqueness needed for a great sci-fi invasion story. Ritchson’s “81” (everyone has a number instead of a name) and his squad are on a final training mission when they’re ambushed by a giant intergalactic bot, which tests his mettle while blowing most everyone else to Kingdom Come.
During the death bot’s second assault, War Machine ticks upward a bit as the movie flashes its fangs. There’s a particular chase scene that stands out due to its mercilessness, and it’s here that the movie feels powered by its own engine and not just set on riding the coattails of things that came before it and did it better. It’s a shame that the rest of the movie was designed to be a merely adequate affair, unchallenging and dry. Because the sci-fi behemoth element adds a horror movie-style bit of crash therapy in a “the monster is grief” sort of way. War Machine could have been a much deeper, satisfying experience, but they make the choice, in the end, to tease a possible franchise, and that deflates the resolution.
Ritchson is very good in this, providing a nice mix of tortured vulnerability and hulkish heroics. His physical hugeness takes a back seat in War Machine, as he’s covered up for most of the movie in combat gear, but just knowing he’s swole helps sell 81’s unsettling obsession with durability and going the distance. 81 also comes with a tragic, recent past that gets unspooled throughout this crucible. Jai Courtney has a small but important role here as 81’s brother, feeding into the redemption arc that helps give 81 layers as a character. Far more layers than the supporting soldiers, who, save for two, only get the barest of focus. They’re mostly just faces in the chaos.
The blueprints for War Machine, as an action movie, are solid. The hero has a bone to pick with the universe. The universe sends a bone to pick. But this doesn’t save it from moments of feeling like stodgy four-quadrant content. And the way the cosmic blastoid bot gets defeated, its weakness, is super silly. Almost enough to take you out of the story. No, it’s not a big red “power off” button on its face but… that’s not far off. Ultimately, War Machine — which also stars Dennis Quaid, Esai Morales, and Stephan James (as one of the soldiers with “more to do”) — will rest comfortably as a medium-fine flick that you’ll never watch again.
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