War Machine might be the greatest recruiting tool for the Army Ranger corps. It might do for Army rangers what Top Gun did for the Navy. This isn’t to say that it’s a bad movie, but as an army veteran, it was like watching a recruiting video! Alan Ritchson stars in this movie about a group of rangers as they complete their final training mission and then it turns into a real-life mission where they’re having to battle alien robots. That’s not a spoiler, it was in the trailer! Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way…of course this is a cheesy rip off of Predator! However, not a bad thing, it’s a fun movie and Alan Ritchson , AKA Jack Reacher, does a wonderful job in this Netflix action movie. I admit, I enjoyed it for what it is. This is not a movie you’re going to go to the theaters and pay money for it, it’s a good Netflix action movie. It’s not a great movie that’s going to win any awards. It certainly isn’t Oscar-worthy like Train Dreams, but it’s a fun action movie where Army rangers save the day and blow shit up! Sometimes that’s all you need for pure entertainment!
The best parts of this movie are the training regiments and then the main character reluctantly having to lead his team. It feels like Predator in a lot of ways so it’s easy to make that comparison. Here’s the thing, Predator is a fun movie, not a great movie, but pure 80s action adrenaline. Even if this is a cheesy rip off, there’s still a lot of great action that will keep you entertained until the end. Alan Ritchson is at his best in this movie. Sure, he’s pretty much playing Jack Reacher and that’s okay because he plays the character so well that it’s easy to play the same character in a military action movie. It works and you’ll be entertained! But this movie does make me more excited for season 4 of Reacher on Amazon Prime. I also have to admit that I’m always a big fan of good army movies that have lots of action. Even if it’s a little far fetched that they’re fighting alien robots, when the army can kick butt and defeat a superior army, that makes for one hell of an entertaining movie. The rest of the cast does a great job. Dennis Quaid does a good job playing the sergeant major over the regiment even if he’s tapping too much into playing General Hawk from the GI Joe movies. For me this is also what makes the movie entertaining. The rangers don’t actually have live weapons and have to figure out a way to defeat a superior enemy without any ammo. It’s pretty cool how they figure out a way to do it.
As I said, this is not a great movie, it’s entertaining with a B-Quality fare. While it certainly taps into the camaraderie and the brotherhood of an army infantry unit or the ranger corps, it also taps into themes of family. Jai Courtney plays the older brother who sets up the backstory for the main character. While his story is important only for that factor, I would have loved to have seen more scenes between Alan and Jai as brothers. There could have been some more flashback scenes that I think would have strengthened the story, but you certainly don’t want to make this movie too long and boring. The pacing is okay even with some scenes that linger a little too long where there’s not much action. But overall, everything comes together nicely to make a fun action movie. Although, the story feels a little bit more like it’s a setup for a series. I watched the movie and kept thinking, this is a 2-hour pilot for what will become a fun Netflix series. I can behind that. Give it that Starship Troopers treatment but not as corny. The movie nicely sets up an alien invasion story where it’s going to take Army Rangers, and all their skill set to defeat a superior fighting force. The movie ends with great heroics, but it’s not a definite finale to the story. I could certainly see some sequels. Because there’s not a definite finale to the story, that is one of my major criticisms So maybe they are setting it out for a future movies or series.
The verdict! Check it out if you have a Netflix account. It’s a good fun action movie on a rainy afternoon or you don’t feel like you’re wasting your time or $20 in the movie theater for something that you feel like you’ve seen before. That’s okay, this story doesn’t necessarily have to be unique. It’s not the first movie to rip off Predator, this one just makes that rip off more entertaining. Besides how many cheesy ’80s action movies do we still enjoy and go back and watch! War Machine is like those kinds of movies and it’s a perfect film for Netflix. I wasn’t disappointed and I was certainly entertained Maybe that’s all you can ask for with a movie like this. Also, who doesn’t like to see Alan Ritchson As an action start beat the crap out of stuff. His performance is the best part of this movie.
