SPOILER-FREE PLOT SUMMARY
Moments after a pair of military brothers meet up to fix a stranded humvee, the entire convoy is ambushed by Taliban insurgents. The older brother (played by Alan Ritchson) survives only to wake up to the horror of the aftermath. Despite his loss, he’s determined to keep his promise to his younger brother (Jai Courtney) that he’ll join the Army Rangers and continuously applies to the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program until he gets his chance. Despite his physical injuries and his PTSD from the attack, he’s accepted into RASP and is assigned number 81. He somehow excels while others are systematically excused from the program each week but his commanding officers, Sergeant Major Sheridan (Dennis Quaid) and First Sergeant Torres (Esai Morales), recognize his hero complex and offer him a legal document to quit on the spot. 81 refuses and, as punishment, is assigned to lead the final group of aspiring Rangers on their final test, the Death March, where they are to locate a downed plane, destroy it so its technology doesn’t fall into the wrong hands and head back to base within 24 hours, all while staying undetected by the cadre. The unit finds a downed bogey close to, but not exactly at, the coordinates they were given and, as instructed, attempts to destroy it. But, to their shock and awe, it fights back, killing half of the unit. 81 begins to lead the remaining soldiers on a quest not only to safety but also to solve the mystery of the machine.
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
We have a mash-up of two genres here. WAR MACHINE is an awesome military movie that’s pretty great at building tension, solid at character development and ruthless in illustrating what it takes to become a Ranger.
Then the aliens show up.
Once they do, the movie still holds its own for a while. Important characters are victims, the hopelessness of the threat feels real and, as the audience, you genuinely don’t know how they’re going to get out of all this. Unfortunately — almost as if they didn’t know how to end it — WAR MACHINE eventually falls into the trap of convenient situations, action scenes that take a little too long and cheesy dialogue.
Look, I’m all for a good genre-blend film. I know I’m in the minority here but I actually really liked 2011’s COWBOYS & ALIENS and, of course, 2004’s SHAUN OF THE DEAD is a classic. So I’m not against the hybrid genre idea but it’s clearly more difficult to pull off than focusing on just one lane and doing that lane well. WAR MACHINE is a really compelling military film only to fall apart when it tries to add sci-fi to the recipe.
WAR MACHINE held my attention — especially early — and provided some intensity I wasn’t expecting. But, at the end of the day, it gets more and more hokey as it goes along. Entertaining? Yes. Riveting? No. This was a great idea on paper but average at best in execution.
JKG SCORE: 6.0
Untitled Film Project 