TL;DR – A solid military/sci-fi action romp.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service to view this film.

War Machine Review Introduction –

Back in 2025, I didn’t get to see enough Australian films to put together a best of at the end of the year. As an Australian-based reviewer, that felt a little embarrassing, well, I am not going to let that happen in 2026, and today we start with our first entry with a military/sci-fi romp where many pine trees do not survive first contact.

So, to set the scene, we open with a convoy of Humvees leaving the protection of their home base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. They are off to provide support to another convoy broken down in a communications‑dead zone. Where a Staff Sergeant (Alan Ritchson) catches up with his younger brother (Jai Courtney) in the other convoy, it was all going well until an ambush takes them all out. Two years later, that same staff sergeant is in Colorado for Ranger training like he promised his brother. But here he has no name, just a number 81. Here it is time for eight weeks of the most gruelling training known, and this is his last chance before he ages out. But as they finish the end of their training with the famous ‘Death March’, the extra-solar asteroid RX-505-Polemas heading towards Earth makes its closest approach and starts breaking up for no reason.       

Structure

One thing I do have to respect is how much work they do in those first twenty minutes to set up the rest of the film. We get our introduction in Afghanistan, the first 8 weeks of training, the introduction to all the troops we will be seeing, the lowdown on the death march, and all the not-so-subtle hints that something alien is about to go down. There are not a lot of nuances in those moments, but it absolutely gets you to where you need to be. The rest of the film is a bunch of setups while we wait for the inevitable confrontation. This gives the film a sense of constant momentum while also giving you rises and falls in the action, so it does not become overwhelming.

Design

I liked the design of the alien ship/tank/walker/mecha/destruction thingy. It has a real menace to it as it feels something that is both alien and tangible enough to be real. You needed it to have menace because the threat had to feel real, even before you saw it, the spinning compasses, and sounds of the stop being enough, like the T. rex in Jurassic Park. One of the parts I liked the most was the liquid-like glow it left on things when it was scanning them. Also, up until it fires its big “I want you all gone now” cannon, every one of its weapons felt conceptually within the realm of possibility.   

Dialogue

If there is one weakness, it is the dialogue, because with the stripped-down pacing to get it to a solid 90-minute time, everything needs to get stripped down to its bare bones. Given that military dialogue already tends to be on the less-than-verbose side of things, we get a lot of profoundly stilted exchanges. There are times when the film might almost be shouting, “This will be important for later, please remember”. It is probably a touch more on-the-nose than it planned, mainly because you know structurally how the film is going to pan out, even down to a lot of the ending beat for beat.   

Action

This is a military action film, so we need to take a moment to talk about how all the action works. Here, it is a little hit and miss, but thankfully more hit than miss. In the opening engagement with the alien, everyone just stands around like they were waiting to be killed. If these were kids right out of boot camp, you could sort of understand that, but rangers … not so much. Thankfully, things start escalating from there, so that first misstep does not last. I want to shout out the stunt team for the fall down the ridge line because that was some of the best tumbling on screen. You felt every impact, and there were many. This was a film where you could see a lot of the references the filmmakers were using, including a lot of those classic 1980s action films. I did especially like the Aliens moment, but that is all I can say.  

Recommendation

In the end, do we recommend War Machine? If you are after a solid sci-fi/military action romp that hints back to the action films of the 1980s helmed by the mountain of a man, Alan Ritchson? Then yes, yes, I would   

Have you watched War Machine? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked War Machine, we would recommend Warfare to you because, while more grounded in reality, it also plays on the effects of war when you become trapped by the enemy.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of War Machine
Directed by – Patrick Hughes
Story by – Patrick Hughes
Screenplay by – Patrick Hughes & James Beaufort
Music by – Dmitri Golovko
Cinematography by – Aaron Morton
Edited by – Andy Canny
Production/Distribution Companies – Lionsgate, Hidden Pictures, Huge Film, Range Media Partners, Emu Creek Pictures, Roadshow Pictures & Netflix.
Starring – Alan Ritchson, Dennis Quaid, Stephan James, Jai Courtney, Esai Morales, Keiynan Lonsdale, Daniel Webber, Blake Richardson, Jack Patten, Jacob Hohua, Alex King, Joshua Diaz, James Beaufort, Justin Wang, Matt Testro, Heather Burridge, & Victory Ndukwe
With – Jake Ryan, Christopher Kirby, Joey Vieira, Ditch Davey, & Patrick Hughes
Rating – Australia: MA15+;