War Machine Review: Alan Ritchson vs. a Big Dumb Robot (And I Mean That as a Compliment)

Rating: 7/10 ⭐️

Netflix drops another popcorn sci-fi flick and honestly? It works. War Machine isn't trying to be the next Arrival or Interstellar. It knows it's a movie about a big dude fighting a big robot in the woods, and it leans all the way into that. Sometimes that's all you need on a weekend.

Alan Ritchson is basically Reacher in camo here, and I mean that as a compliment. If you've been watching him in Reacher (and you should be), you know the deal. He's strong, intense, barely talks, and when he does, it matters. The character, known only by his assigned number 81, is trying to get selected into an elite Ranger unit to honour his younger brother who was severely injured during an ambush in Kandahar. 81 carried his brother through the desert but passed out before he could get him to safety. That guilt? That's the entire engine of the movie. He's not here for glory. He's here because he couldn't finish the job the first time.

The setup is lean and efficient. Ranger boot camp, a bunch of recruits trying to prove themselves, Dennis Quaid barking orders as the camp officer... standard military movie stuff. But then things get weird. During their final simulated mission, the recruits stumble upon a crashed alien spacecraft. Not the fake one planted for their exercise. An actual alien ship. And before they can process what's happening, the ship transforms into a massive, Transformers-esque killing machine and starts hunting them down.

Here's the thing about the alien: it doesn't look like an alien. It's this huge, industrial hunk of metal on two legs. No sleek curves, no glowing eyes. It looks like something you'd find in a scrapyard that decided to wake up and murder everyone. That design choice actually works in the movie's favour. It feels grounded in a weird, brutal way.

With impenetrable armour, there's nothing the Rangers can do against it. Their only option is to run. And the recruits die off fast, one after another, until it's just 81 and recruit 7 (Stephan James), who's alive but injured and needs to be carried. Sound familiar? 81 is literally getting a second chance at the thing that's been eating him alive... carrying someone to safety.

Now here's the smartest thing in this movie, and it happens in the first ten minutes. Early on, 81 lectures his brother about soldiers using Stop Leak on truck radiators. "First law of thermodynamics: energy can't be created or destroyed, so it's gotta go somewhere. Block the vents, heat can't escape, pressure builds, radiator blows." It's a throwaway moment. You barely register it. But in the final act, when 81 is staring down this unkillable machine, that's exactly how he takes it down. He lures it to a quarry mentioned earlier in the film, dumps gravel on it to clog the vents, and boom, the thing explodes like the Death Star. Chekhov would be proud.

The final fight gave me serious Ellen Ripley vibes. The quarry, heavy machinery, 81 going toe-to-toe with something way bigger than him on pure survival instinct. It's not subtle about its Aliens influence, but it earns the comparison.

Let's be real though, everyone other than 81 is just fodder for the alien machine to mow down. You don't really care about any of them. Stephan James as 7 gets a bit of emotional weight because of his connection to 81's brother, but that's about it. This is a one-man show and Ritchson carries it on his very large shoulders.

The pacing is the movie's secret weapon. At 107 minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome. It gets in, does its thing, and gets out. Which is a good thing, because stretch this premise any further and it starts to fall apart.

And about that ending. The so-called "twist" that thousands more of these machines have landed across the planet and the army is gearing up to fight them. It's not really a twist. It's sequel bait. And honestly? No thank you. This story works as a tight, self-contained survival thriller. I'm not sure how much this premise can be stretched before it becomes just another generic alien invasion franchise.

Verdict: ⭐7/10. Entertaining, doesn't waste your time, and sometimes that's enough. Grab some popcorn, turn your brain down a notch, and enjoy watching Alan Ritchson punch above his weight class. Literally.