There had already been a lot of buzz about “War Machine” in advance. Lead actor Alan Ritchson in particular was really drumming up the buzz and promising a gigantic action experience that would put all previous Netflix films in the shade. The actual marketing campaign, however, was surprisingly small, as apart from a measly trailer there was hardly any advertising for the action hit. Maybe a film like “War Machine” promotes itself – after all, “Reacher” star Ritchson is one of the hottest genre stars of the moment in front of the camera. It is no coincidence that he is repeatedly compared to the young Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Under the direction of “The Expendables 3” director Patrick Hughes, the giant now gets his personal “Predator” moment – even if the actor in “War Machine” is not allowed to compete against a representative of the Yautja, but instead has to compete with a gigantic killer robot. The result is an astonishingly bloodthirsty spectacle that packs a punch, but at the same time drowns in its own pathos – and is also busy building up a larger franchise.
To become a ranger, rigorous training must be completed.
Soldier 81 (Alan Ritchson) has no name – at least not in the Ranger Special Forces training program. In the fight for a place in the corps of the toughest elite force in the world, each applicant is assigned a number before undergoing an extremely demanding training program. Anyone who isn’t good enough is mercilessly sorted out by Sergeant Colonel Maj Sheridan (Dennis Quaid).
The final test is the so-called death march: a training operation under real conditions that must be completed within a certain time. But the mission, conducted in a forested mountain area, takes an unexpected turn when the unit encounters an unusual object. This soon turns out to be a heavily armed combat robot that immediately starts hunting the troops – and causes a real bloodbath in the process. Can the remaining forces around Soldier 81 stand up to the machine – or is it a hopeless battle?
A contemporary overhaul of the “Predator” concept
The synopsis alone brings back memories of John McTiernan’s genre milestone “Predator,” which went down in cinema history as a radical reappraisal of the US Vietnam War trauma. In “War Machine” a soldier also has to fight against an intergalactic threat. But Alan Ritchson doesn’t end up in the jungle, where an invisible enemy awaits him. Instead, technical progress shows its ugly face in the form of an oversized combat robot. He goes to work with extreme brutality and extremely efficiency and mows down everything that stands in his way.
This metal colossus becomes the embodiment of a modern, dehumanized war apparatus that goes about its work faceless and emotionless. Battles are fought with high-tech weapons and drones that know neither pity nor fatigue, and at the push of a button, death or life is decided on the other side of the world. The fact that even the armament of the steel killing machine appears surprisingly down-to-earth and brings back memories of target-seeking submachine guns and efficient artillery rocket systems underlines this impression once again.
A running toaster with serious killing potential
Unfortunately, the design of the killing machine is surprisingly unimaginative and lies somewhere between an ED-209 copy from Paul Verhoeven’s radical cult satire “Robocop” and a running toaster. When the danger from space stomps through the terrain with its overly thick stubby legs and scans the area with a roar, there is no immediate feeling of threat. However, this impression changes radically as soon as the hunt for the group of soldiers begins.
Director Patrick Hughes stages the battle with the intergalactic battle colossus as a grim slaughter. Severed and mutilated body parts, burned bodies and realistic flesh wounds: the outbreak of violence is unusually harsh and unpleasant to watch – and sets “War Machine” positively apart from comparable genre representatives.
In “War Machine” there is a huge bang.
It’s almost a feat that the actioner still feels surprisingly conservative, especially towards the end – and allows a war lust that is almost inappropriate in this interaction to shine through. The military becomes a desirable place of longing where “real” men can still find a home and a community. Men who proudly wear a “Don’t Fucking Quit” tattoo on their forearm and opt for the Ranger Training Program instead of going to therapy. The final act in particular is dripping with militaristic kitsch – which of course also includes the large US flag. Someone has to save the world, even if the effort sometimes requires sacrifices.
Against this background, it is of course of little help that all of the supporting characters remain completely interchangeable – and are each only assigned a single character attribute. In addition to the joker and the nervous wreck, there is also the mental anchor point. This character is at least given a bit of character depth, even if he ultimately only represents a redemption vehicle for Alan Ritchson’s lone warrior, who can use her to at least partially straighten out his own past.
Alan Ritchson plays the lone wolf.
The fact that the protagonist remains an aloof and extremely taciturn lone wolf for a long time is probably one of the film’s biggest weaknesses. His rejection of the troupe logically also rubs off on the audience – making it difficult to build any relationship with any of the other characters. Only when he actually accepts his role as leader does a spark of team spirit appear, but this is immediately nipped in the bud with plenty of gunpowder.
The fact that the film is not brought to a complete conclusion despite the extremely reduced plot is an additional annoyance. By the final act at the latest, “War Machine” is already busy setting the course for a possible sequel – including country-specific spin-offs. If streaming is successful, the expansion of the world will most likely happen very quickly.
Conclusion: There is an exciting film somewhere in “War Machine”. Anyone who likes intense action with a certain gore factor will have fun here – even if both the mechanical threat from space and the ensemble of characters are extremely functional. In the end, what remains is a loud spectacle that sees itself as a franchise prologue without giving the story told enough life or exciting characters.