War Machine

Review: A 2026 release on Netflix, this sci-fi action follows a group of Army Ranger candidates who encounter something unexpected on a simulated mission. The rangers go unnamed, and we only ever learn their candidate numbers. The lead character is Staff Sergeant 81, played by Alan Ritchson. The cast is filled out by Dennis Quaid, Stephan James, Jai Courtney, & Esai Morales, and honestly, I really enjoyed Stephan James, even though he, like everyone, was limited by the material. In one of the most obvious statements I’ve recently made, Alan Ritchson really works as an action star (duh) and even though the movie was pretty bad, I don’t regret watching it. It very much felt like a slight step up from the old movies on the SyFy network, and I mean that complimentarily.

High: Things go boom. Boom is cool.

Low: The writing was not good. No disrespect intended to writers Patrick Hughes and James Beaufort, but if you expected good writing that’s kind of on you. But the writing was pretty bad. It was straight forward though. I also feel like Ritchson’s character was the least interesting character we met in the film. They were trying to make him cold and isolated, but instead brought a lack of intrigue to the character. And they really set up a sequel so that’s good for them. This seems like the kind of movie that’ll get a good amount of streaming hours on Netflix (especially from the middle-aged men) so I bet it’ll get a sequel.

Rating: 3.5/10