(2026) War Machine - A Highly Entertaining Full Action Sci-Fi Movie

I was aware about this movie since few weeks ago which totally interest me with its premise and lead star. Being major fan of action combined with some kind of science fiction element, made me very excited to watch it. That's why when it was released by Netflix on last Friday, I immediately gave it a try despite feeling a bit tired after seeing 2 films in a row in the cinema. Without further ado, here's more on the movie.

Brief Story Line

During the latest Ranger Assessment and Selection Program (RASP) a lot of candidates were trying their best to become part of the elite team,  including the experienced Staff Sergeant & war survivor who was referred to as 81 (Alan Ritchson - Playdate, Titans TV series etc). After a very intense 8 weeks program, many of the candidates were not selected, leaving only few who succeeded. For their final simulated exercise, 81 was appointed as team leader along with another Staff Sergeant referred to as 7 (Stephan James - 21 Bridges, Homecoming TV series etc), the loud mouth 15 (Blake Richardson - He Ain't Heavy etc), 44 (Alex King - The Longest Weekend etc), 57 (Daniel Webber - The Punisher TV series etc) and some others in a remote location.

Unfortunately the whole mission turned to a run for survival when they encountered a very powerful machine seemingly not from this world who fiercely attacked and killed a lot of their unit members. Without any weapons and not being able to communicate with the First Sergeant Torres (Esai Morales - Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Ozark season 1 etc) and Sergeant Major Sheridan (Dennis Quaid - Strange World, Midway etc) for help, 81 with the remaining few survivors tried their best to evade and return to base.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Wow that was a really entertaining full action movie that I had not seen for a while. I got to say that I enjoyed almost every minute of this film cause it was very very intense especially from the moment they encountered the "war machine" until the end. The movie started with a little back story of 81 which was pretty suspenseful and continued with the training program. Although the training scene did take quite a while, but the intensity felt strong due to the quick pace and did not take too long to finish the 8 weeks.

The action sequence was truly awesome & brutal with violent killings by the machine supported by wonderful special effects, including the ones showing the bodies blown to pieces and the many explosion effects. With such convincing show of powers, the suspense was really felt continously as the survivors tried to escape from the machine. There were so many long action scenes which left me breathless and felt sigh of relief every time the team had a break, albeit very short one. Amazingly I read that Alan Ritchson did his own stunt in this movie, which made me admired his work ethics even more.

In term of story, this was not a complicated one. In fact its simplicity was what made me appreciate this movie highly cause I did not have to worry about difficulty to understand. Despite the other Rangers candidates seemed to be just support, I thought some of them did adequately. Plus their change of attitudes towards 81 came quite naturally to my opinion. In addition to the names I mentioned above, this movie had some support cast including the familiar Jai Courtney (Kaleidoscope mini series, The Suicide Squad etc) as 81's younger brother, Keiynan Lonsdale (The Flash TV series etc) as candidate 60, Jack Patten as candidate 109 and several others.

This movie was directed by Patrick Hughes who was experienced in directing action movies like The Man from Toronto, The Expendables 3, The Hitman's Bodyguard and few others. He also wrote it together with James Beaufort. Funnily enough Patrick Hughes had brief cameo here as Master Sergeant Hughes while Beaufort portrayed Candidate 23, although since I did not know their faces, I was unaware of this fact. From what I read, the film was pretty well received by critics though not extraodinary high rated. Audience seemed to like it as it became a global hit after few days of release, including making it number two in Indonesia, which is a solid performance as usually local movies dominated the chart.

Overall this was a very enjoyable movie for me as I am sure it would be for fans of action sci-fi films. The action scenes were awesome, intense, gripping, the explosion effects were wonderful and the suspense was felt through out the whole time. It has a duration of 107 minutes without mid or post end credit scene. The ending was quite satisfying and provided plenty of room should they decide to make a sequel (though I might be getting ahead of myself). I think Alan Ritchson certainly had a bright future if he is able to maintain the quality of movies where he is the lead star. At this moment, let's just enjoy his performance in this highly entertaining action movie.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars