Not awful, but it isn't going to be your movie of the year

Rating: 5/10 (22 June 2017)

I never thought a war movie with Brad Pitt can go wrong. Well, it did. But let's start with the good things! War Machine is a unique movie. It is unique in storytelling, acting, viewpoint - which makes it a refreshing experience in the world of superhero movies. There are a few well-done scenes that will make you think about this whole damn thing in Afghanistan - which is probably what the creators wanted to achieve. A few could argue about whether they remained neutral in the topic, but there are signs showing that they tried - so no bad point there either.
On the other hand, just by taking the risk of being unique, they weren't able to translate this to winning aspects. I could find the fun in the ridiculous running of Brad Pitt, which is just like the original US Army general portrayed (I have a friend who runs just like that and still went for an army career, no idea why people with bad running technique have military-obsession). Even his gray hair and over-sized clothes made sense (although you could feel that they were a bit overdone even for satire). But why the heck did he had to alter his voice just for playing Glenn McMahon?! You don't do that at professional level, who thought it's going to work? He's goddamn Brad Pitt - if he fits the role, he can fit it even with his own voice! The rest of the cast remained a bit out of spotlight for the whole runtime and I'm not sure that introduction scene at the beginning was a good idea - it's too much information at once and the viewer will have no experience about the characters, just a few narrated sentences. It wouldn't be a problem if it's really a political movie, but as for being a strange crossover between political and war movie I don't think it worked.
I think Netflix tried to bite too big for a first big feature film. There are some points in the movie where you can see that they tried to save the situation, but overall I'd book War Machine as a failure.