Ridiculous Main Character and an Indiscernible Story

Rating: 4/10 (26 May 2017)

I think this movie had a lot of good and interesting ideas. It just didn't execute them well at all. The film is narrated by Scoot McNairy, and he says a lot of introspective things that could have made for a fascinating look at the psyche of a war general when the war is waning. That's a great idea, and one that could have made for a really compelling movie. Unfortunately, all War Machine does is tell us these things, without ever showing it to us. There is no clear, discernible story. It simply follows General McMahon around to a lot of different places. So it's hard to latch onto where the film was headed, or what the overall point actually was. Speaking of McMahon, Brad Pitt seriously overacts in this movie. He felt like a caricature, from the voice to the facial expressions. There was nothing natural or realistic about it, and it just felt like a cartoon character. Because of this, I could never see McMahon as a real, genuine character. I was just watching Brad Pitt doing a poor job on screen. I'm not sure exactly whose fault that was. The voice and the ticks could have been Pitt's ideas, but it also could have been all the director's, David Michôd. Regardless of whose ideas they were, it simply came across as ridiculous. An unbelievable main character, coupled with the lack of a clear story, made it incredibly hard to get into the movie...