Warfare Review

 

So I just saw the movie Warfare, a war film that follows a group of soldiers who get ambushed on a mission and try to survive when they get pinned down, and at the beginning, they tell you the entire film is only based on their memories.

So the movie is all about this one mission, so the movie starts when the mission starts, and then when it’s over, the movie ends… This has its advantages and disadvantages.

So right off the bat, you like these guys. The movie starts with them, like, watching a music video and just kind of having fun and goofing around, and it feels very natural and silly, and these guys are having a good time, so it really puts you in a good mood. Then we see them on their mission doing their thing, and it feels very authentic, and this is where my only real criticism of the movie comes in…

The first 20 minutes or so can feel a bit unattached. By that I mean, they don’t go into exact details about what the mission is; you just see them like establish a base and then wait for something to happen, and when they’re getting the base, it’s in the middle of the night and it’s hard to see everyone because everyone is in shadow, and then for the next 10 or so minutes everyone’s just sort of sitting around doing their job and looking at each other, and honestly, you’re not even sure who the main character is supposed to be. Now they do sprinkle in some funny characters, bits, and humor—nothing laugh-out-loud, but just things that put you in a good mood—and at this point, you’re not sure who these characters are or even their names, so it can be a little hard to connect with them because they’re such blank slates. You do kind of figure out what their roles in the group are, but again, it takes about 20 minutes before you even learn people’s names, so for that first 20 minutes, I can see it being difficult for certain viewers to connect since we know so little about these people and what’s even going on.

That being said, once the attack happens… This movie rockets up like Apollo 11. Everything in this movie is great from this point on: the acting, the camera work, the cinematography, the action, the special effects, the sound design, the pacing, and even working in small moments of humor to help break up the tension… Everything just clicks into place, and I would say it’s on the same level as the opening of Saving Private Ryan.

I usually try and give shout-outs to actors who I think gave really standout performances in this movie, but I think everybody did, so just go read the cast list for this, which I have to say is pretty stacked.

I would say the movie does get pretty intense at some point, so if you’re very sensitive to gore, I would say brace yourself, or maybe this movie isn’t for you, but it’s not too bad; you’re more of just like seeing injuries than anything else.

I also liked at the end when they showed the actual people the actors were based off of and the actual soldiers visiting the set and interacting with the actors; it just really added to the realism of everything.

But the summary, despite my worries at the beginning, this movie really impressed me, and the entire casting crew put an incredible amount of hard work and detail into everything, and it really pays off… I give this movie four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.