Warfare

The overriding impression, once the adrenaline has drained away, is of futility, waste and pointless destruction.

A visceral cross-section of an Iraq War incident, related by the veterans who served there, Warfare stuns viewers into submission and leaves them with a grim apprehension of military service - albeit as close as one gets without being there.

The result is one of the best films of 2025 so far, successfully capturing the grim, brutal, and unpredictable nature of warfare that only a handful of feature films truly have.

The only agenda in Warfare, in other words, is to give you a sense of not just what happened but how everything felt while it was happening. A tall order, to be sure, but one that Garland, Mendoza, their cast and the crew pull off shockingly well.

This is a formidable technical showcase and obsessive forensic recreation whose imposed formal limitations become meaning-making ends in and of themselves.

The lack of character development blunts any potential for the deeper emotional impact found in the best war movies. The lack of political contextualization further limits how much the film is really capable of saying.

Alternately tedious, cacophonous and stultifying, the latest show of force from writer-director Alex Garland following last year’s equally frustrating Civil War just might be the most unnecessarily unpleasant cinematic experience you will endure this year.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Look, I get it, It's based on the memories of the Soldiers, but its not filmed well in my opinion. They use mundane audio effects, cinematography, and scenes that don't relate to the title of warfare. I would rather you watch 1917 or Saving Private Ryan, even if those are dramatised. Now the Practicals are good, and the acting is solid, but again the film is so unsatisfying not because of what happened in the plot(because it's based on real events) I just think that this story should have been part of something much more. 6/10, it's good but not enough.

Technically proficient and I liked its small scope and the pace at which it resolved itself.

I appreciate what it is trying to go for, but I think it struggles to get there. Despite the short runtime, there is a lot of padding in this movie. You could easily cut 15-20 minutes out of it without missing a beat. This drags down the pacing and makes it difficult to stay interested throughout the film.

This is the worst "war" movie I've ever ****'s not really a war movie though since the whole movie takes place over 12ish ****'s realistic to the point of being boring. the soldiers occupy one house the entire movie. It would've been better as a documentary or a small part of a bigger movie. It's just bad.