Alex Garland’s Civil War was among the most talked-about movies of last year, and now he’s back with another intense work earning a lot of critical attention. For Warfare, Garland teamed up with Navy SEAL turned filmmaker Ray Mendoza for a visceral depiction of the latter’s experience during one battle of the Iraq War. The first reviews note its immersive action and soundscape and its exceptional ensemble cast while questioning whether it has any point to make about modern combat.
Here’s what critics are saying about Warfare:
How does this compare to other war movies?
Mendoza and Garland have crafted a bold new landmark in screen depictions of combat.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
It has been described elsewhere as “the most realistic war movie ever made.”
— Kevin Maher, Times (UK)
It’s one of the most realistic war movies ever made.
— G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
It feels like the most honest depiction of modern warfare I can recall seeing on screen.
— Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph (UK)
Warfare is arguably among the most extreme “war is hell” movies ever made by an American studio.
— Eric Goldman, IGN Movies
Warfare certainly isn’t the first combat movie to take such an immersive approach to the subject, but what’s striking about this film is its overriding commitment to the truth as perceived by its real-life characters.
— Nikki Baughan, Screen International
Is it a difficult watch?
This is a movie that’s as difficult to watch as it is to forget. It’s a sensory blitz, a percussive nightmare, and a relentless assault on the soul.
— Kevin Maher, Times (UK)
The type of technically impressive – and well worth seeing – movie that’s challenging by design… Warfare has an impact that I found hard to shake.
— Eric Goldman, IGN Movies
If you find [a character’s] suffering hard to watch — well, that’s the idea. Yet I felt on some level as if the movie was using his mortal hell to lecture us.
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety
It’s not for the faint-hearted.
— Nikki Baughan, Screen International
How does it compare to Alex Garland’s Civil War?
It’s necessarily less sweeping than Garland’s recent Civil War and for all its fire and fury plays as something of a philosophical B-side to that bigger earlier film.
— Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph (UK)
Warfare plays like a concentrated B-side to last year’s sprawling Civil War… where Civil War was born from anxieties, Warfare is based on memories.
— David Ehrlich, IndieWire
Warfare essentially feels like a 90-minute dose of that movie’s combat scenes transposed into the real world.
— Sean Boelman, FandomWire
Warfare [is] far more simplistic in its ideas conveyed.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
It may not have the intriguing narrative hook of Civil War… It plays entirely from [a] first-person point of view, reflecting the messy chaos of the day without dramatizing or editorializing.
— Nikki Baughan, Screen International
Where does it rank in Garland’s filmography overall?
It shouldn’t be one of the best works in his filmography, and yet, it is… one of the best films of 2025 so far.
— Aidan Kelley, Collider
It’s arguably his best film since his debut, Ex Machina.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
In a sense, this is Garland’s simplest film; in another, it’s his most experimental.
— Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph (UK)
Part of what makes Warfare so effective is how it plays (and sounds) like the kind of blunt, dread-filled horror movie the 28 Days Later screenwriter and Annihilation director made his name on.
— Eric Goldman, IGN Movies
Will it remind us of any other films?
Mendoza and Garland’s approach to Warfare from a story perspective is somewhat modeled in the vein of Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, in that it takes more of a macro look at this event, rather than a micro one with deep characterization.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
The movie takes its place alongside nail-biting combat dramas like The Hurt Locker and Black Hawk Down.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
There is no courageous denouement for these men, only embattled survivors scurrying into rescue vehicles—a bite-sized Come and See.
— Brianna Zigler, AV Club
I cannot fully dismiss Warfare‘s effect as limited or fleeting. In fact, it reminds me a great deal of the second wave of Vietnam War films that began cropping up in the 1980s.
— David Crow, Den of Geek
How is the character development?
There’s little time allotted to fleshing out this merry band of troops.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
[There is a] notable lack of traditional character arcs.
— Rocco T. Thompson, Slant Magazine
We barely get to know the soldiers’ names. But not knowing much about them somehow makes the movie even more powerful in its blunt-force depiction of the brutality of war and the human faces behind it.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
The lack of “characterization” is deliberate… There’s little time to judge any of the ethical issues, of which there are inherently many, nor is there space to bond with the soldiers. It’s war and you’re inside it.
— Nadine Whitney, InSession Film
Are there any standouts in the ensemble cast?
D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai plays Mendoza in a turn that will surely take the Reservation Dogs actor to the next level, but all the cast are outstanding in this.
— Martin Robinson, London Evening Standard
Everyone in the film is delivering solid work, especially Joseph Quinn and Cosmo Jarvis, both putting themselves through the wringer with an endurance test of agony-acting that never lets up.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
There are some very strong performances in the cast, namely Will Poulter as the battalion’s disoriented leader, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai playing the director Mendoza, and Joseph Quinn and Cosmo Jarvis as some of his comrades. These four actors will crush you with their emotions — whether big and flashy or small and restrained.
— Sean Boelman, FandomWire
I was particularly impressed by Cosmo Jarvis as Elliot, one of the soldiers who is badly injured.
— Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior
Every actor does a fantastic job, particularly Cosmo Jarvis in a part that once again shows the rising newcomer’s incredible range.
— Aidan Kelley, Collider
How is the sound design?
In the absence of music, sound design from Glenn Freemantle proves a bombastic exercise in hyper-realism that bombards the senses from all directions.
— Nikki Baughan, Screen International
The sound design is incredible… Mendoza and Garland do not make the mistake of confusing more sound for better sound. Although Warfare is indeed loud, it also uses the spatial aspect of audio in a way that not every film has been able to pull off.
— Sean Boelman, FandomWire
In an auditory sense, what’s achieved in Warfare is bar none the gold standard of the year, setting the mark for everything else coming out.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
The sounds of gunfire and soaring fighter jets reverberate through the entire body with a prowess not really seen since Top Gun: Maverick.
— Gregory Nussen, Deadline Hollywood Daily
It is loud and upsetting. Sound is key: in the pounding gunshots, in the ground-shaking explosions, in the ear-splitting roar of fighter jets, and in the agonizing screams of the soldiers. RIP your local cinema speakers.
— Alex Godfrey, Empire Magazine
There are moments that are so loud, it’s almost too much to endure. And that’s clearly the point.
— Eric Goldman, IGN Movies
Do Garland and Mendoza work well together?
Mendoza’s memories and Garland’s tactility as a filmmaker make for a combination that proves to be quite effective.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
Garland credits the film as having been led by Mendoza; Garland was more like a driving instructor in the passenger seat. But even without that knowledge, Warfare is impressive, efficiently tense filmmaking.
— Brianna Zigler, AV Club
Does it feel like a pro-war movie?
The result is… a vacuous and perfidious advertisement for military recruitment.
— Gregory Nussen, Deadline Hollywood Daily
Anyone who can watch and listen to the attack that ensues and think “what a marvelous advert for war, and the Iraq War specifically” has the IQ of a cheese and onion crisp.
— Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph (UK)
Digital halfwits relax. This is not propaganda for Uncle Sam.
— Kevin Maher, Times (UK)
No, it’s not going to encourage anyone to sign up to the military in a hurry, but it is absolutely a tribute to those who do.
— Alex Godfrey, Empire Magazine
While Warfare is far from pro-war, its intention is to be pro-veteran above all.
— Mary Kassel, Screen Rant
Interestingly, the film isn’t explicitly anti-war, or pro-war. Warfare presents military action as a fact of life, like it or not.
— G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
Warfare is an anti-war film in every frame.
— Julian Roman, MovieWeb
Is there a more specific message in the film?
It’s difficult to discern exactly what Garland and Mendoza intended with Warfare… a film that wants to be felt more than interpreted.
— David Ehrlich, IndieWire
It is a work of attempted neutrality… Warfare is concerned only with the overwhelming, sensory journey that is conflict.
— Clarisse Loughrey, Independent (UK)
Warfare is not to be confused with a movie about heroism; it’s a movie about hell that leaves you shaken.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
What we are presented with here is Mendoza reliving some of the darkest moments of his life with as much accuracy as possible. There is an honesty in that, whether it’s something to be celebrated or not.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
Warfare is sure to frustrate those who found Civil War overly neutral in its political stance as it further pares away any notion of didacticism in the name of raw experience. Yet this doubling down creates messaging on its own.
— Rocco T. Thompson, Slant Magazine
Warfare opens in theaters on April 11, 2025.
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