War Machine Review: 4 Ups & 5 Downs

1. The Lack Of Strong Female Characters

Perhaps it isn't that shocking that a movie set in the theater of war isn't overflowing with female characters, but even the ones who do show up are mostly pretty shallow or fleeting figures.

The only remotely memorable women in the film are the Secretary of State, a 60 Minutes interviewer, and most prominently, General McMahon's wife Jeanie (Meg Tilly). Though the first two don't really touch the sides, Tilly absolutely does her best to give Jeanie some depth, but she's basically just a stereotypical long-suffering wife while her husband is off taking care of business.

There's no need to shove women into the scenario if it doesn't call for it, but particularly in regard to McMahon's wife, it feels like a lot more could've been done to emphasise a potent female presence.

Netflix's latest original film wasn't all bad, though, so here's what they got right...