One of the most anticipated 2025 new movies coming in April is Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s A24 war movie Warfare, set to release on April 11. Ahead of that, on March 28, the first reviews for the movie hit the internet and got the ball rolling on Warfare’s Rotten Tomatoes score.
Warfare is written and directed by Mendoza, an Iraq War veteran, and Garland, based on the real-life experience of SEAL Elliott Miller and his fellow soldiers during an evacuation from an apartment building in Ramadi, Iraq, after it comes under fire. Starring a cast of some of the best young actors (Will Poulter, Kit Connor, Joseph Quinn D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai and Charles Melton among them) with the stated goal of showing the events in “real time, using extended takes, meticulously constructed sets, and unmatched realism to capture the fog and chaos of war, and the indelible brotherhood that develops in its wake.”
That premise, and the chance to see it play out on an IMAX screen, had me very intrigued to see the movie by itself. Throw in Garland pairing his filmmaking skills with the experience of a real-life veteran and Warfare was already one of the top movies I can’t wait to see in April. Warfare then debuting with a 92% “Fresh” Rotten Tomatoes score only has me more excited to see the movie.
That score comes from a total of 26 reviews submitted to Rotten Tomatoes as of publication on March 28. More reviews will influence that score as we get closer to the Warfare release date, but with this strong start (and the fact that A24 is letting reviews hit this early) is a good sign that the buzz is going to keep growing for this movie.
Empire Magazine critic Alex Godfrey wrote “Free of the operatics of most supposed anti-war films, it’s all the more effective for its simplicity. It is respectfully gruelling.”
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter said “Garland is working in peak form and with dazzling technical command in what’s arguably his best film since his debut, Ex Machina.”
AV Club’s Brianna Zigler, meanwhile, describes the movie as “a tense and damningly disturbing portrait of combat.”
Those who are a little less favorable of the movie mostly seem to indicate that the movie’s lack of characterization and brutal depictions was not as successful for them.
If these early reactions are getting you excited for Warfare, it premieres exclusively in movie theaters on April 11 in the US and April 18 in the UK.
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