I keep telling my friends why Alan Ritchson is the Arnold Schwarzenegger of this generation. I grew up on the films of the latter. There was a time when, in my school days, I was so addicted to his action films that the thought of him retiring was unthinkable. Of course, after I grew up, he returned after concluding his political duties. The charm was still there, but these latter films didn't carry the same impact as his work in the 80s and 90s.
Which brings me to Ritchson. At one point in his show "Reacher", Ritchson literally folds a bad guy so that he could fit into the trunk of a car. He does this, making a slight... adjustment to some of his bones. Before that, he unleashes major damage to a group of convicts in a washroom. After, maybe, more than three decades, I finally thought to myself, "Damn. This dude is Arnold 2.0." His latest, "War Machine", out now on Netflix, further solidifies this impression on me. It only proves that Ritchson has an extra advantage that Schwarzenegger didn't have: better acting skills.
Not that I minded the lack thereof in the former Austrian bodybuilder-turned-movie star. He more than made up for it through his charisma and extraordinary screen presence. When he entered the scene, he was the right guy for the kind of screenplays written for him. No need to show off one's method acting skills. Action filmmaking, however, has undergone numerous changes since then, as we all can see. The hero can no longer be completely invincible. He must have some quality that makes him in some way relatable. He has vulnerabilities that could get in the way of the mission he has undertaken by his own account or one assigned by superiors.
In "War Machine", the aftermath of a traumatic past event threatens to play spoilsport during some of the most crucial events in the movie. And it's not written into the script in a way that seems forced. It makes perfect sense in the right places. That swimming pool test with the weights, the repeat of familiar trauma-triggering images in a battle scene featuring a far deadlier, extraterrestrial tech-driven adversary (in the vein of "Predator")... But then, it happens to be Ritchson playing this Ranger, which means at some point, he would come up with a solution to defeat this killing machine that's as relentless as the Xenomorph in "Aliens" or the T-800 in "Terminator" or the Yautja in "Predator". The actor utilises his physicality impressively in some of the film's most suspenseful sequences, but also brings a certain degree of vulnerability and humour in the right places. Essentially, the right action hero for 90s kids who are now in their 40s, while also potentially appealing to the youngsters of this generation who are only getting started with movies.