The bulk of War Machine follows Ritchson’s character (known only as “81”) and a squadron of would-be Army Rangers on a training mission that goes sideways when they encounter a deadly alien ship.

For nearly five decades, Steven Spielberg has helped define what alien stories mean to movie audiences. Sometimes they arrive as cosmic miracles. Sometimes as existential threats. Sometimes as ...

Movies about disasters—natural or human-made—have been produced since the earliest days of film. As early as 1916, a disaster with an extraterrestrial cause was touted in The End of the World, a ...