"A Navy SEAL team is sent in to investigate the disappearance of several scientists at a remote outpost."
I wasn't expecting something quite this poor quality from a film in Netflix's roster. While many of the recent additions have been bland, they had high production values. Neither can really be said for this film. Alien Warfare is perhaps on par with The Predator. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't another Mockumentary for the Predator franchise because that is pretty much what this plot is.
From the flashback in one of the opening scenes of the film, the audience is instantly communicated the budget level of this film, and it is incredibly low; poorly recreated recoils and bad CGI blood look flat and uninspired. What isn't quite so apparent is whether the film is intended as a parody or not. This is definitely deep into the B-movie category, but the effort with which the actors are visibly trying to perform, and the rather generic story do leave uncertainty as to how serious the film is trying to be.
The low budget of the film is also shown through its minimal cast. Outside of its main four protagonists (the Navy SEAL team), the only other major character comes from Isabella (played by Larissa Andrade). Andrade is absolutely stunning in appearance but fills the role of the soil scientist that also understands the lockdown sequences of the lab, as well as mathematical analysis of alien cryptography. Effectively, she is the human-shaped plot device that can spout exposition and do anything that is needed to drive the story forward. When you already have a team of four protagonists, you'd think you could share the technical abilities and skills between them, but alas the SEAL team are left as the usual one-dimensional characters that only know how to shoot a gun.
While it has been done so many times before, the premise is still actually quite reasonable, and they do tease some story arcs that could lead to character development. Unfortunately, the script writing is downright laughable. Literally. The dialogue in this film is so cringey in places that you can't help but laugh-out-loud and it is one of the unintentionally good things about the film.
The antagonists come in the form of a team of Predator-like creatures, but the props are so badly done that it is really confusing why the entire thing was shot in blatant daylight. Shooting in twilight or dusk can add tension and suspense, but with so much light, every piece of poor acting and every cheap prop is very obvious to even the untrained eye. I guess that comes down to the budget yet again, as a joke about insertion at daytime is slotted into the script.
As far as the SEAL team go, Daniel Washington and Scott C. Roe actually do pretty well as Jonesy and Thorpe respectively, and they have some reasonable chemistry on screen. But the leads Mike and Chris (Clayton Snyder and David Meadows) lack any form of emotional performance.
Alien Warfare has a childishness to it that makes the antagonists feel like a villain from a Power Rangers episode. A cheap Predator rip-off with static cinematography that offers no likeable characters and no satisfactory resolution. The story is resolved, but it happens in a way that feels like the writers had no idea how to end it. This isn't really a movie I can recommend unless you want a film to laugh at while entertaining some friends.