One Battle After Another (2025) Movie Review

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One Battle After Another – Movie Review

First Reaction – One Battle After Another is an overly long thriller.

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson, Thomas Pynchon (Screenplay)

Cast

  • Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed)
  • Sean Penn (Mystic River)
  • Benicio Del Toro (The Phoenician Scheme)
  • Regina Hall (Girls Trip)
  • Teyana Taylor (Straw)

After sixteen years, a former enemy returns, forcing a group of retired revolutionaries to come back together and save the daughter of one of their own.

Runtime: 2 Hours 41 Minutes 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

The film ‘One Battle After Another’ follows Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) as he teams up with Perfidia (Taylor) to join a revolutionary group. Their mission is to create disruption, and during the process, they fall in love. However, they attract the attention of Colonel Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), who becomes determined to stop them.

Following a period of hiding, Bob and his daughter, Willa, start over, building a new life. Sixteen years later, Steven resurfaces, determined to finish what he started and targets their family. They’re forced to flee with others, desperately trying to stay one step ahead of him, but Steven is relentless in his pursuit and won’t rest until they’re silenced.

Verdict on One Battle After Another

Recap

The film centers around a once-radical individual who has been living in secret and now needs to find allies. Meanwhile, a past foe is relentlessly hunting down the remaining members of their old group, stopping at nothing to achieve their goal.

Best Parts

What really makes this movie shine are the actors. Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro are incredibly funny, and Chase Infiniti is also a pleasure to watch. The movie really comes alive in its final scenes, with a satisfying and chaotic turn of events.

Worst Parts

The film’s rebels aren’t driven by a clear purpose, making them feel like aimless troublemakers rather than people fighting for a cause, which makes it difficult to root for them, even considering the villain is worse. Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance feels off-key for the role; his character’s sudden shifts from focused to self-destructive are unexplained. The movie also feels too long and suffers from having too many characters to follow.

Look, “One Battle After Another” just didn’t quite work for me. As a thriller, it felt stretched thin – the story needed a lot more focus and punch. It’s a bit too long and ultimately, the storytelling just wasn’t tight enough to keep me fully engaged.

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2025-09-26 17:38