Film Preview: The Smashing Machine (2025)

Film Poster

Page Revisions:

(May 4, 2025) Original
(September 14, 2025) New Trailer (#2) — New Posters (#2-#3)
(September 28, 2025) New Posters (#4-#5)

Release Date:

October 3, 2025

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “The story of mixed-martial arts and UFC champion Mark Kerr.”

Poster Rating: C / C+ / C / C / C

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Review: (#1, C) If you’re interested in Dwayne Johnson as an actor, this might entice. Yet, it’s such a dull, surprisingly lifeless design.

(#2, C+) This gets across the film’s concept but does little to excite the viewer beyond its obvious critic responses. The end result is something acceptable but limited. (#3, C) While it touches on the emotional nature of the film and highlights the film’s stars, the harsh red color clashes dramatically with the surrounding and the beveled edging motif doesn’t make enough sense.

(#4, C) A rudimentary design with a still film image but with the background blacked-out, giving it a unnecessarily uneasy feel. (#5, C) Same as the prior but with a tacky curtain background. That might be fitting for the film’s setting but it’s not an appealing poster design.

Trailer Rating: C / C

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Review: (#1, C) The tropes of the biopic are out in full force with this horrendously conventional trailer that never makes a case for its characters that the viewer will want to delve into their lives. So far, it will only appeal to Mark Kerr fans and maybe Dwayne Johnson fans but that’s about it.

(#2, C) It’s nice to get a bit of full detail on what the film’s about but it takes so long to get anywhere, focuses to heavily on trying to make Dwayne Johnson look out of place and that he’s “Acting,” but it feels distant and forced.

Oscar Prospects:

There’s some chatter about this being an Oscar contender but from the first trailer, that doesn’t seem all that likely. We’ll have to see how the reviews come out.