SummaryFrom filmmaker Alex Garland comes a journey across a dystopian future America, following a team of military-embedded journalists as they race against time to reach DC before rebel factions descend upon the White House.
SummaryFrom filmmaker Alex Garland comes a journey across a dystopian future America, following a team of military-embedded journalists as they race against time to reach DC before rebel factions descend upon the White House.
Forget such questions of whether 'Civil War' is good or bad, fresh or rotten, and any other gradation scale that comes to mind. This film is mandatory.
Civil War might be the single timeliest movie of my lifetime and maybe the best movie I've ever seen.
The film manages not to sacrifice cinema at the altar of realism and yet manages to generate in creative and bold ways some of the most disturbing and striking images I've seen in a movie.
Alex Garland, himself influenced by video games and comic books has created a stealth post apocalyptic science fiction movie with an elegantly simple thrust to the plot. And then within has hung politically agnostic images, scenes, people and horrors pulled directly from history, from countries around the world, some of which have been dealing with this day by day for a long, long time.
Cailee Spaeny is hot ****, she's an absolute talent and the rest of the movie is extremely well cast and rendered as slight caricatures in a way that works deftly. The film works by being the characters it portrays; the journalists (and the film) are the dispassionate conduits to display images that can connect people across hundreds of thousands of miles. They dispassionately relay images so that we may be passionate.
Much will be said about the cleverness of this movie, the images, the cinema of it which is simple yet exquisite in show don’t tell, the agnosticism of not taking sides and yet being potently political and anti-war. One of the best things the film did was market itself for the people who should watch it, including slight tweaks to scenes and the overall bent of a film adaptation of the videogame Homefront. Which it very much isn't. It may be a parable that’s too late for the US but it’s also very much not about the US alone. But the greatest twist the film manages to make is: when there is an epic, flowing protracted action sequence at the tail end of the film, I hated it, I didn't want it, I didn't want it to happen, I didn't revel in the glory of it, it was clinical and brutal and efficient and frightening and the horrible culmination of noise and fire that the film promised as it drew to a logical end.
Human beings are built strangely and sometimes, but not always, struggle to see foreign or alien images as something to connect to. Being of mixed heritage and a history of immersion in multiple cultures and sub cultures I don't get this. And I still found the fact that a mainstream western film producing visceral connections to the harrowing events happening in many wartorn countries is a fundamental part of the potential of cinema: Narrativising human stories to engender empathy or connection or introspection.
This movie portrays a hypothetical future where the current civil political strife in the USA goes out of control into civil war. The movie showcases the current situation and conclusion of the war and leaves the audience to wonder how and why the war started. A stunning reminder to all in the present to think what they have got to lose if the current divisions in society to go out of control.
With horrific wars raging in other parts of the world, and with politically charged violence part of the fabric of this country, “Civil War” will hit home no matter where you live.
This is a movie I was somewhat dreading—its premise just seems too possible in these fractious days—yet Garland managed to imbue Civil War with a solemnity and maturity that made me grateful for it. Let’s hope it remains a warning, not a weather vane.
It is a film about journalistic ethics and, in its own way, the interpretation of images is grounded in [Dunst’s] outstanding performance. It isn’t an easy role to inhabit, but she does so perfectly.
Civil War works on the level of intellectual exercise: a film clear-eyed on the horrors of war and trauma in which journalists are the unsentimental heroes, and which relies on the audience to supply their own assumptions of American politics rather than spoon-feed reality. But the distance makes for an at times frustrating watch – stimulating on the level of adrenaline, not emotions.
One of the best films I have ever seen is a searing indictment of the current free fall of the USA and an eerie harbinger of possible days to come. It takes tremendous courage to put together a film like this that challenges notions of comfort and stability and throws into question the existential assurance of the empire itself. Enemies foreign and extraterrestrial, natural and bizarre, are all welcome fodder on cinema screens, but enemies domestic tearing each other apart in the most brutal, inhumane manner is something many will find difficult to accept. The rage of the Western forces depicted here is unnerving—one wonders what factors today are seeping into the psyche to create such anger and what the trigger point might be. I have not felt this helpless in a movie journey since the peerless ‘The Road’ with Viggo Mortensen. The action sequences are breathtaking, like scenes of a modern warfare game. The urban combat endgame is breathtaking in tension and outcome. Visually stunning, this movie is a feast for the eyes across the entire landscape and journey of war-torn USA. I must give hats off to the cast. Kirsten Dunst delivers the mature, introspective performance of a war journalist who is deeply haunted by her demons and seeking a noble exit. Wagner Moura plays a jaded joker who tries to laugh or drink off his demons. Breakout star Cailee Spaeny lays a driven young protege who sacrifices all for the shot. Stephen McKinley is the calm voice of age and wisdom, no less courageous than the rest. I will not forget this movie anytime soon.
Civil War has such an interesting and even insane concept. The American states are becoming divided because of a fascist president and are now split into multiple factions. You think they will explore how it got to this, all the ideals of the differing factions and how on Earth would Texas and California be willing to team up. Sadly, this movie doesn't go into depth about any of the political stuff and keeps it vague. Civil War is actually more of an exploration of war photography than the war itself. The characters are all one-dimensional archetypes with the jaded main character, the old wise teacher figure, the cool drunk guy and the newbie. It never goes beyond with the story. Nevertheless, the action set pieces are incredible. The visuals and soundtrack are also terrific but if you wanted something bold then this is sadly not it.
I was really looking forward to watching Civil War, it looked very intriguing from the trailer & looked like the movie for the zeitgeist enveloping the US.
The movie gets the vibe right & gets the message across well.
The cinematography is excellent, looked great in Dolby Vision.
However it's very slow paced for my liking. I'd have hated watching this in the cinema, which I initially planned to do. It was made way more enjoyable by watching the movie in 2x Speed. It ran like a 60fps game, very smooth. Perfect for 'dead scenes' where there was little to no dialogue. The movie lacks dialogue in general but it works for what's being conveyed.
Inadvertently for the majority of it's a run time, I was ironically thinking, this is a great advert for cameras & photography as the majority of the movie is journalists just taking pics of the madness.
I lol'd at the unironic portrayal of journalists as virtuous or sympathetic characters. Whoever wrote Civil War is nostalgic for that time before the Internet when journalists were 'embedded'elements.
This movie had so much potential that was just flushed down the toilet to become a movie glorifying journalists.
The trailers were a lie and only showed the best parts of the movie that they knew would pull you in but when you actually watch it, it's nothing but disappointment.
The setting is great but is ultimately ruined by terrible acting and a plot that makes zero sense.