Civil War Review
Alex Garland’s Civil War was one of my most anticipated movies for the first half of the year back in January. It can just behind Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Dune: Part 2, and I must say, it does not disappoint.
Before I truly start this review, I need to get something off of my chest. I would rather people be on their phones than talking during a movie. The people in my theater were awful and unfortunately it led to an experience that was just as bad. Some were whispering, but loud enough that I could still hear them, and others were having full blown conversations that I could hear over the movie. Please, don’t be like these people. If you want to talk, go out for dinner, go on a walk. Please for the love of all things good, especially movies, shut up while you’re in a theater. Also, take a seven year old kid to an age appropriate movie. Don’t take them to an R rated movie about what it means to be a journalist in a fictional civil war. Take them to see Kung-fu Panda 4 or watch The Super Mario Bros Movie on Netflix.
Thank you for reading my rant, but now for what everyone is here for: my Civil War review. I want to warn everyone that I am not going to worry about spoilers too much, so if you don’t care read ahead, but if you do, just know that I think this is a very good movie and you should go watch it in theaters.
This movie has seemingly been talked about for the wrong reasons up until its actual release. In an interview, director Alex Garland revealed that he fell out of love for filmmaking and that this would be the last movie he directs. Going in, this did make me nervous. I wanted to know what led him to this decision, and did he fall out of love while making this movie? Because if that is the case, that means this isn’t a good movie right?
Even if he did fall out of love with filmmaking because of this movie, it didn’t show. Civil War had great lighting, the production design and how real everything looked was amazing, the acting was very good, and the world building it did in 1 hour and 49 minutes was unmatched.
For those who don’t know, Civil War takes place in a dystopian world where America is in the middle of a second civil war. Military journalists have to work their way to Washington D.C. so they can interview a President who has not been photographed or interviewed in fourteen months.
This movie basically takes place over the course of a few days as the journalists travel to Washington D.C.. This allows for lots of world building as Alex Garland does a wonderful job not taking a political side in this. It’s just a war and we can only root for the journalists as they do their job without bias. Every interaction the four main characters had with people with no names or in small towns truly felt like it meant something. Sometimes they were in life or death situations, other times they were shopping, and there was a time when they just watched the fighting from a distance.
Many people will try and find different messages from this movie. Messages about whether or not our country is going in the right direction or something political like that, but I really thought this movie showcased the importance of journalism. Maybe I am a little biased because I want to be a journalist, but journalists are today’s historians. They are the ones who tell us about Watergate or to tell us that a president had an affair in the Oval Office. Either way, they are there for the future, but to also keep the government accountable for today.
Civil War showcased the meaning of truth and being completely unbiased. One review I read said, “It is said that the first casualty of war is truth. But as this gripping cautionary tale shows, the first casualty is humanity.” This really struck me as we saw that happen in the movie. The two main characters each go through an arc, but they are completely opposite. One character wants to be a photojournalist while the other is the best in the business. Kirsten Dunst’s character says that she would easily photograph the moment of another character’s death, but in the end, it is her death that is photographed.
Overall, Civil War is a complete and total spectacle. From start to finish, you do not have the chance to take a break, which can be exhausting at points, but it does not take away from the movie. This has one of the best third acts that I have seen in a very long time and it is perfect in every way. Please go see this movie in theaters and then tell everyone you know about it. It currently sits at an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes but I am going to give it a 93.
Link to the article that I quoted
If you liked this, leave a comment and subscribe to my blog!
Listen to the Reel Reflections Podcast here
Comments
Post a Comment