Civil War Reviews (original) (raw)

Summary From 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.

My Score

Hover and click to give a rating Saved

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 enflames our discomfort by bringing the conflict to our own backyard.

Bumped up my review a bit just to counter some of these 0 rage reviews. I would give this 8/10 though. Nicely paced look into a very scary and possible future. Due to the recent event in the world it dose hit close to home. Character development was interesting to watch what pulls them in and keeps them in such an unorthodox job. Their adventure is intense and marked with interesting breaks in the form of black and white snapshots.

There are so many perfect moments in film making here, without giving any spoilers. Great script, great directing, top notch acting... I had to rewind it quite a few times, just to really see all the subtle nuances in Kirsten Dunst's performance, which was quite frankly perfect and amazing. The other actors kept up that level of quality. A friend said the cgi was sub-par, but to be honest, I was so engrossed with the characters, the storytelling, and the subtle genius acting going on that I was barely noticing the background special effects. Anyway I've watched it twice, and I will watch it again. Another day waking up and thinking, thank god for A24 singlehandedly elevating film making to art.

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.

The plot plods along — they drive a bit, guy gets shot, they drive some more, guy gets shot — and the dialogue is bottom of the barrel.

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.

While it was interesting concept, for me I had higher hopes here. Yes it showed what can happen when a country is divided etc, but still I hoped for something a bit more elaborate in the story.

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.

The movie is less about a civil war in the US and more about a young photographer as she travels across the county making one bad decision after another. The war is more background noise for a majority of the movie and there is little in the way of backstory for it. In the end, you don't care about the war, which side wins, or any of the characters. Boring with a few good action scenes in the end.

Empty, the takeaways are obvious, the violence gruesome and meant to shock. ‘I’ve never been more scared nor felt more alive’? And of course the handoff to the next generation of addicts to violence. Saw that coming 200 miles away.

Production Company A24, DNA Films, IPR.VC

Release Date Apr 12, 2024

Duration 1 h 49 m

Rating R

Tagline Welcome to the frontline

International Online Cinema Awards (INOCA)

Astra Midseason Movie Awards