What’s It About
In the near future, a team of journalists travel across the United States during a rapidly escalating civil war that has engulfed the entire nation. Struggling to survive during a near-future civil war where the government becomes a dystopian dictatorship and partisan extremist militias regularly commit political violence.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
I was so excited to watch Civil War. I saw it on an IMAX screen, and the trailer was very misleading. The film’s opening had a vague explanation of the storyline about Texas and California in alliance and Florida soon to follow, with the President preparing to give a speech about how great the war was going. The entire movie was about a picture-obsessed journalist trying to get the best shot related to the war. However, I had no idea why the war was happening. The United States had fallen into an internecine conflict, pitting the government against separatist forces, but it was never apparent in the movie why the nation was fighting itself. The film lacked explanatory world-building and was filled with nonsensical war-driven aspects and equally dumb photographers who were alive only by pure luck as the movie followed this band of combat photographers on a road trip from NYC to D.C. to interview the President about his motives for starting the war. The film’s cinematography was great, especially the combat sequences, but there was no one to root for and no real reward waiting at the end of it. The pacing was horrible, and nothing felt right. Scenes felt long for no reason, and the action was few and far between. When it was present, it was not compelling and did not feel authentic. The concept had such promise, but the lack of organization, planning, or understanding of what they were getting into was unbelievably astounding. The entire nature of the conflict and why we should even care about it in the first place were utterly lost. Honestly, watching a movie and not caring about anyone was rare. The message of the war was lost, and it felt like Lee or Jessie could get in the action for the perfect shot or put aside moral dilemmas to achieve it. By the movie’s end, my ears, eyes, and brain felt uncomfortable to the point that I needed some form of counseling for people who had been cinematically misused. It was disappointing, to say the least.
OUR RATING – A CIVIL UNRESTING 2