A chilling but unevenly paced war picture
Summary
Civil War isn’t quite the epic war film I expected and is more about the journalists and seeing the battles from their perspective. The final 20 minutes are stunning and the sequence with Jesse Plemons will stick with me for days, but aside from that it’s likely not a film I’d be in a rush to watch again. It is worth seeing in IMAX though as the visuals and sound are incredible.
Plot: In a dystopian future America, a team of military-embedded journalists races against time to reach Washington, D.C., before rebel factions descend upon the White House.
Review: I’m not sure how big a box office hit Civil War will be as the subject matter may be a little too close to home for some especially in a US Election year. Surprisingly the film manages to not be overly political and really is just more of a warning that this could be a potential future for the United States if people don’t start to get along.
The trailers made this look like it was going to be a harrowing war epic and admittedly it certainly has its moments; however, the first half drags a little and it’s when Jesse Plemons arrives that the film really picks up. He’s utterly terrifying and you could hear a pin drop in our (admittedly half empty) theatre for that entire sequence.
All the helicopters and battle scenes you see from the trailer are the last 20 minutes of the film and they are worth the price of admission alone. The sound in IMAX is literally deafening and I had to cover my ears at several points; thankfully I didn’t have my hearing aid in otherwise I’d be even more deaf.
The performances are all faultless with Kirsten Dunst our protagonist Lee, a journalist travelling with her colleagues to try and score an interview with the President. She’s jaded with life and what has happened with the country so when a young and enthusiastic photographer joins them, she tries to warn her of the future she faces.
It is at times chilling and nail bitingly tense, but the first half is definitely lacking in the action department and this is more of a character piece rather than an all-out war movie. I mean, this is an A24 movie after all, so you should know going in that they do more arthouse fare rather than blockbusters, but the final 20 minutes are spectacular.
It’s hard R stuff with several shocking moments of sudden violence and it doesn’t shy away from the horrors of what a potential second civil war could mean which is the whole point.
We could have done with a little more context as to why the civil war was happening and why Texas would join California in an alliance which never gets explained, but the ambiguity is also a plus as it doesn’t spoonfeed the audience.
My biggest gripe with the movie is the choice of music which got annoying very quickly and took me out of a few scenes; during several sequences all we hear is the music rather than the action and I found rather than making it more impactful it detracted from it.
Overall, Civil War is at times intense and a horrifying warning of what could possibly happen in the future without being overly preachy or taking sides. The last 20 minutes and the sequence with Jesse Plemons are what make it worth watching, but I’d be surprised if this is a big hit.
