Guerra Civil

There is a good movie to be made about the polarisation and aggression of US politics leading to civil war. This was not it. Uses a grossly undeveloped political scenario as an excuse to show us routine, gratuitous violence and contrived relationships. Casting an actress who looks 14 as a 23 year old was a big mistake and pushing her from wide eyed innocence through a ridiculous, unbelievable journey to awakening ambition via horror was crudely handled. Taking photos of people while they suffer and die is obscene and the pain and gore of violence was trivialised, not dignified by this sad movie.

I've watched this Film four times and every time I seem to like it more. Most everyone I know felt let down with It and I almost skipped it. But I am so glad I didn't because I find more of the message each time I do. The soundtrack for me sets the mood with not being mainstream and actually creates an unfamiliar terrifying world. The dark shadows in the photography also set the tone of what the Country is experiencing. Is there action? Sure there is and I feel too much would have ruined the message and the mission of the characters. The action and violence is unsettling, but appropriately placed. I don't think the filmmaker intended to make an action film. Forget what others have said and give it a watch.

On the good side there's some very good cinematography. The acting is competent. As for the rest, it's not terrible. To say it's formulaic doesn't take things much further because what isn't these days. There's no actual plot but that's also allowed lately. It's a bit odd that there's no explanation at all about how the USA has found itself in a civil war or as to why the president is ultimately portrayed as such an unsympathetic character but that is ok too since it's really all about the journey of the central characters. As to those characters, they're somewhat stereotypical. You've got the photo hack who's seen all the horrors of war ( in case we didn't get this we are shown a sequence of her reminiscences) there's the ingenue and, as is normal, the hero's reluctance to take her on board and the usual mix of support. In the end you have the new girl getting on with business and proving that she's the real deal. If the characters are a bit cliche'd, the dialogue hardly helps with lines like (I'm paraphrasing because I can't recall exactly but something like) "I've never felt so scared in my life, but I've never felt more alive". It's a bit like a mixture between Watership Down and Apocalypse Now except it really doesn't match up to either of those.

Civil War masquerades as a action packed movie that aims to comment on the current state of political division in America, but is afraid to alienate any of its audience so it becomes a strange coming of age story. The movie also tries to comment on war journalism by presenting us with the dangers faced by journalists, but makes the main protagonist incredibly stupid just asking to get shot. She seems to actively want to die, and aims to take every down with her. However when the movie presented me with an action scene I was stunned. The Visuals and Audio were phenomenal. The Action scenes were done incredibly but my only wish was that the main characters weren't in them. In the end I was entertained, but disappointed.

I had high hopes for this movie as Alex Garland rarely disappoints,. But its a very shallow script like a six part mini series where the action scenes have been edited into a movie. There is no explanation of why there is a civil war, who is fighting who, what the outcome is or anything else that might cast some light on the situation. We just follow some unimportant characters through some hairy experiences. The movie should have been a mini series with a credible story line and a lot more characters elucidating the factions and their motivations. A week after watching it I had forgotten it! Don't waste your time.