Movie Review: Civil War (2024)
Civil War is a visually stunning meditation on the impact of war, defying expectations of a typical action movie.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2zPe19Xh3rUwytFq1AbBM1
Every year in our year in review, we also preview the next year's upcoming major releases. During this, Peter and I (briefly) discussed Alex Garland's latest film for A24 Civil War. This film is A24's most expensive to date with a budget of around $50 Million and at the time we had very little to judge the film on besides a map of the United States that showed the new divisions for the various factions at war and an initial trailer. Our thought was that, in A24's quest to make a big budget movie about a fictitious second American Civil War, they were aiming to make a milquetoast apolitical film when, in reality, to split a civil war in any country from its politics is to fundamentally misunderstand what a conflict of this nature is about.
The issue comes from what we believed Civil War would be as presented by the marketing. The film is marketed as an action movie which makes sense since there are enough well-shot scenes of the carnage of war to fill a trailer or TV spot to get asses in seats, however (and this is evidenced by the Google reviews) this movie is move of a meditation of the impact of war. It is well acted, has fantastic cinematography, and uses sound in a way that is unique and complements the visuals for maximum impact. Civil War is a must-watch in a theater.
★★★★★
