Civil War

This weekend, Civil War, a new political action thriller, was released in theaters. Civil War takes place during a modern-day Civil War in the USA and follows four reporters as they journey across America and the front lines to get an interview with the President in Washington DC. I was very interested to see this film. It looked like a huge-scale action thriller from A24 who has made some excellent movies recently.

This movie pretty much delivered everything I wanted out of a movie like this. One of the best things about this movie is that it looks great. It is so large in scale with many sweeping action shots and several moments with large tanks and other explosions. With only costing $50 million, this movie proves that studios can make movies that look good without spending $200 million. I also thought this movie did a very good job with how it handled the politics of the Civil War. In today's world with such divided politics especially in an election year, it would have been very easy for this movie to be incredibly divisive with its views. However, instead of picking a side, this movie decides to not share what the civil war is being fought over and even puts two states on opposite sides of the political spectrum, California and Texas, together on the same side to show that taking down the president is more important than any political differences the two states may have. This movie is essentially holding up a mirror to the audience and allowing them to examine their own opinions of the political atmosphere. The movie is also incredibly thrilling. Several scenes kept me on the edge of my scene because they were so intense. Along the same lines, several really great sequences showcase great action and cinematography such as the sequence with Jesse Clemmons shown in the trailer and the whole DC infiltration sequence at the end of the movie. The movie also does a great job of having a very straightforward plot. Right away, it establishes who are main characters are and what their goal is and doesn't stray away from that with any side stories or subplots. Because of this, we were able to really get to know these characters and see them go through some great arcs. I also thought the soundtrack was very well done with some good songs that effectively matched the moments in the story. Finally, I liked how chilling and well-done the ending was. It closes things out in an effective way and ends the story in a way that just causes you to think about it long after you leave the theater.

There is very little I had an issue with in this movie. The only real issue I had was that the movie does require some suspension of disbelief as you have to accept that the military is just letting these reporters tag along on their missions when they would very clearly just be liabilities and get in the way.

Overall, this is a very well-done movie with some huge-scale action sequences. It is great as an original story that isn't divisive and kept me engaged from beginning to end. I wish more studios would make movies like this.

Score: 9/10 Grade: A Recommendation: This is a must-see film