Film Review - Civil War (2024)

Civil War is the new film by Alex Garland and stars Kirsten Dunst, Steven McKinley Henderson, Cailee Spaeny and Wagner Moura as a team of photo journalists during a Civil War in the United States of America where they hope to interview the President (Nick Offerman) before the Western Front takes Washington DC and executes him but that journey will not be an easy one especially with armed men and women around any corner.

Civil War is sadly a disappointment for me film wise and it’s a shame because I was looking forward to it, I liked the previews for the film and I also like movies about journalists doing their job on film though some are better than others.

Before I delve more into my disappointment I want to talk about what I did like and that is for the most part the performances, Dunst/Henderson and Moura make a good trio and play off each other well in their scenes together while Spaeny is very good as the young rookie who finds herself face to face with the very combat she wants to photograph someday.

I also enjoyed seeing Jimmy from Yellowstone in a small role and Jesse Plemons steals the movie with one scene who is at times amusing but also very scary and Plemons’s ability to switch from comedy to straight laced roles is a great one.

Also the film is well made by Garland as a director, the world he creates here is a very real looking one where danger lurks around every corner and you never know who you will come across on the journey to Washington, will it be friend? Will it be foe? The film does a very good job at showcasing this and it really brings you into the world of the film.

Sadly Garland the writer does not do this as well and here is where the film fell down most for me, the world building on the page is very thin and more often than not while watching it I kept thinking to myself “How did we get here?” “What happened?” “Who are the main factions?” and the film doesn’t really give you any answers to those questions and I wanted some especially when you have journalists as your leads who could’ve asked some of these questions without it interfering with the broader storytelling too much and more than once I thought of the opening scene from Mad Max 2 which gave you a brief enough history of the time of chaos, the ruined dreams, the wasted land and the white line nightmare on the roads before throwing you into the action and I wish Garland had done similar here.

Now I get you don’t want to over explain things but some explanation would’ve gone a long way to making this movie a winner.

Before seeing this movie I thought of a similar film called Under Fire from 1983 directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Gene Hackman, Nick Nolte and Joanna Cassidy as photo journalists in Nicaragua and I think I would’ve enjoyed that film more than this one which was a big letdown despite some strong positives, 2 out of 5.