On a recent plane trip I watched Civil War. When I originally saw the trailer for it months ago, it looked promising, but it ended up being a stink sandwich.
I thought this movie was PG-13, but after the 20th F-bomb I realized it was not. The concept behind the movie of a civil war breaking out in the US had so much potential, but they never explained how it happened. Just vague references. Viewers would be much more interested if they got some details as to what happened. Well, maybe they did explain it later in the movie, but I ended up fast forwarding several scenes because it was so slow.
I had so many problems with this movie. Here is a random list of things that come to mind.
1. Kirsten Dunst- I didn't like anything about her character. I understand she is a veteran photographer who has seen horrible things and is under a lot of stress, but I grew tired of seeing close ups of her sad, depressed face over and over throughout the entire film.
2. Every one of the photographers/reporters in this movie except Stephen McKinley Henderson just bugged me so bad. I really didn't care what happened to them. I'm sure there are many cool professional photographers, but I wouldn't want to hang around any of the ones portrayed in this movie.
3. Jesse Plemons was a great bad guy in Breaking Bad and he was intimidating as an unpredictable militia member in this movie, but why did they have him wearing those stupid red glasses? It was so distracting. He may as well have worn a white ballerina tutu over his uniform.
4. These reporters were supposed to be working for Reuters but never communicated with their employer. It was like they just went on a depressing apocalyptic camping trip for a week.
5. There were several scenes when they were not just observing and documenting military campaigns, but were actually along side the soldiers who were in battle. It's like the military had practiced with them being there like they were part of a swat team. It was so fake as they'd turn around a corner and snap pictures at people firing guns at them.
6. The young photographer girl was taking pictures with a 35MM film camera and winding her film between each shot. I understand that many professional photographers appreciate old school technology, but when you are trying to get footage of a war on the front lines, are you really going to limit your pictures to 36 exposures per roll? How did she develop her pictures?
7. I just did not like this movie. It had so much potential, but I couldn't take it seriously, especially after the final scene when the photographers join the attack on the White House and the President.
I'm sure I will be accused of being simple minded and not appreciating the deeper stuff this movie had to offer, but I felt like the title was clickbait and it was more a focus on how cool reporters/photographers are. I can only give it 6 generous stars.
