MovieChat Forums > Civil War (2024) Discussion > A movie about nothing

A movie about nothing

posted 10 months ago by SlackerInc (1121)
12 replies | jump to latest

I guess Larry David would be proud?

The plot makes zero sense, and the characters are cliched copies of tropes from other movies about journalism and war.

There was no reason to remove politics, or anything resembling reality, from the film by never having anyone articulate a reason for the war, and having nonsensical alliances like California and Texas. Why not just create a fictional alternate universe like Game of Thrones?

The music "needle drops" sounded like they were inserted randomly, just someone putting Spotify on shuffle and taking whatever came up, without even taking care to use the best parts of the song.

The soldiers helped protect these journalists, despite the fact that they were cataloguing them engaging in a plethora of war crimes. Maybe the Geneva Convention doesn't exist in this universe? Not that it matters since we never saw any sign that anyone was actually consuming any of this journalism.

Even the aesthetics are not as great as they are touted to be. I thought you could definitely tell it had a small budget (even if it's large by A24 standards). Supposedly all these armies are converging on DC, the focal point of this massive war, but it's so empty at the end the reporters can just sneak right into the White House and no one's around?!? Pfffft.

The Jesse Plemons scene was good--until it went all "Hurley from LOST with the VW bus" at the end.

Alex Garland is the epitome of "uneven". "Ex Machina", "Devs", and the first half of "Sunshine" were magnificent. The second half of "Sunshine", along with "Annihilation" and "Men", sucked.

[–] 123Guy (7838) 10 months ago

I love your last paragraph!!! Spot on, mate!

I'm sure you are right about the rest but I haven't watched it yet

[–] SlackerInc (1121) 10 months ago

Thanks!

[–] maximmm (3405) 10 months ago

ex machina - OK
Devs..... no, that sucked, imho.
Sunshine - I love sci-fi and that movie sucked.
Men - didn't watch
Annihilation - again, love sci-fi, and I do recall trying to watch it, but didn't get far. Again, garbage.

All in all, I'd say the civil war falls in line with the rest of the PS this fellow creates.
I will say this though - his films tend to be artistic - lots of music and visuals (and they are not half bad), and very little in terms of narrative substance. He should be a musician or a painter, but instead he sees himself as a writer/director - thus this result. Essentially, he's firmly in the artsy segment of directors - no wonder civil war sucked.

[–] moviebuff00 (907) 9 months ago

i never paid attention to who wrote all those movies, turns out it was that guy.

ex machina, really good first 2/3, ok ending.
sunshine, really good first 2/3, terrible ending.
men - terrible entirely
annihilation - apparently vaginas rated it super high or something because it was all about vaginas. i tried so hard to like it because i thought i just didnt get it, watched it like twice in 2 years thinking it might've been good. nope, it sucked every time. there is no other explanation for the high rating other than woke shit.

[–] Narwhale37 (1290) 10 months ago

"There was no reason to remove politics, or anything resembling reality, from the film by never having anyone articulate a reason for the war, and having nonsensical alliances like California and Texas."

Garland is an enlightened centrist hack. He things he's above politics and complains about it while still engaging in political discussions in the most snarky ways possible.

[–] Pesebrero (208) 10 months ago

Ex Machina was a masterpiece, Sunshine was meh.

I have yet to see Devs, I usually don't like series because of sluggish story, lazy twists/low blows and speculative writing. But Devs is one season only and, to my knowledge, not because of being a failure.

[–] SlackerInc (1121) 10 months ago

No, it's clearly designed as a limited series. Even if it had been some kind of massive sensation and the executives wanted to make a second season (as with "Big Little Lies"), I'm not sure how they would do it.

[–] maximmm (3405) 10 months ago

it's not good - another artistic BS

[–] SlackerInc (1121) 9 months ago

Hard disagree. I found it excellent.

[–] moviebuff00 (907) 9 months ago

this movie was such a boring piece of shit that they had to shoehorn plemons in the trailer when he was in the movie for 3 minutes. they made it look like he was a main antagonist.

[–] greentimemusic (1165) 9 months ago

Pretty much about as correct a stament as you could have made. Nice job. It was definitely not what I was expecting or wanting.

[–] SlackerInc (1121) 9 months ago

Thanks!