I'm not a fan of Alex Garland. I generally think his movies are bad. The premise of this one alone annoyed me, that during the current political climate a foreign filmmaker would make a movie about a modern civil war in the US felt audacious. So what went right?
Ultimately, the movie is not ABOUT a civil war in the US. It is about photojournalism, specifical wartime journalism. I believe the choice of a US civil war was for two reasons. 1) It brings the horrors of modern warfare to a relatable, occidental setting and 2) We simply have a lot of guns in the US. I don't know if it was an accidental moment of genius of Garlands part, but the idea that one of the major forces is a California/Texas alliance lets the audience know this is not a real world scenario.
There were some predictable moments, some edge of your seat moments, a couple of slow moments, but it never got boring. The movie moves along at a nice pace, except for maybe one forgivable moment before the climax. All of the actors were great, no knock-your-socks-off performances, but a solid cast. There were a couple of creative choices that prevented me from giving this an 8. I was going to, but when I really consider the movie as a whole there were a couple of things that didn't work well for me.
You win this one, Garland.
Ultimately, the movie is not ABOUT a civil war in the US. It is about photojournalism, specifical wartime journalism. I believe the choice of a US civil war was for two reasons. 1) It brings the horrors of modern warfare to a relatable, occidental setting and 2) We simply have a lot of guns in the US. I don't know if it was an accidental moment of genius of Garlands part, but the idea that one of the major forces is a California/Texas alliance lets the audience know this is not a real world scenario.
There were some predictable moments, some edge of your seat moments, a couple of slow moments, but it never got boring. The movie moves along at a nice pace, except for maybe one forgivable moment before the climax. All of the actors were great, no knock-your-socks-off performances, but a solid cast. There were a couple of creative choices that prevented me from giving this an 8. I was going to, but when I really consider the movie as a whole there were a couple of things that didn't work well for me.
You win this one, Garland.
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