सिविल वॉर

A truly immersive experience into what a civil war in an America could "feel" like. I was fortunate enough to enjoy an IMAX screening and a particular stand out of the film was the sound design. Civil War uses its surround sound space as I viral part of its story telling. The gunshots truly rock you and surround you, even the sound track has explosive moments that jar you and remind you that you are in a place of chaos and instability. The story is simple but profound, using the 3rd eye or journalism, doing its best to tell an unbiased perspective of the what the world looks like at its most biased... a civil war. See it on the biggest screen and the best sound system you can. Its not a call of duty campaign, its not saving private Ryan, its its own thing so clear your head of expectation and just take the ride.

There are some tricky reviews here and they all have a few things in common. They're all stuck on the economical and social, if not geographical logistics of a union between Florida, Texas and California, and they're all written by Americans. As someone not connected to the States I can say I think their perspective is smeared. This movie isn't about how certain political alliances came together or why certain people engaged in conflict, testified to by the fact that you don't ever even learn the president's name let alone the political party. You might want more out of the movie asking how all this came to be and you may be asking in hope of gaining allegiance to one side of the conflict or the other. The fact is this movie is not About the Why, the How or any of that. This movie is a war documentary that happens to be placed in an environment that you are familiar with. And in that respect it is superb. The acting is excellent and as required, the cinematography is very very strong. It's well paced and well written and gives you everything it promises. I think Kirsten Dunst is not as good an actor as she thinks she is but that hardly tracks from the powerful collective performance of the four main cast. This film is about the visceral and unsettling reality of conflict, life and death, and it's brought to you in a familiar place not 10,000 miles away in a foreign land. A choice that makes the impact all the more real. Sure, doing this runs the risk of the film seeming gimmicky or like any other disaster film but I think it's side steps that with grace and deft. What you are left with his real drama, real moments, real lives and the brutality and human and inhumanity of war. Please just forget the question as to whether this could happen in this exact way and just appreciate the world in which it did.

There is a good movie to be made about the polarisation and aggression of US politics leading to civil war. This was not it. Uses a grossly undeveloped political scenario as an excuse to show us routine, gratuitous violence and contrived relationships. Casting an actress who looks 14 as a 23 year old was a big mistake and pushing her from wide eyed innocence through a ridiculous, unbelievable journey to awakening ambition via horror was crudely handled. Taking photos of people while they suffer and die is obscene and the pain and gore of violence was trivialised, not dignified by this sad movie.

There tend to be two groups of people who dislike this movie:

• Those who were expecting a movie about war.

• Those who were expecting a movie about politics.

This movie isn't about war or politics at all, it's an adventure story about a group of war photographers. Very little is ever discussed or explained about the war itself, how it started, nor the political affiliations of those involved. The story is mostly about the photographers and how the journey affects them as people.

Through various misadventures the viewer begins to piece together a rough picture of how the conflict is going, but it's never really the focus of the story. If you go in expecting every question to be answered, you've missed the point of the movie. If you were bored by (or entirely ignored) the characters' conversations, and only paid attention when there was killing going on, you REALLY missed the point of the movie.

Overall, I found this to be a very moving film, with compelling performances by all the leads and a superb script. This movie succeeds at what it sets out to accomplish, though what it accomplishes might not be to every viewer's taste.

I think many people have missed the real message of the movie. Could it have been better, of course. However, my rating isn't about the movies political implications, but rather about how it shows the possibility of our country heading in that direction. The film effectively illustrates potential realities we could face. It highlights how extremists on both sides, driven solely by their own beliefs, can overlook the impact on others. One of the early scenes brought me to tears, reflecting on the possibility of such actions happening among us. By the end, I was overwhelmed with a sense of dread. I encourage you to watch this film with an open mind, rather than expecting polarizing content, so you can grasp how quickly our relatively young nation could shift towards such a daunting new normal.