'Civil War' Is Now Streaming. You Should Watch It.

*Spoilers ahead*

Like many, I was wondering how the story of “Civil War” was going to unfold knowing the alternate version of the United States saw California and Texas team up as the Western Forces to fight against the federal government. Florida stays winning by creating its own alliance in the spirit of “Let Us Alone.”

I saw the movie opening weekend and watched it again recently now that is streaming on Amazon and Apple TV. When I first saw it, I thought CW was a decent movie, but thinking about it after and rewatching it, I’ve come around to say it’s pretty great, even with its flaws.

First, when it comes the Western Forces combatants of liberal California and Republican Texas, the seemingly impossible alliance is the point, according to director Alex Garland. It’s why the lore of what led up to the conflict is vague. It’s why you have to view the country portrayed as an alternate version. You can not bring our current reality and its politics and try to fit it into CW. But because the causes of the conflict are not spelled out and the federal government is a dictatorship, Garland does have the hope of two very different states putting their very different political views aside to band together to take down a dictator.

Garland’s aversion to not make the country in CW relatable to our world is a strength and a weakness. The audience naturally wants to be able to connect to what’s on the screen, even something as horrific as a war in the U.S., but any choice he would make to overtly connect the two worlds would piss off half the audience and most likely hurt ticket sales. As someone who does to like to dive deep into the lore of crazy settings, it is a little frustrating to not see the catalyst of the war and what happened in the year before the movie starts.

There are hints of the start when the film shows brief footage from the BLM, Antifa, and J6 riots, but it’s not supposed to represent those riots. It’s representing general chaos and disorder. There is a reference to the “Antifa Massacre” but, again, the dialogue does not reveal whether it was Antifa being massacred or if it was Antifa doing the killing. It’s up to the audience to decide and fill in the blanks.

At the same time, the causes of the war is not the point. The plot is is about war correspondents on their quest to get to Washington, D.C. to interview and photograph the President before the Western Forces take the capital. In that sense, I think the movie does the a great job showing a motley crew trying to navigate a war-torn U.S.

The movie shines the best with its action scenes. They are well-done and it does not come off as cheap. I love how they incorporate the photos the characters take in the scene and they are shown as snapshots while the action progresses. It’s an action movie and it does the action very well, simple as.

I do admit my bias towards CW because I very much relate to the characters, Joel, portrayed by Wagner Moura, in particular. Joel is me. He wants action and will not hesitate to admit it. The violence is happening, so might as well be there to document it.

Lee Smith, played by Kirsten Dunst, is brutally honest after encountering a lynching that the job is to get in, get the content, and get out so they can live to show others so the world can ask questions and do something about it if they are inclined.

I view my role very similarly. You get in, get the job done, and get out. While there are situations to get involved, it’s a high threshold because if you get involved, at best you become part of the story, which is not the job, or at worst it could cost you your life.

Because this is modern movie making, some of the liberalness bleeds through. I can see the critique of the President being based on Donald Trump, red tie and all, but at the same time, it is not obvious. There’s no “Make America Great Again” reference in his speeches, just typical Bagdad Bob-style posturing. There’s some dialogue that comes off as preachy. And there’s the example of how it just so happens a black female solider is the one who does kill the white male President at the end.

At the same time, the Western Forces and anti-government militias aren’t shown to be exactly good guys either. Those soldiers are shown to kill surrendering combatants and prisoners of war. Western Forces straight up kill civilians who try to flee the White House. So liberals could identity with the “anti-Trump” forces, if that is their headcannon, but the movie says they aren’t good either.

That’s one of the overall points of the movie: War = bad. Shocking, I know, but given our current state of affairs, it’s a good reminder heading into this election, not that I think the reminder will do much.

All of that to say is I think CW is a great film. Like I said, I think that’s partly because I identify a bit too much with some of the characters and there’s a riot within the first five minutes, but that aside, it gets most of the other things to make a good movie right.