I finally saw Civil War and…

Could be some minor spoilers ahead.

I’m a huge Alex Garland fan. I especially love his recent-ish sci-fi projects: Annihilation, Devs, and above all, Ex Machina, which I thought was a classic before I stood up from my theater seat.

If you’ve been watching my stuff over the years, you’ve probably noticed a fixation on Ex Machina. It’s here. It’s here. It’s here. I think there are more. 

I’m a big Garland fan, and I’m also a big A24 fan. Ari Aster, Jonathan Glazer, and the Safdie brothers are among the best in the game. Aftersun is another film that you know is a masterpiece as soon as the credits roll. The Florida Project, another masterpiece. Moonlight. Eighth Grade. I could go on.

Civil War is Alex Garland’s new film and it’s an A24 production. So far, so great. I was eager to see it, but because of work and The Winter of Infinite Illness, I didn’t get to until just now.

TL;DR: it’s fine.

Some of you might be thinking: your expectations were too high, dude. 

That’s not it. I already knew Aftersun was likely a masterpiece before I watched it. I’ve gone into lots of films, books, and albums expecting the sublime and still got it. Civil War just isn’t that great.

To be clear, it is quite good. The performances and filmmaking are pretty much faultless. And it contains great moments.

But the ways that it’s not good are more interesting. These are the major problems.

• What Garland is great at doesn’t fit this material. He’s great at kinda abstract fantasy. This is gritty reality. The film is kinda on-the-nose and could use some fantasy and obliqueness. Garland is also not a world-builder, which this needed.

• The film has almost nothing to say about politics or media. Civil War is about politics (war) and media (war journalists) and yet it has nothing much to say about either. Civil War is high concept first, and the writing is surprisingly thin and unsubstantial. It’s also kinda weirdly apolitical and toothless.

• And finally, Civil War doesn’t feel fresh. We don’t experience anything here we’ve not seen before. It’s a war film, it’s a collapse film, it’s the savagery of humanity. This stuff has been done a lot. Even schlocky TV like The Walking Dead has done a lot of this. If you’ve seen Children of Men, you’ve already seen a masterwork.

Again, Civil War is quite good, it’s better than most films, it is worth watching. But overall, I think Garland picked the wrong battle here.