"Civil War" was released in the United States on April 12, earning $25.7 million in the first three days, setting the best opening result in A24 film history.
And according to the current box office market, this movie, also known as "Empire Catastrophe" and "American Imperialist Collapse" in the Hong Kong and Taiwan markets, is very friendly to many countries other than the United States, and the overseas box office is estimated to be a big hit.
I can't help but sigh that Hollywood, which has been declining in recent years, has finally found a movie theme to please global audiences in the way of "suicide".
The film seems to have been trying to make people understand the apocalyptic America, so most of the scenes we see are a world of broken order.
At first glance, the neighborhood in New York at that time was normal, but from time to time there were flashes of unstable power supply and sudden gunshots, indicating that this was an America in a state of war.
The movie doesn't elaborate too much on the previous situation, but only sets up that there are armed forces in Texas and California to rebel, which has led to the whole United States being plunged into extremely tense and uneasy wars.
No one in the Americans at this time knew why the war started and why politics became so extreme? The movie directly tore apart the face of war in an almost naked way, that is, "there is no humanity and civilization on the battlefield."
For example, the soldiers who were ambushed on both sides were helplessly confronted, although they themselves did not know what they were fighting for and who the enemy was, but they only knew that there was movement around them, and immediately shot back.
The non-frontline area is also unstable, and the film's protagonist, a group of reporters, was questioned by two soldiers, one of whom was an Asian who said he was from Hong Kong without any reason because he was not American or American, and did not hesitate to shoot him.
I must say that I still agree with the war scene of this movie, because there is no reason for the real battlefield, and the inferiority of human nature is magnified countless times at this moment, and there is no so-called plot logic to sort out.
The unease, the tension, the horror that we see before our eyes is the true face of war. The visual gore of this movie is actually not large, but the sense of war thriller created by the movie is very strong and direct, with an R scale, and it is really not easy for teenagers to watch.
The protagonists of this film are the press corps, and the characters are very evenly distributed, with three generations of reporters from the old, middle and young generations entering the capital through the occupied areas to complete the interview with the commander.
Lee is a calm and professional veteran journalist, giving people a very rational impression, even in the face of the cruelty of war is still firm and calm, even a little indifferent.
I thought she was the one who lasted until the end, but in this war, Lee was deeply touched, and the more he got later, the more his emotions fluctuated, especially after the old reporter Sammy sacrificed himself to save everyone, looking at his friend who was lying in a pool of blood, he deleted the relevant photos, which is a return to human nature.
Jessie, a rookie journalist, was so frightened at the first sight of the gory footings at the gas station that she forgot to hold her camera up.
Along the way, she received a lot of care from the veteran reporter Lee, and almost grew up under her eyes, and she always hoped that she could become a veteran and legendary journalist like Lee.
is such a rookie who was afraid of war at first, and gradually became hyperactive and even a little irrational when crossing the occupied area, especially when Lee was about to die when he was shot to save him, she frantically filmed the process of Lee falling, and was indifferent to Lee's body.
I saw someone in the comment section say that the rookie in this movie eventually turned into a vulture, and I personally feel that this description is very specific. Because when his friend died and Jessie pressed the shutter, he had almost no human emotion, just frantically pressed the shutter and enjoyed the excitement of his own shooting.
Indeed, for Lee's death setting, I personally feel very cliché, like a "inheritance" to die for the younger generations, making the rookie become an indifferent senior reporter, completely a tool man role, and there is no meaning.
In terms of scene production, maybe because A24 is used to the small production process, it is not good to control this kind of war movie, and the scene is a little childish, if it is purely for audio-visual to go to the cinema, it is actually unnecessary.
In terms of the script, I am not optimistic about the film's approach to avoiding the source of the war, because if you want to discuss the war and base yourself on your own point of view, you must have the spirit of digging deeper, this kind of discussion that avoids the source of the war, and focuses on the bridge section where the reporter completes the task.
At present, this movie has won the weekly championship in the North American market, although it is not a super blockbuster, but it is relatively popular. Taiwan and Hong Kong have already been released, and whether there will be a public release in the mainland is estimated to be reviewed.
Personally, I feel that although the content of the movie "Civil War" does not resonate much with us, judging from the name of this movie, there should be many people watching just the gimmick, after all, there are not many movies called "The Collapse of American Imperialism" (Hong Kong)!