Scarpia

A vanity affair with little appreciation for the intelligence of the audience. As phony as the stunt work it purports to honor.

A satire of the zombie movie genre, Civil War presents an unconvincing quartet of war correspondents traveling to Washington DC to interview the President of the U.S. as the nation comes close to collapse. A very miscast “Nancy Drew” ingenue wannabe tags along. Extremely violent combat engagements are excitingly filmed and edited, but without context as to why they are happening. Once again redneck bigots are the villains of choice. It’s all loaded to show liberal photojournalists as the saviors of democracy. Brave and dedicated, but also incredibly stupid in rushing into combat. Would someone please get the young cub reporter a helmet! I’m sure some audiences will find the film a scary dystopian prediction, while others will be greatly amused by how silly it is.

Rarely has any film combined the visual splendor and intelligence of this science fiction masterpiece. Not a sequel at all but a continuation of Dune: Part One, picking up within hours of where the first ended, it expands and intensifies a fully believable universe. More like a gangster film than “space opera” it all seems headed towards a trilogy of epic proportions to stand with Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and The Godfather! In other words, The Best!

A masterpiece to be compared with Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia, The Godfather. Digs into a pivotal point in history, and explores how fallible genius can be. Extraordinary!