JR Bukowski

What could have been an otherwise excellent premise for a film falls completely flat and leaves the viewer wondering if their hard-earned money wouldn't have been better used as kindling. Calling Dunst's performance mediocre would be gracious. The old, morbidly obese veteran journalist was surgically implanted into the script for diversity's sake vs instilling some sense of much-needed gravitas. The junior photographer seems to revel in the bloodletting, remaining calm and collected while being strafed with machine gun fire and anti-tank weapons. Wagner Moura is about the only bright spot and even he can't rescue this cliche-laden turd. Whether you came to this movie by way of curiosity about the nature of civil unrest and how it might play out in America or were just looking for some good ol' fashion shoot 'em up, you will be disappointed either way. None of the important questions are addressed in the film. How did it start? Why TX and CA? No ideological underpinnings are explored and none of the typical reasons one might assume would lead us down the path of an uprising are present. It asks the viewer to make huge assumptions and never presents a cogent narrative as to how the Western Forces (WF) managed to amass a sizable, sophisticated military, what the rest of the country was doing during all this and what happened to the "Federal Military"? Granted, a truly sweeping, more encompassing film would require the better part of 3-4 hours, but such a production would have been one of the biggest blockbusters of all time as this timely topic is at the forefront of many Americans' minds at this point. Such a pity this wasn't done right.