Civil War – Spinning Platters

Film Feature: Chad’s Top 20 Films of 2024

It’s been an odd year for movies, partly due to the lasting effects of labor strikes. There are very few masterpieces, and just as few disasters. Instead, 2024 featured a lot of solid 3-3.5 out of 5 star films, a healthy selection of entertaining fare that enabled the theater industry to finish the year far ahead of what many analysts had feared (box office-wise). Well, without further ado, here’s my ranked Top 20 best films of 2024 (and don’t forget to check out Carrie’s Top 10 Films of 2024 as well): Continue reading “Film Feature: Chad’s Top 20 Films of 2024”

Film Review: “Civil War”

Civil War is bravura filmmaking with humanity at its core

Alex Garland directed Ex Machina in 2014, Annihilation in 2018, Men in 2022, and now, Civil War. That’s four definite or near masterpieces, in my humble opinion. Each film in his directorial oeuvre has served as a cinematic discussion about the impact an ever-changing issue has had on humanity, sometimes overt and other times metaphorical: artificial intelligence, environmental degradation, toxic masculinity, and now, divisive American political idealism. It would be easy to criticize Civil War as “teaching us nothing new,” but that would be missing the point. The film is not intended to be a blaring warning siren. Instead, Civil War is a disturbing sensory vision of the future, featuring a distinct set of strong characters to help ground its grand-scale and daring filmmaking, meant to elicit a potent sense of current anxieties. Continue reading “Film Review: “Civil War””

Film Review: Captain America: Civil War

You want the most action-packed, entertaining, thought-provoking Marvel movie to date? Aye aye, Captain!!

Remember Batman v. Superman? If you don’t, then congrats. If you do, rest assured that Captain America: Civil War will wash the bad taste from your mouth. The new movie has a remarkably similar plot to BvS but every bit is a million times superior. In fact, it’s so much better that you won’t even recognize the similarities upon first viewing. The benefits of watching Captain America: Civil War don’t end there — the third Captain America film is probably the best Marvel movie yet! A bold statement, you may think. Well, there is nary a moment in CA:CW that isn’t entertaining or driving the story forward. It explores thought-provoking themes of social class, abuse of power, government regulations, and sacrifice, all while delivering high levels of fun. What’s most impressive about Captain America: Civil War is its ability to utilize what we already know about each character to fuel the story we’re seeing, meanwhile teasing us with stories to come. It’s like the Empire Strikes Back of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that’s just about the highest compliment I can give it.

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