Alex Garland’s Civil War Plays Both Sides

For all its visual artistry—and there is plenty of that in this film—Garland has created a confused narrative that attempts to portray all sides as evil, with only the journalists at the center the real arbiters of truth. Nearly a decade ago, in Ex Machina, Garland foreshadowed the debate raging today about whether artificial intelligence is a net positive for society or a dangerous threat to mankind. The technology used to create Alicia Vikander’s AI robot Ava in Ex Machina is so far from being a reality—even today—that it's not something audiences need to worry about in the near future. Late last year, when Civil War’s first trailer landed online, people immediately dismissed the notion that it could portray a potential future conflict simply because militias from Texas and California were fighting side by side. It might be offering different predictions than conspiracists imagined, but Civil War’s allusions to actual American life make it far from ambiguous.