Civil War was stupider than I thought it would be

I did not have high hopes after watching the trailer and reveal of the Texas and California coalition, but I was willing to suspend disbelief once the creators said that it was more about journalists. That suspension did not last long. I’ll tackle the elephant in the room first: the political landscape makes no sense. Obviously this is meant to take place in some alternate timeline, but no narrative explanation was given to how things even got here. Texas aligning with California? No way that could happen without some interesting things happening, but I guess the writer wasn’t creative enough to explore that. Florida seceding? Yeah, that’s self explanatory. The only other political clues in the film is that the president is on his third term, and his forces regularly kill journalists. We also hear that Dunst’s character got her start photographing the “Antifa massacre” but that had to be 15-20 years in the past given clues to her age and when she started. I know the whole plot is a cop-out to avoid commenting on the current powder keg of the political arena currently, but they could have at least stung together somewhat of a coherent story. Hell, Red Dawn did it with a text screen in the first scene better. Now this is supposed to be a movie about hardened war journalists and a rookie covering the war, but they do not come across as good war journalists. Their demeanor and jaded world view fit well, but I could not get over their inconsistent use of PPE. You’d think their main goal driving across a war-torn country would to not get killed, but I guess not. The movie starts with Dunst meeting Jessie at a protest, giving the girl her press vest. She wasn’t even wearing it when she rolled up, should probably do that. She later tells her to get a flak jacket and a helmet, which she also wasn’t wearing for the protest. The only time they are fully kitted out (Kevlar vest, helmet) is during the first firefight they cover. Yeah, smart. But they wear full kit to a small firefight, but not the siege of f****** Washington, DC to kill the president?? Their other journalist colleagues that they met at the WF base have helmets, but the stars only have vests. I guess main character armor was enough to protect their brains. Also you are hardened war journalists traveling across a war torn country, and you are not wearing your vests in the car? Even AFTER being shot at once? Sure, that makes sense. I don’t fault the older guy because his friends were gonna get killed and didn’t really have time to throw it on, but wouldn’t be a concern if he already had it on… And damn, none these 3 other journalists have enough medical training to even try to stop their long term colleagues bleeding? Cold. I know it’s a theme of the movie that Dunst’s character has a bit of a death wish, but walking into the White House during an active siege ahead of the military? And your colleagues followed? Yeah, real hardened journalist behavior who survived other war zones. Her death was also a bit ridiculous. Just pushing Jessie down from the line of fire and standing there herself. Like, she could have tackled her, which a smart, war-experienced person would do, but gotta symbolically pass the torch for narrative blah blah. The death of the president was also hilarious. A man who is smart enough to send his motorcade out as distraction, who sends a negotiator to invading forces, is hiding out in the Oval Office? You’d think a spineless leader with intense self preservation instincts would, ya know, hide out in the presidential bunker under the White House, but guess they didn’t have the budget for that and gotta have the iconic shot of the office. Overall the movie just asked us to ignore too many blaringly stupid things to push a narrative of “War bad, it could happen here!” And that’s it. The footage of the Lincoln memorial blowing up was more important than a coherent story to the message of the film. Somehow Red Dawn did it better, and that’s not a high bar to jump over.