alex-garland – Popped!

Release date: April 11, 2025 (USA)

Directed by: Ray Mendoza; Alex Garland

Running time: 1h 35m

Budget: $20 million

MPAA rating: R

Distributed by: A24

Solid trailer to begin with but what’s more solid is seeing this budget! $20 Million for Warfare while Disney spends 10 times this is an insane difference. Nice job A24.

I mentioned it the other day how A24 are inconsistent with their quality of movies comparing to neon. Well here is Warfare the movie we thought we were getting when Civil War released last year. I’m going to end this “Review” with a bit of a spoiler that I’ll mark clearly with if you’re interested. But before that let’s discuss Warfare and why I may even nominate it the Oscar for sound/editing.

The entire movie has been created from memory from all those that survived this war. Stick around throughout the credits to see the veterans and their movie counterparts. It’s pretty remarkable seeing this after watching what goes down during this title.

Warfare sets the viewer up with a platoon of American Navy SEALS on a surveillance mission in an insurgent territory of Iraq. Throughout the setup of this mission the silence and lack of action was so powerful when action gets going. I mentioned Oscar earlier. This is where it could win it. Any action after those intense silence moments sets the theatre a light with explosions that will shake you in your seat. Make sure to watch this in a theatre. The sound was incredible and the edit created so much suspense.

It’s a well crafted war film that’s definitely worth the view. Popped scoring of 8/10! Warfare is great. Stick around for the nitty gritty if you don’t mind some “story” spoilers.

Placing the thank you here to seperate my thoughts above to the Nitty Gritty below. So with that thank you for coming to Popped for your movie “Reviews” and looking forward to the week ahead. Sneaks on Thursday, followed by potentially sometime over the weekend or early next week, Sinners & The Wedding Banquet.

See you next batch on the Popped.blog 😀

Potential Spoiler Chat – The Nitty Gritty

Didn’t want to take away this from your movie going experience. So placing the nitty gritty at the bottom of this “Review”. Despite being a surveillance mission and not wanting to take away the fact this is based on real Navy SEALs literal memories.

The story / plot is the weakest for me personally. I got to the end feeling like nothing was achieved. Think of Warfare as a piece of action from a slice of War. You’re focused on a singular point of conflict without getting the bigger picture. To get this title into a stronger 8 and maybe even a 9. I’d love to have seen a bigger picture pull out and the impact of this surveillance mission on the overall war that’s occurring over Comms.

Maybe I missed something or the point trying to be communicated to the viewer but that’s the nitty gritty of it all. Had a great time watching this title but don’t go in expecting a story with mission objectives and a moving plot. Theirs a moving plot for the characters, emotion and for survival but you’re in place for the majority of this movie and A24 and the cast made it a worthy watch at the theatre.

If you read to the end I’d love to hear your thoughts on Warfare in the comments and what did you think of Civil War? Will A24 be releasing War movies like these every April going forth? I’m curious to see if their branching out the scope to a realistic global war movie that’s grounded like these on a small budget.

Thanks for coming by Popped and I’ll see you next batch.

Release date: April 12, 2024 (UK)

Director: Alex Garland

Distributed by: A24, Entertainment Film Distributors

Budget: $50 million

Cinematography: Rob Hardy

Produced by: Andrew Macdonald; Allon Reich; Gregory Goodman

When Grace from beyond the trailer dropped an early review stating how bad this film was. I knew something controversial was upon us leading up to release. Once others started to review this film and praising it the other way I had tampered my expectations but never actually looked at the reviews other than their scores.

Apparently the add campaign was an issue giving misleading message on this film? I understood going in that we were following these journalist within a Civil War setting as they complete their objective story.

Apparently others thought we were going to see a War Film filmed around the Civil War. Not sure how the Press part was missed from that but anyway that’s the story being told.

I’ve absolutely loved Kirsten Dunst since Spiderman days and even further back to the days of Jumanji in 1995. I haven’t seen her since Melancholia unless I just forgot movies since 2011? Which is interesting as 2012 was when I moved to America from England. Looking up her Bio I see 2016 Hidden Figures however totally don’t remember her in that movie sadly.

This movie had very impactful moments which will grasp you in intense ways of fear and awe. From the chilling sounds of gun fire or the breath taking silence as you’re left waiting in knowingly what’s to come fear of an uncontrollable action.

All the actors played their roles well most of the movie. For two thirds of this movie I was with our characters on their journey from NYC to DC in attempts to interview the president on answers for how he’s dealing with this Civil War. A War mind you that has California & Texas on the same side :O what happened! I have no idea as this movie placed the viewer within the midst of the battle without any lead up or information outside what we’re seeing with our Press characters.

Maybe that’s where the dip in ratings for this movie comes from. The lack of context for the war or information on everything surrounding it. It was a great ride worth watching at least once. Sadly that final act went from a 7 to an 8 and back down to a 7 real quick as those epic action moments and final revelations of the strings being pulled quickly snapped and all came loose with odd direction and sadly unbelievable character decisions which came out of no where. Maybe another scene for them to develop those decisions but sadly wasn’t it for me.

I had a great time though and believe Civil War was a solid movie being scored personally as a 7/10. It offered something different of a War film but left me wanting a stronger conclusion on what was an intense enticing journey.

Tag: alex-garland

Warfare “Review”

Civil War “Review”