10 Recent Movies That Totally Trolled Audiences

Alex Garland's blistering dystopian action-thriller Civil War was a critical and commercial success, though suffered a significant backlash as some viewers criticised Garland's "apolitical" stance to the central conflict.

Garland flat-out refuses to contextualise the war between a tyrannical U.S. government and secessionists, nor explain how states as classically opposed as Texas and California could possibly end up joining forces.

While some praised Garland's approach for avoiding on-the-nose political allusions and instead allowing the film to focus on its characters, others criticised it as "cowardly," that by refusing to draw political lines of the battling factions, he basically made a non-committal "both sides" war movie.

In the heavily polarised world of today, where The Discourse is everything to many, they wanted Garland's film to say something concrete about contemporary life in the U.S.

However, Garland clearly had no interest in spoon-feeding audiences an easily digestible political message they could pat themselves on the back for.

To some, this stance ruins the entire movie, while to others, it's exactly the reason why it works so well.