“Civil War” is one of the most perplexing films in recent memory.

Writer/director Alex Garland’s latest is a film with some stunning visuals and a script that presents some interesting ideas.

Unfortunately, those ideas never quite come to fruition – with “Civil War” firmly entrenched in a gray area that makes the film all style and very little substance.

“Civil War” puts its audience square in the middle of a fractured United States with Texas and California forming the Western Forces, seceding from the U.S. and locked in a battle to overthrow the government.

The President (Nick Offerman) assures the country that peace is close, even as cities are leveled from the fighting.

Lee (Kirsten Dunst), who is a hardened war photographer who is beginning to question her work, sets out with her fellow journalist Joel (Wagner Moura) to get to Washington to interview the president.

The journey also includes an aspiring photo journalist named Jessie (Callie Spaeny from “Priscilla”) and longtime newsman Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson).

Along the way, they experience the casualties of war while encountering a wide spectrum of civilians – ranging from those who chose to remain oblivious to the surroundings to those who have entrenched themselves in using the war as a means to protect their own personal beliefs.

Garland certainly creates the mood of dread and despair from the opening moments, with “Civil War” using the lenses of photographers to create some haunting moments of brutality. Shots of the capital under duress as well as a major highway full of cars that were destroyed during an unseen battle are effective as well.

Then there is a brief role by Jesse Plemons as a citizen who has taken matters into his own hands that is perhaps when “Civil War” is at its stunningly brutal best.

But most of “Civil War” is stuck in the middle with Garland’s ideas of divisiveness or the importance of journalism remaining so specifically neutral that it never actually takes a stance or says anything.

It’s a political movie that won’t take a side. It’s a mentorship story where the lesson is never truly delivered. It’s just a hollow shell of talking points that no one ever really talks about.

It’s a film where even the performances are so (effectively) cold and callous with Dunst able to do more with her eyes than any words that are given to her character.

We’ve seen the journalist struggling on the battlefield much more effectively in films like “The Killing Fields” – a film where the story was way more personal than the execution in “Civil War.”

Perhaps if Garland could have approached the material with a firmer stance that truly plays to both sides, “Civil War” could have worked. As it is, “Civil War” is an empty experience – one that ultimately plays it too safe and by doing so never quite finds its voice.

Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Nick Offerman

Directed by: Alex Garland

Rating: R for strong violent content, bloody/disturbing images and language throughout

Playing at: Regal Bowling Green Stadium 12, Regal Greenwood Mall Stadium 10, Highland Cinemas (Glasgow)

Grade: C