Captive State (2019)

Captive State review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

In trying to weave the allegory of political unrest and street violence within the narrative of an alien invasion sci-fi picture, Captive State turns in a lacking blend. There’s such a lack of building the world around the alien invasion, complete with generic designs and bug-like language, that the film feels like a lukewarm dystopia script with aliens scribbled in at the last minute. What follows is more clunky than thoughtful tale of an oppressive government and a need for rebellion.

A handful of characters are followed on the streets of Chicago as the Earth is currently under alien occupation. Working with the aliens is Chicago Police Commander William Mulligan (John Goodman), torn between his duty to the human race and maintaining order. He’s especially conflicted considering someone who may become a target is Gabriel (Ashton Sanders), an orphan who Mulligan raised after his parents were murdered. Gabriel has ample reason to rebel considering his day job is that of destroying smartphones and all their contents of a pre-alien world. He joins a secret resistance group that operates secretly underground in hopes of fighting back. It’s a little hard for them to do so considering the aliens can vaporize you from a distance but, hey, you gotta try when your world is under attack.

Very little of the aliens are seen to the point where I almost wished that the twist was there weren’t any aliens at all. Most of the film is more focused on keeping the underground moving than how to kill these alien creatures. Will Gabriel succeed in his mission to get some intel and will Mulligan try to save a prostitute he secretly loves when she turns out to be in the line fo fire? This would seem like simpler and easier drama to weave to avoid the film being more silly with its sci-fi setting but it doesn’t help. This is mostly because when we finally do see the aliens they’re about as bland as any creature design of alien warriors. A mess of spikes and gooey maws shoved into bland battle armor look so underwhelming that even their ability to slaughter humans without so much as a flick of their wrists doesn’t make them interesting.

With so many phoned in elements to this allegory, there’s never a moment where this story fully engrosses us within its world because it seems far too familiar. Yeah, I get it; it’s representative of the era where we live in fear from an oppressive government with no hope past the will to carry on. But after seeing so many films, even this year, that have made this point in more engaging and poignant stories, Captive State only turns in the bare minimum. Despite some decent drama of an uprising in a decaying slum facing annihilation, this is a low rent version of a low-income era that deserves a better take than just a base message with a mild sci-fi coating.