“Captive State” Movie Review

    Every now and then, a film comes out with such little promotion that it totally slips past my radar.  I don’t have the time I once did to keep track of every new movie coming out (although I do my best) so from time to time, I stumble on something on home video that wasn’t even aware was released.  “Captive State” just happened to be a film I discovered at the video rental store so I decided to give it a go because I love science fiction films.

    The film tells the story of Gabriel who is living in an alien occupied Chicago.  In the year 2027, the world submitted to alien rule but a small resistance group grew.  The leader of the resistance happens to be Rafe, Gabriel’s brother.  The brothers orchestra attacks on the aliens while being pursued by their father’s ex-partner William Mulligan.  Mulligan is a police officer working for the aliens and is working to bring down the resistance.  Nothing is as it appears however.

    So I admit I did watch the trailer for this at the rental store before picking this up and I thought the film looked like it had a lot of promise and I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t marketed better.  Then I saw the movie and I realized why the studio probably just dumped it out.  Needless to say at this point, I did not enjoy this movie.  It’s sort of a shame because the film had an interesting story, it just wasn’t executed well.

    I think Rupert Wyatt is a talented filmmaker given the right material, just look at “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”.  Wyatt showcases some interesting visuals in the film but can not seem to hold the film together.  The film should have taken a clue from “District 9”, a small budget masterpiece which focused on a single main character.  Instead, the characters in “Captive State” weren’t developed enough so the audience didn’t feel invested in them.

    The film’s main flaw is that it tried to be a thought provoking science fiction film in the vain of “Inception” or “2001: A Space Odyssey” but the plot wasn’t developed enough in my opinion and the characters motives were confusing at times.  The slow pace and poor alien design did the film no favors either.  Maybe I am being overly hard on the film but it just didn’t connect with me.  The acting in the film was fairly strong thanks largely to a standout performance from John Goodman.

    “Captive State” was a box office bomb and it’s easy to see why this film was brushed under the rug by Universal.  I had high hopes for the film and it did have promise, unfortunately the film failed to live up to it’s potential.

Grade: D-