Film Review: Captive State (2019)
In late 2010s it has been quite interesting over to watch the word “neocon” begin to be avoided in the very same “polite society” where, during the Iraq war, it was the embodiment of all evil in the world—that is, everything that the “cool,” “hip,” and “progressive” crowd had to hate. At the time, that same social set spends months on social media mourning a deceased US senator whom they had pilloried as a warmonger, while a president once decried as the greatest butcher was celebrated as a kindly granddad, a wise statesman, and a misunderstood visionary. All this, of course, means it is no longer “politically correct” to criticise radical American “democracy‑promotion” policy—or to cast doubt on the notion that brutally invading sovereign states, mass destruction, killing hundreds of thousands of people, and installing puppet regimes that plunder natural resources on behalf of US corporations do not represent a civilisational achievement that can only fail to be understood by nationalist troglodytes, mouldy Stalinists or Russian trolls.
Because of all this, it is interesting to see a film that shows Americans and Americophiles what it is like when the United States is subjected to the same kind of treatment. That opportunity is provided by the sci‑fi film Captive State, directed by Rupert Wyatt.
The story begins after Earth becomes the target of an invasion by technologically superior aliens who present all world governments with an ultimatum to surrender, which is quickly accepted. The aliens land, establish bases in leading world cities, and then proclaim themselves the Legislators—the supreme authority on the planet. Beneath them, the remnants of former governments are reorganised into puppet regimes that allow a handful of people at the top a comfortable life, while the rest must face the stripping away of all human and civil rights, and watch helplessly as the aliens ruthlessly exploit Earth’s natural resources.
Such a state of affairs has, of course, led to the formation of a resistance movement that tries to oppose the occupiers largely through symbolic terrorist acts. Nine years after the invasion, Gabriel Drummond (played by Ashton Sanders) lives in Chicago, tormented by memories of parents who died in the invasion, but also marked by the fact that his older brother Rafe (Jonathan Majors) was one of the leaders of the local resistance cell who disappeared in an alien punitive expedition that wiped out an entire neighbourhood. The collaborationist police commander Mulligan (John Goodman), however, believes Rafe is alive and his network active, and seeks to use Gabriel to expose and destroy it. Gabriel, meanwhile, comes into contact with Rafe’s comrades and helps them carry out an extremely complex and risky operation aimed at assassinating leading figures of the regime and their associated alien representatives.
Captive State fared poorly at the US box‑office and with critics, which can be interpreted as the story being too bitter for Americans—a dystopia that is all too familiar to many countries around the world. That, of course, does not mean that some of the criticisms of the film are unjustified, which above all can refer to the slow start, a somewhat confusing middle section, and a rather predictable “shocking” twist at the very end. On the other hand, Rupert Wyatt, the British director known for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which launched a successful franchise, proved unusually adept at creating a dystopian world that is exceptionally dark and depressing—all the more so because it reflects what we more or less live in. Wyatt uses locations in Chicago, an American metropolis that even in our own world, where there have been no alien invasions, looks rather grim, and he has no great problem reconstructing poverty, hopelessness and despair on a modest budget. Nor was it any great problem to portray a turbo‑Orwellian nightmare in which total control over the population is sought, all media are censored, drones patrol the streets and all citizens are controlled by surgically implanted chips. And, of course, there is the corrupt political elite ready to sell its own people to foreigners, along with their media spreading propaganda about how the aliens have brought peace, happiness and prosperity.
Wyatt’s film works relatively well as a thriller, although the transition from the fairly slow depiction of the dystopian world to action that at times moves too quickly and confusingly is not executed in the best way. One reason could also be that Wyatt, faced with a lack of budget for special effects, was forced to show the aliens, and the fights with them, in darkness. However hard Wyatt tried to make them frightening, they look less dangerous than the police in riot gear who arrest, sadistically torture and cynically hand over their fellow citizens to a fate probably similar to that experienced by Jews when they were “deported to the East.” Some of the characters are not developed in the best way, but that is compensated for by a fairly diverse and spirited cast, among whom John Goodman stands out most in the complex and moving role of a policeman torn by moral doubts. Thanks to him, Captive State is a quite watchable and at times striking work, about which it can be said in the end that it is the right film made at the wrong time.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in the original Croatian version was posted here.)
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