The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Worth the plunge
Engrossing ‘Captive State’ offers at least a bit more than its surface-level aliens-vs.-humans conflict
Sure, we love when our science-fiction consists of mankind fighting for its very existence against a hostile alien force. ¶ Much of the best sci-fi, though, is most concerned with using a high-concept narrative to explore themes and issues relevant to the real world. ¶ “Captive State” is the whole package.
Directed by Rupert Wyatt and co-written by Wyatt and his wife, Erica Beeney, “Captive State” is an engrossing if imperfect slice of sci-fi that has something to say about authoritarian rule, occupying forces and more. And it does so via a story of manversus-alien that sucks you in early and only vaguely tips its hand as to where it’s headed.
This vision of our world is centered on a Chicago that, by 2025 — less than a decade after an alien invasion — is beaten and battered in spots. (The Wicker Park neighborhood seemingly has been decimated.)
The frantic opening moments of the film see a couple in a car trying to contend with authorities and street blockades and soon find themselves in a tunnel and within view of hard-to-make-out otherworldly creatures ahead.
“Turn … around,” the woman says slowly but alarmingly to the man behind the wheel.
And then, “TURN AROUND!”
A moment later they appear to be obliterated.
The aliens — a nightmarish cross between a humanoid and a porcupine and referred to as the Legislators — have brought unity to earth, the price being the lack of self-governance and, apparently, the stripping of resources. There are now zones in Chicago — and, presumably, across the planet — where humans no longer are permitted.
As some kind of political statement — assuming they intended “Captive State” to be one — the film is a little weaker, but there is, at the very least, light food for thought.
What follows is a great deal of exposition through text, and through this data download we learn a bit about an ongoing resistance to the aliens, including talk of lighting a match to ignite a war.
That, seemingly, is the last thing wanted by William Mulligan (John Goodman), a veteran Chicago cop who’s spent years investigating a faction of the underground resistance. We meet Mulligan circling advertisements in a newspaper’s classified section using the word “Phoenix,” clearly a resistance code word.
Mulligan’s former partner was killed in the invasion, and Mulligan is concerned with keeping one of the late man’s sons, Gabriel (Ashton Sanders), from following the path of his older brother, Rafe (Jonathan Majors), whose involvement with the resistance may have gotten him killed. When they meet, though, Gabriel wants nothing to do with what Mulligan is selling him.
Mulligan goes to the city’s Pilsen neighborhood to visit a prostitute referred to as Jane Doe (Vera Farmiga), whom he clearly has known for a long time and seems to be of some importance.
“I don’t have much time, but I wanted to see you,” he tells her.
“Then we’d better get business out of the way,” she says.
He declines to sleep with her but does leave with something for which he apparently came.
As a big governmentsanctioned rally approaches at the city’s huge football stadium, Soldier Field, members of the local resistance — including Daniel (Ben Daniels) and a mysterious zealot, Ellison (James Ransone) — plan a major move, while Mulligan and others fear just that.
Other supporting players in “Captive State” include Kevin Dunn, as the city’s compromised police commissioner; Alan Ruck, as Rittenhouse, a newspaper man working with the resistance; Madeline Brewer, as Gabriel’s girlfriend, Rula; and rapper and Cleveland native Machine Gun Kelly, as Jurgis, Gabriel’s partner in peddling data chips on the black market.
If it isn’t obvious by now, the biggest problem with “Captive State” is characters — in that there are too many of them. Far too many. (A few weeks removed from an advance press screening, it’s hard to remember, for example, Kevin J O’Connor and D.B. Sweeney as two officers on Mulligan’s investigative team.)
More importantly, populating “Captive State” with so many characters means most cannot have all that much screen time. This only truly matters, however, in the case of the talented Farmiga, underused just as she was in 2018 Liam Neeson vehicle “The Commuter.”
Fortunately, we do get a generous serving of Goodman (“10 Cloverfield Lane,” “The Connors”), who’s a fine anchor for this ship. In his capable hands, Mulligan is dogged in his pursuit of the resistance while also giving us to ponder what’s really going on inside the man’s head.
Wyatt (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) and Beeney (“The Battle of Shaker Heights”) offer some heady ideas in their script, such as the way resistance members try to get around the tracking system the Legislators use on all humans.
As some kind of political statement — assuming they intended “Captive State” to be one — the film is a little weaker, but there is, at the very least, light food for thought.
As director, Wyatt does very laudable work. Despite its relatively minor faults, “Captive State” is consuming in the way a story with so many moving parts needs to be. Some viewers may expect more action given the alien-occupation backdrop, but Wyatt offers enough edge-of-your-seat moments to help “Captive State” remain captivating.
So, yes, “Captive State” has malicious, scary aliens who fly around in big rocklike ships and humans trying to eradicate them from the planet. But it’s more than that.