Captive State

It's frustrating when you see a film, recognize that it had a lot of potential to be something special, and then realize it mostly squanders that potential. 

Captive State is one such of those films, increasingly frustrating as it goes along, because it's a premise that I'm not sure has been done before and could have turned into a sci-fi classic.

Set 10 years after our first contact with an alien race, it's about the plot to "ignite the match" and start a war. Our alien "overlords" have largely let us humans go about living our lives as normal and the film drops brief hints that many things have improved (i.e. crime and unemployment rates)...at least on the surface. 

Truth be told, I was secretly hoping this would be like a cool mix between Cloverfield and Arrival - part of me even wondered if it was some sort of secret prequel to 10 Cloverfield Lane given John Goodman's involvement. Spoiler: it's not, nor is it ever quite as iconic of any of those films.

While I may be writing this review only a couple hours after having seen the film, I still am having a hard time with how to articulate what I didn't enjoy about Captive State and a lot of it rolls up into a bucket that we're simply not given enough information during the entire film. 

All things considered, after a pretty intense opening, the film starts only a couple days before the plan a rebel group carries out is scheduled for. We're given a handful of small details in the opening credits, but nothing remotely close to being substantial. For almost the entirety of the duration of the runtime, we're introduced to a lot of characters, never really having a good sense of who's who and what exactly is going on. Sometimes it's "fun" to be lost in a film and not quite know what's going on, but confident that the ride will pay off in the end. For Captive State, not being in the know became increasingly frustrating because as an audience you're served this film with a complete lack of context. Why should I care about this person? What are these people talking about? Why does it seem like there should be tension in X scene? The film is just presented in a very odd manner that all but squanders its premise. I applaud it for trying to do something out of the ordinary - literally just giving us a film about the "planning" phase of a revolt, but it just feels like it continues adding layers without giving us nuggets along the way. A solid 20 minutes of the film is legitimately dedicated to the insanely elaborate passing of a message between a bunch of random people; it's just too much without cluing the audience in. 

What are these things? We'll never find out

Could John Goodman play
Roadhog in an Overwatch film?

In the end, Captive State attempts to have that "big" reveal and ending. The reveal is something I was semi-guessing the whole way through, though I will say that the ending finally connects some dots and ends up semi-saving the film from being completely average. It's definitely not as powerful as it believes itself to be, but like I said, it's enough to salvage parts of this sci-fi film. It feels like it's potentially the only part of the film (aside from the beginning) that was totally and utterly planned scene by scene where the majority of the middle feels like a rather disorganized, middling procedure. Circling back to the concept of context, there's also quite a bit of technology in the film that's never really fleshed out or explained. I'm not saying I need every little sci-fi element to have some exposition, but Captive State skips almost all of it all together. Again...frustrating experience. 

Luckily though, there are elements of the film that seem to help it along. The most significant one worth mentioning is the original score which is easily one of the year's best thus far. It gets a teeny bit repetitive, but in general it adds a lot to the film in terms of tension, movement, and that sci-fi feel. Also worthwhile - as per usual - is John Goodman's (and others') performances. Goodman is obviously the heavy hitter here and his delivery throughout the whole film keeps you guessing as to what his real motives are. He's definitely not the creep that he was in 10 Cloverfield Lane, but instead just very authoritative and determined. The rest of the cast does a good job too and in general they help to push this material further. Perhaps the director gave them more context about what was happening in scenes than he did the audience?

Don't worry kid, I'm just as lost as you are

It's a true shame that such a unique premise was presented in such a confusing and ineffective way with Captive State. Under more capable hands I think we could have had something that's not only special, but also emotional, intense, and memorable. Instead, Captive State exists mainly as it's beginning and end with a bunch of "stuff" that unfolds in the middle and we, the audience, are just along for the ride.

CONS

• Keeps the audience in the dark in nearly every sense of the word. We have only very small hints about what technology does what, why these aliens are here, who all these people are, and what society is like
• Super odd pacing and creative decision for how to present the story. Spending 20 minutes showing the passing of a message is bold and yeah...it didn't work out
• Doesn't build much emotional weight so that the well-constructed ending isn't quite as good as it should have been
• Seems like a missed opportunity on a really cool premise

PROS

• Solid performances all around and John Goodman is increasingly the film's anchor
• Really strong opening and ending -- both feel well planned and designed
• One of the year's best original scores
• Super neat premise, just wish it would have pulled it off as successful as other sci-fi films with unique approaches (e.g. Arrival)

Rath's Review Score | 6.5/10