Captive State is about life after an alien invasion in Chicago, one of many closed off cities in the world that the aliens, also known as Legislators because they become the head of our government, use to exploit human labor and resources. The bookends of the movie have the same two main characters: Gabriel, the younger brother of a lead insurgent and son of the former partner of the other main character, John Goodman, a detective in Chicago Police Special Branch trying to stop the resistance. The middle of the movie largely depicts the execution of the insurgency’s latest uprising and how the aliens and their human collaborators respond.

Captive State is simultaneously too diffuse and too focused on its characters. For the majority of the movie, I wondered why we really needed main characters since they were missing throughout the majority of the film. On one hand, I love the symbolic idea of a young black man as the hope for the future, and everyone in their own way is trying to get him to look beyond his daily needs and have bigger dreams for himself and humanity. The ending shows that the filmmakers definitely had a goal and trajectory when crafting the story of the film. On the other hand, I did not give a crap about Gabriel. Maybe if I had spent more time with him when he was younger and could compare and contrast his life before and after the alien invasion, I would be invested in his future, but it didn’t, and I wasn’t.

I enjoyed how Captive State threw me right into the action and adored the beginning, but it did not work if it was supposed to whet my appetite to discover more about this family. Also while I’m not critiquing the movie, I am pointing out that the first three people killed on screen are black. Sure a lot of people die, and black people play pivotal roles throughout the movie, but it is a trope in horror and sci fi that black people wear red shirts so I have to point it out.

Goodman’s storyline feels like mid era M. Night Shyamalan work in which the filmmaker is going more for the impact of the twists over the entire story. During the first twist, I was baffled because I kept saying, “Wait, but…..” so I was anticipating the other shoe dropping. Without it, the whole story did not make sense. I love a bleak ending, but it felt dissonant and asymmetrical given what the movie showed us about his character’s private life.

While Captive State has many flaws, the filmmakers can’t be accused of not thinking enough about the world that they created. The problem may be over thinking about every detail in this world and being too ambitious then unable to step back and judiciously decide which darling storyline to kill. I actually preferred seeing how the insurrection worked and was more invested in each link in the chain than following the alleged main characters. Maybe it would make a better television series than movie. Ben Daniels says very little, but the minute that he steps on screen, I was riveted, and that was before we even saw his face. His feet were acting the hell out of this role. I’m not joking.

Captive State’s band of unlikely insurrectionists was a delightful cross section of humamity. Even though none of them got many lines, they were such strong actors who clearly put a lot of thought into their characters’ backgrounds that I felt as if I knew what kind of people they were. Normally I would not advocate for this suggestion, but if the entire cast had collaborated on the story structure and trajectory, it may have been stronger. Usually movies with the actors as unofficial writers are disasters (Daniel Craig’s Quantum of Solace is a sad example), but their performances were more satisfying than the overall dialogue, especially Caitlin Ewald and Lawrence Grimm. They added texture to the storyline that is sadly under utilized though the most provocative part of the film. Again the weakest actor in the group was the older brother.

Captive State evokes the idea that aliens have become equated with patriotism and exploited the syncretistic political Christianist flaws of this country, including the bread and circus of football as spectacle, and act as substitutes for a real complex relationship with God, human beings and the idea of government. All the people in the insurrection are genuine people of faith albeit not turn the other cheek Jesus followers (Peter would have liked them) and/or people who would not have been accepted by the Christianists before the aliens came. If you genuinely believe that following Jesus is counter cultural, the multi-ethnic, gender fluid, doctors and prostitutes sounds like the New Testament Jesus followers to me. Unfortunately previews and commercials for Captive State give away a pivotal point near the denouement so if you have any interest in seeing the movie, they have already spoiled one aspect of a big reveal about the insurrection, which made me big mad. (I could do without the hooker with the heart of gold trope albeit it does allude to real life examples in historical resistance movements.)

If the overall story were better, then I would devote more time to contemplating how the aliens symbolize various human societal ills. The filmmakers definitely want to evoke the New Jim Crow, exploitation of labor and resources, income disparity, excessive government law enforcement, etc, but it doesn’t deserve that kind of in depth analysis because it is slapped on instead of fully represented in interactions between human beings and aliens. If the movie has one serious flaw that it should develop more if it becomes a series, or there is a sequel, it is that it spent more time depicting the aliens as monsters, not bureaucrats, when they are both. Captive State probably did not have the money to devote more scenes to showing the aliens interact with the human beings in meetings, which was disappointing, because I would have loved to see the in person interpretations from alien to English.

The visual depictions of the aliens in Captive State were really neat. Think of shag carpeting turned porcupine vicious. Think sea urchin meets the Predator but less anthropomorphic. I liked the mix of organic and metallic textures. I feel as if the drones that are like flocks of birds beat Blade Runner 2046 in terms of imagery and kept thinking that they were the evil siblings of the aliens from Arrival.

I enjoyed Captive State, but the narrative structure needed a lot more work before it hit the big screen. It could take The Purge franchise route and improve with each subsequent installment. If you’re not into the genre, I would not want to start with this movie, but if you have a forgiving nature and are the kind of person who can look at a work, appreciate the bones and see the potential, then give it a shot otherwise avoid it like the plague. I enjoyed the big screen experience, especially since the soundtrack was perfect.