My Review of "Captive State"

Captive State is an alien invasion movie that barely has any aliens in it. Don't be expecting a ton of action in this alien invasion caper movie. There's a ton of intrigue as the many players don't know who to trust. It's definitely a very different change of pace for an alien invasion movie. Unfortunately, despite the intrigue of most of the movie the ending is rather predictable through the not so subtle foreshadowing throughout the movie.

The movie starts out with a couple driving in a busy Chicago street. They're obviously trying to get out of the city but they're stopped by authorities. The man turns out to be a police officer and tries to use his authority to get out but his attempts fail. He quickly turns around and guns it to a different exit. They're stopped at a tunnel where they encounter aliens. They're killed and we see their two children in the back seat.

9 years later we find out that humans have surrendered to the aliens. These new authoritarians are employing humans to help them terraforming earth. Unfortunately this has increased the social economic disparity to levels where the poor just can't get out of poverty.

Fortunately for the humans there are a small group of rebels that are trying to create a war against the aliens. If we were taken over by aliens, there's no doubt there would be people that would organize to overthrow them. The problem is that the aliens have benefited certain citizens, especially the rich and powerful across the globe. These humans obviously don't want to lose their way of living so they're out to stop these rebels.

As for the poor that don't really benefit from overthrowing the government, they live in fear of the repercussions of rebelling. They all know that they're being monitored by the authorities and fear they might say the wrong things and get in trouble.

The alien overlords basically have control over all of the humans by putting bugs in each and every one of them. They've even taken control of all electronics. Rebels have to resort to use older methods of communication such as carrier pigeons and newspaper ads.

It's a very interesting concept. The movie comprises a mix of paranoia of big brother and rebellion of a authoritarian dictatorship. I guess I can see a lot of this happening should aliens take over the world. It's far fetched but at least this was kind of a creative twist to semi-cliche genre.

The main character Gabriel is one of the two kids in the back of the car in the beginning of the movie. His older brother Rafe had become a rebellion hero as he risked his life to start a rebellion a while back. Gabriel of course wants to get out of his situation and is kind of living in Rafe's shadow.

He has a lot of difficult decisions later on in the movie. They played his character pretty well. You can tell he isn't as strong willed as his older brother. With the horrors he's experienced throughout his life you can understand why he's so complacent for most of the movie.

Watching this movie did bring up a thought. I started thinking that this may be an allegory for the mistreatment of aboriginals of North America when their land was colonized. This movie explains why natives would feel so angry and disrespected. The movie only spans a course of 9 years whereas Natives have experienced the blight of their land and culture for hundreds of years. I don't know if that's the intent of the filmmakers but it does give me a different perspective of what natives have gone through.

Overall, this isn't a movie for everyone. Don't be mislead to think that this is a huge action film because it isn't. It's a caper movie in which a small group of rebels are trying to cause a war against their alien overlords. In the background of this story they explore the social politics of the new world after the invasion. I have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10. I did enjoy most of it but there was a few pacing issues that had me kind of bored at certain points. For those that love political/caper movies it might be a different story.