Recensioni degli utenti

Just skip the negative reviews and bear in mind one thing: do not expect an action sci-fi movie. This is telling the story of people fighting against oppression. The context is just a marketing excuse to make you more attracted. But this story applies to what we have already seen in the past century. It's basically a modernized sci-fi-ed version of a great rebellion some of our grandfathers' took part to. Just don't watch it waiting for the monsters and the aliens with super hi-tech in independence-day style fights. Good movie indeed! If you find it boring at the beginning hold-on, the middle gets more animated and the ending is solid. People who disliked such an interesting approach to fights versus authoritarism deserve Transformers...

Captive State is a sci-fi movie directed by Ruper Wyatt who decides to take it easy and tell a completely different story than the typical Hollywood blockbuster. It is in this decision where the film gains strength. But let's be clear, Captive State is not a perfect movie, far from it. But it is an extremely imaginative film, with such intriguing concepts as revolution and aliens. It is a master class that explains how a revolutionary cell operates in a fictitious situation and gives us a thriller that makes us tense at times and intrigues us in others. Despite not having fully explored characters, the film builds an intriguing world with well-shot scenes and an ending that will leave you glued to your seat and asking for more. Captive State is not perfect, but it is definitely a recommendation.

Very stylish and cool movie that really makes you feel like you are there, under pursuit/surveillance, in danger, fighting for your existence.

This could be any 'state' where a region is occupied by an aggressive agent, this time it happens to be aliens.

Throws up some great moments that I won't spoil.

However the element I really want to stress is the performance of Goodman, he is simply stellar in this!

Better than i expected, though not exceptional. Political/rebellion thriller that isnt overloaded with action. I enjoyed the way the film didnt treat you like a child and spoon feed you everything.

A powerful alien invasion. A surrender to avoid an ineluctable annihilation. The whole humanity under alien domination.

After this quick introduction, we elliptically switch nine years later, without really understanding how the human/alien cohabitation works. But this is definitely unimportant. Captive State (2019) is indeed a suspenseful thriller full of undercover agents, spies, policemen and a few aliens, with a profoundly dark and hardly optimistic atmosphere. The story takes place in Chicago in the near future and that, in some respects, looks like Paris, between June 14, 1940 and August 24, 1944, with resistance fighters and collaborators, and with aliens instead of German soldiers.

Thus, Captive State (2019) is obviously not an action/war movie, in a science-fiction context. And absolutely not a pop corn movie! The actors (especially John Goodman), the photography, the special effects, the atmosphere, ... that's heavy! Nevertheless, the script is a bit messy. We must wait for the very last scene in order to stick the pieces back together and have a global picture. The making is sometimes clumsy which may confuse the audience. Besides, some people left the movie theater during the screening I attended. Personally, it took me a while to understand and appreciate this story. Slightly frustrating.

As a synthesis: 6/7 of 10.

This film went above my expectations, going into it blind I thought it would be a good alien film. But it's not what you expect it's a film that you need to watch 2 times to understand but the concept is quite brilliant. The music, acting, effects are all very well done and keep the film intense. It's a film that keeps you thinking and never makes you look away. But I definitely recommend paying attention cause every little detail and scene has a meaning and a future purpose to unfold. I highly recommend this film it's a hidden classic!

After seeing the first trailer for this movie, I thought this would be thought provoking sci-fi movie. That being said, this movie does not provoke any thoughts at all. It's badly written, directed, edited, and shot. The movie itself is ambiguous, without subtlety, or care for the craft being put onto the screen.

What does this mean? Well for starters, the editing is just plain bad, cutting to different angles every two seconds to pointless close-up reactions of characters, which brings no impact to a scene whatsoever. There's a huge lack of shots that go beyond 10 seconds, making it a headache to know or notice certain elements of the set. It reminded of the god awful "Oscar winning" Bohemian Rhapsody, which couldn't stand switching angles at each word being said. There's no focus on a single character in each scene, often talking about set pieces that we can't even see due to the obnoxious editing the movies has.

Speaking of no focus, the writing in this movie was just held captive by the amount of pointless montages, characters, and unneeded ambiguity to the overall story being told. Often times when a character is introduced we focus on him/her for a few scenes before disappearing and showing up after 20 minutes. There's also just so many pointless montages in the movie, like most of the second act is just convoluted with scenes that just make no sense at all. Which brings me to my biggest point in the writing. What was the point at all? The writing is needlessly ambiguous and mysterious that it's seemingly all over the place. I know that too much exposition is bad, but having no exposition at all in a movie that's the sci-fi equivalent of Liam Neeson's Taken, just makes me scratch my head. Like where did this come from? What is that thing he has there? Who is this character who just appeared? Why are they in this place now? It's all just so mysterious and fast paced at the same time, that it just doesn't make any sense at all.

This brings me to the biggest flaw of this movie, the directing. When you have a screenplay as ambiguous as this one, you'd expect a little more subtlety in the visuals, shot compositions, pacing, and overall flow of the story. Instead it's all just so heavily fast paced that is counteracts with the ambiguity the screenplay has set the movie up. Often times the movies would just be trapped in this roundabout of shots, that just seem so uninteresting and repetitive. And I know this film has a short budget, and if that would be the case, then why would most of the visuals be so "in your face" at times. And these visuals are not good looking as well, a lot of the times they are badly rendered, looking like a villain from a Power Rangers show. These flaws just make the story and script look so much worse, a good director would've have had tried to make all that work at visually or technically.

Captive State is a movie that will want you test your patience with a film that's ironically holding itself captive. The editing almost gave me a headache, the screenplay was somehow over and underwritten at the same time, and the directing is just so awful that it just breaks the movie apart even more.

I was pissed because the story and the world had potential, but everyone who worked on the movie didn't want to use that potential. If you like John Goodman, sci-fi movies, or the two combined (my reason for watching this movie) then go watch it. But overall, this movie was more disappointing than my divorce. I'd give this shit show a 3/10.

Captive State is a surprise for me. I went into this with low expectations, but ended up getting engrossed in the story and digging the film. Even though it has a PG 13 rating, it does not diminish the dark tone or seriousness of the movie. Captive State is a post alien invasion movie which deals with the aftermath of the aliens as an occupying force that infiltrated the government and controls society. This is a bleak setting with most of the populace living in poverty and squalor and is focused on the underground opposition trying to overthrow the occupying force. The acting is good with a lesser known cast with John Goodman as the lead. The special f/x are good, but this movie is more about the story and the characters fortunately. Captive State is based on The French Resistance in WW2, but the film brings this in a sci fi setting, with plot twists and a gritty style brings to mind lots of great classic dystopian science fiction and that is certainly not a bad thing in my book.

This movie had the potential to be a good alien invasion film: Set several years after aliens conquer Earth, this film focuses on a Chicago neighborhood where a resistance cell is planning to fight back.

The problem is that the film is too grim and cheerless for its own good. Admittedly, there are a lot of excellent sci-fi films that have a similar tone (see Blade Runner). However, those movies also had strong character beats and great performances.

Meanwhile, this film can't even decide who the main characters are. The film begins by following John Goodman and Ashton Sanders' respective characters. There is a ten minute long sequence introducing a mostly new cast of characters over a half hour into the film. We don't spend enough time with any one character to get emotionally invested in them and, as a result, there's no emotional investment in the final product. This makes the film a rather dreary affair, no matter who lives or dies, the audience doesn't care.

Personally, I am glad such movies are made. "Rare" doesn't always mean "good" but in this case it does. That said, it certainly is far from entertaining and hardly suitable for some light-hearted Saturday night family past-time. Also, don't expect a sci-fi action - it's a (political) thriller and the alien invasion here could be replaced with any dictatorship. It is not fully clear whether the film-makers chose aliens for dramatic effect or just to make it easier for the audience to decide who the bad guys are. Sadly, history proved that not all freedom fighters make their country a better place. As for the story, acting, cinematography - everything works well together to create the atmosphere of oppression, hopelessness and despair. There have been complaints that the script is messy. Well, it is not. If you accept the fact that there is no main character, no hero, no saviour, no deus ex machina and just watch closely, you are in for a decent detective story as well where each scene has a purpose and makes sense (honestly, I was able to predict the final "twist" something like 30% into the movie and still enjoyed sitting it through). All in all, Captive State is bound to be misunderstood by those who want to unwind and is a rare gem for those who are open to a dark and thought-provoking story and are fed up with superhero extravaganza

Written and Directed by Rupert Wyatt, CAPTIVE STATE follows several characters and multiple perspectives in a Chicago neighborhood in a world completely operated by an extraterrestrial force known as 'The Legislators'. The film portrays numerous aspects of this alien occupation, and chronicles the both sides of a brewing conflict between the human race and the aliens.

This is an extremely unique and likely very polarizing movie. Rather than a blockbuster-actioner laden with huge visual effects, CAPTIVE STATE is a somber look at 9 years after the major war has already occurred. What would usually be our primary focus is the framework of the story, which instead is much more of a political-espionage thriller with sci-fi elements. This automatically may be a turn off for some, but I found myself consistently intrigued and excited by the events that play out in the story. Aliens appear throughout the film but only in glimpses and from a far, usually. However, when we do see them up close, the effects work is actually quite impressive for a film made on $25 million. Not all the CG work is great but for the most part, much of it is very seamless and realistic in appearance. The creature design is also very well-done. The Legislators are extremely intimidating antagonists that, despite rarely seeing them in full, maintain a presence over the entire film. Some characters refer to the beings as 'Roaches', due to their insectoid behaviors and language, which consists of strange clicks, gurgles and buzzing. The sound design for these aliens is particularly effective, with many sequences upping the suspense due simply to the offscreen sounds of The Roaches, especially during a key scene toward the third act. The film succeeds in making us very intimidated of The Roaches, despite their infrequent appearances.

It's unfortunate that Captive State has a very unfocused structure. Scenes jump from character to character, with the closest thing resembling a lead being John Goodman's character Bill Mulligan. We never really manage to feel invested in every one of these characters, and instead can only attach to a few. Goodman easily has the best part, with his ambiguous morals and stern demeanor keeping him a very believable, restrained character that steals most of his scenes. Ashton Sanders is very good as another sorta-lead, Gabriel, and several character actors (Alan Ruck, James Ransone, Kevin Dunn) turn in very layered, realistic performances. It's the performances, really, that come through in the end and make us care. Director Wyatt seems much more interested in focusing on the event and entire system of society under alien oppression, rather than the lives and details of each and every one of his characters. In some ways, this is a detriment, as it makes some payoffs feel very numb and sorta empty. But in other ways (which I will not spoil), the restraint on developing the characters pays off completely, as we manage to attach ourselves to them based solely on subtle performances and small character ticks that recur throughout the film. Some dialogue is admittedly clunky, and again, some emotional weight is removed with some of these character's fates when we hardly know some of their names. However, Rupert Wyatt clearly respects his audience, using visuals and limited information a create a very gloomy, suspenseful atmosphere that consistently kept me on edge. The lack of detail on the alien species and their capabilities puts us in the same position as the human characters -- in the dark, scrambling to make it in this ruthless setting.

This, as well as the numerous other pros and a hefty load of solid social commentary, are enough to redeem CAPTIVE STATE of it's scripting faults and jumbled structure. An enthusiastic 7/10.

There is no character development. I didn't care what happened to any of the characters, because I didn't learn a lot about most of the characters.

The script/plot is a jumbled, boring mess.

The ending was obvious, but by the time things started to come together, it didn't matter.

This could have been an interesting story, but the execution fell flat.

I have not seen anyone attempt an alien movie like this. One where humans are allowed to live on Earth going about their business, yet are subjects of an alien force, and the humans essentially police themselves. Rupert Wyatt deserves a tip of the cap for being original, and being able to bring his creative story to life on relatively low budget.

So many movies about aliens have them as the central focus or antagonist. This is certainly not the case. It actually parallels many stories in the real world. Rebellions always need to start somewhere, and they need to gain traction in order to generate momentum. That's what this film is about; it's that process. It can be a little slow or confusing, but it does all come together for a satisfying end.

John Goodman is most definitely the life blood of the film. His character traits and presence brings so much to the table. The overall viewing experience would seriously be lacking without him.

The Tone of the Movie is dark and grim from start to finish. No light Moments, no silly jokes, no plotarmor.

Conversations are the bare minimum and the story keeps itself always in focus of what it wants to tell you.

Aliens took over the World but the true enemies we see in the movie are most of the time the willing helpers and traitors of their own kind, other Humans.

But keep in mind, this is not an action movie.

The story follows several members of an underground unit that tries to get something done against the aliens and their human accomplices.

The plot is not realy predictable, the tone and music is concistent and fits the theme very good.

The Movie has a bit of 1984, Equilibrium, V and children of men.

Just tiny bits of each, put together in a refreshing way.

I dont say it reachs the same level like one or the other, depending of your likings. But it sure was entertaining.

I´m not gonna say anything else about the plot and the twist, experience that yourself.

One thing is for sure. It was a pleasent surprise and deserve a better score than 6/10.

I want more Movies that treat me like a thinking person who can put 1+1 together by myself and not a braindead drone like most of todays Hollywood Movies.

Worth a watch.

I don't know where to start because this movie doesn't even know where it's going. The first hour of the movie has no action or aliens yet the trailer made it look like some cool action movie. There is absolutely no character building so you don't give a crap about the cast to the point where you don't even know who is who or what the character's names are. Do yourself a favor if you are thinking about watching this movie and don't. A waste of time, money and film.

A refreshing change to the scifi dross I've watched lately.

Needs a bit of patience at the start, but once things get going it's an engrossing, well crafted, thriller.

Ignore the poor reviews if you like something that doesn't treat the audience like idiots.

Would have given a higher mark if the start had been more engaging.

Not sure why this movie got so much hate. I'm very picky when it comes to movies, but I thought captive state was great. Maybe people didn't like it because it wasn't your typical "Alien movie" like war of the worlds for example, it had more substance to it. So i would definitely recommend it to any sci fi fans out there.

Original sci-fi is hard to come by these days which makes Captive State easier to appreciate in spite of its flaws. It's an absorbing ground level look at an alien invasion that brings all of its disparate plot threads together in a clunky yet satisfying fashion. It holds the answers until the very end and then everything suddenly clicks into place.

With a strong cast who all play fairly one dimensional characters, they're at their strongest when they're together. The strengths come from watching them plan their moves, fully aware of what's at stake and what it'll cost them even if they succeed. Ashton Sanders is a good lead however, it's John Goodman who gives the strongest performance with the most depth.

Rupert Wyatt's direction wisely keeps the aliens out of sight for the most part whilst using visual storytelling to create some striking imagery to give this alternate reality a sense of history. He utilises the end credits to tell the final pieces of the story in the same way as Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Alex Disenhof's mobile and up close cinematography really works for the small scale approach.

I kept waiting for a plot to materialize. It never did.