Captive State

Whether our streets are under assault by alien insects or craven speculators, if a filmmaker shows the places we know and love, we will care about the story's fate, no matter how far-fetched.

At its best, Captive State blends imaginative science-fiction with the caliber of detail-oriented espionage you might find in an Alan J. Pakula film.

Overall it's a mess, compounded by murky CGI and some unrealistic performances.

An unsatisfying potluck of quasi-relevant, frustration-inducing ideas.

Goodman, Dunn and Farmiga play even the more ridiculous elements straight, as if they're in a cop movie. The younger actors are all terrific as well.

Unfortunately, character development is perfunctory and unsatisfactory. We're watching a bunch of pawns on a filmmaker's chessboard.

One of those movies that come out every year showing tremendous potential, an innovative and intriguing premise, but in the end, it just isn’t able to succeed.

The world building provided could have been stronger, but it’s enough of a foundation to be informative and interesting.

Plenty of well-developed twists hold the attention, even if a few more scary encounters with the spidery ETs might have lifted the rather dour mood.

Episode 32: Captive State / Pandorum / Mirror Image / Us