Captive State

Rupert Wyatt, director of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, delivers an intimate sci-fi film about the alien occupation of our earth. More was definitely expected from Rupert and the reception here has been rather disappointing, but abroad they cautiously give a thumbs up and I am not downright disappointed either. Very attractive stuff that is quite realistically filmed, the aliens have look cool and are properly dangerous, and I enjoyed watching the growing underground resistance, but it's a shame that the director didn't pick go further and included action scenes that would have been useful, because the premise offered a lot of potential for a big event. Decent, but it could have been better. 60% (10.06.2019)

It may not be entertaining or exciting, but it’s a very, very interesting look at what the world would look like after an alien invasion. And it's brutally underrated here, because if the Czech viewer doesn't get an Emmerich-esque silly tale about aliens flying and throwing green farts out of their eyes, the average moviegoer isn't interested, or, like the stupid LIVINGDEAD, they throw it straight into the garbage. This is a maniacally precise anatomy of a state supporting a dictatorship, with the imminent annihilation of humanity by aliens and the anatomy of human resistance by a few heroes. I like the idea it raises that without human collaboration at the state level, an alien invasion would actually be pointless. I may use a strong simile now, but it’s all the more accurate – humanity, or more precisely the state establishment after the invasion, is here in the role of a kind of Sonderkommando, without whom the Nazi concentration camps would not have existed. Here it’s similar: a collaborating state with Big Brother at its back. Thank you, Rupert Wyatt, for a different take on an old topic. (02.07.2019)