Picture Credit: Netflix
From the creative team behind such Marvel Cinematic Universe sensations as Captain America: The Winter Soldier & Avengers: Endgame, The Electric State is the latest big-budget, star-studded Netflix film for the Russo Brothers after their 2022 spy thriller The Gray Man failed to meet lofty expectations with critics.
Based on the illustrated novel of the same name from Swedish artist Simon Stalenhag, the story follows Michelle (Netflix staple Millie Bobby Brown), an orphaned teen who lost her parents and genius brother Christopher to a car accident, who now lives as an ankle-monitored ward of the state in her latest foster home.
Set in an alternate reality 1990s where robots lose a war with humans after seeking freedom & equality, Michelle struggles to fit into the new VR/AI-heavy society created largely by tech giant Sentre and their CEO Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci). Their invention of the Neurocaster helped defeat the robots by creating a neural link between a human and a drone mechanical body. Now, humans use this device to be able to work & play at the same time, creating a better reality than their post-war environment.
One night, a robot based on the Cosmo cartoon Michelle used to watch with her late brother arrives at her home seeking her out. While seeming implausible, she is convinced by the robot that it is, in fact, her brother’s consciousness controlling this robotic exterior and that they need to find Christopher – alive and in danger – before it’s too late.
Beyond Brown’s lead and Tucci’s tech villainy, the film is filled with well known veteran actors either in live-action or voiceover roles. MCU staple Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) joins the fight as Keats, alongside his fellow Marvel men Giancarlo Esposito & Anthony Mackie (voice of Herman). Woody Harrelson, Brian Cox, Jenny Slate, Alan Tudyk, & Billy Bob Thornton all lend their voices to key robotic characters in the film as well.
While reviews of the graphic novel seem to point to a bleak, dystopian road trip story with Cormac McCarthy or Orwellian overtones, this film version seems to use the term adaptation very loosely. With a seemingly Amblin-Spielberg aesthetic (read: attempted) filled with animatronic pop culture based robots (Mr. Peanut as an example), an opportunistic smuggler/robot war veteran (Pratt) with a growing empathy and a spunky robo sidekick, and … well … Ke Huy Quan (The Goonies, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), The Electric State seems to have veered off in a completely different direction from its source and looked to more of the grandiose blockbuster register that the Russos prefer to operate within.
As confounding as that tone shift may be for fans of the graphic novel, viewers coming in cold will have plenty to be conflicted about as well. In our current world of AI, Metaverse, & ugh, Elon Musk, it may be hard to care about robot rights or tech moguls gone too far without rolling your eyes or turning it off. Now, try it on when the movie doesn’t go into any of these subjects with any depth or clarity. Every time this films goes up to the line where it would have to go darker or more introspective or philosophical, it pulls back and dines on nostalgia & largely unearned sentimentality. Are we pro-technology, as we created the robots that we should live side-by-side with in harmony, or are we anti-tech, as we become over-reliant on tech billionaires and the inventions that seem to make us more isolated & withdrawn from society? Don’t worry about that! Just watch an old timey baseball mascot bot throw baseballs at drones! Heck, the end credits song “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt 1” by the Grammy-winning indie art rockers The Flaming Lips features lyrics largely comprised of KILLING “those evil natured robots” while following a battle won by robots! Can’t make this up.
The Electric State. Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) with Cosmo (voiced by Alan Tudyk) in The Electric State. ™/© 2024 Netflix.
However cynical you want to be about its story or lack of vision, at its core (and at its best), The Electric State is a feast for the eyes filled with familiar faces & voices, tons of late 20th century music anthems, impressive VFX work, & a sense of adventure (whether misguided or emotionally forced is up for debate). It cares far more for the ride than the content and believes that a two-minute conversation between siblings at the beginning of the film is enough to carry the emotional weight of its duration and its conclusion.
However, the main issue for The Electric State is that it somehow falls short on both sides of the emotional choices it could make: it’s not deep, dark, or smart enough to lean into the high-minded sci-fi that its source material may lead you to believe this may be AND it’s not funny or fun enough to overlook its screenplay shortcomings. It’s simply a 2 hour madlibs of things we are coded to enjoy but can’t seem to wrap our minds around or care enough about in the end. With a story that wants us to stop being distracted and start engaging with reality, the film, interestingly enough, wants us to not think that hard and just have an adventure.
Watch The Electric State If You Like
- Pacific Rim
- Ready Player One
- The Adam Project
- The Grey Man
- Atlas
MVP of The Electric State
Visual EFX & Special EFX Teams
For all the hand-wringing about how much the story struggles to find enough thought and emotionality to succeed, the one thing that always works is those darn robots.
The Visual EFX & Special EFX teams should be lauded for its efforts as everything from the painstaking detail of the character designs to the seamless motion of the Kaiju level battles waged throughout the film are so well-crafted.
The Russo Brothers struggle again post-MCU to combine their blockbuster adventure mentality with a script worth the splashy names and high production values. MBB and Pratt don’t matter much in an inconsistent, shallow, and contradictory story full of tech word salad.
Rating: PG-13
