(L to R) Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) , Keats (Chris Pratt) and Dr. Amherst (Ke Huy Quan) in ‘The Electric State’. Photo: Paul Abell, ©2024 Netflix, Inc.
‘The Electric State’ receives 6.5 out of 10 stars.
Premiering on Netflix on March 14th, ‘The Electric State’ is the latest big movie from ‘Avengers: Infinity War’/‘Avengers: Endgame’ directors Joe and Anthony Russo and is set in a dystopian past where robots and mankind have been locked in conflict.
It’s just the latest effort from the filmmakers, who haven’t exactly had a warm critical reception for the work they’ve put out since ending their ‘Avengers’ run (they’re back on that particular duty with the next twomovies), and unfortunately won’t do all that much to change the perception of them.
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Does ‘The Electric State’ Have the Right Spark of Invention?
‘The Electric State’. Photo: Netflix.
‘The Electric State’ is reaching for Spielbergian levels of exploring heart within technological tales, but it never quite makes it there.
A lot of what is entertaining about this new movie feels like it was borrowed from other, better movies, some of them Spielberg’s own –– there is definitely some DNA from ‘A.I.: Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘Ready Player One‘ here in the story (adapted by the directors’ regular collaborators, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely from Simon Stålenhag’s graphic novel.
While the source material offers a basic spine for the plot –– an alternate 1990s where humanity and robots have been locked in a conflict after the latter revolted against being employed to do all the grunt work people don’t want to –– and some of the visual inspiration, the movie takes those ideas and runs with them.
Yet what the team chooses to make its focus doesn’t always work that well. And to add to the feel of borrowed acclaim, chunks of the score sound like composer Alan Silvestri using discarded cuts from his ‘Avengers’ music.
Script and Direction
(L to R) Joe Russo (Director), Anthony Russo (Director) and Millie Bobby Brown as Michelle on the set of ‘The Electric State’. Photo: Paul Abell, ©2024 Netflix, Inc.
Markus and McFeely have brought us well-thought-out stories before, even ones that must juggle multiple characters.
But in ‘The Electric State,’ the central character is Millie Bobby Brown’s Michelle, whose life is shattered when her parents and genius younger brother are killed in a car crash. At least, she thinks her brother is dead –– but when she’s visited unexpectedly by a robot based on his favourite childhood cartoon, she comes to believe he might actually be alive.
So begins a quest to find him, one that will take Michelle, smuggler Keats (Chris Pratt) and his robot sidekick Herm (voiced by Anthony Mackie) into what is known as the Exclusion Zone, a walled-off corner in the desert where robots were banished following the war.
The plot offers the opportunity for plenty of amusing robo-characters, but the sheer number just makes the film feel busy and underfocused, while the endless quips from the various robots don’t always land. The narrative is also locked into a fairly predictable progression –– you’ll likely guess where it’s all headed before too long.
‘The Electric State’. Photo: Netflix.
Still, there is some genuine emotion infused towards the end of the story.
As directors, the Russos have proved they can handle these big movies, but their more recent efforts on that front, including ‘The Gray Man’ have been blandly reductive releases despite the talent involved both on screen and behind the camera.
For ‘The Electric State’ that means a starry cast (most of them are on voice duty) and some very impressive visual effects, but with a $320 million budget, you’d expect that.
Cast and Performances
(L to R) Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) and Keats (Chris Pratt) in ‘The Electric State’. ™/© 2024 Netflix.
Millie Bobby Brown continues to prove she can anchor genre work, but the role of Michelle, the young woman at the center of the movie, doesn’t always offer her too many chances to prove it. She’s perfectly fine in the role, but little more than that.
Chris Pratt, meanwhile, is largely doing a riff on characters of this type he’s played before –– the lovable rogue we’ve met in the likes of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and ‘Jurassic World,’ and Keats is very much a watered-down version of those.
Stanley Tucci is somewhat lumbered with a basic villain role, a tech mogul with shades of Elon Musk who claims to want to help humanity but is only too happy if there’s collateral damage.
(L to R) Giancarlo Esposito and Stanley Tucci in ‘The Electric State’. Photo: Netflix.
Giancarlo Esposito is also an antagonist, the hard-nosed drone pilot and robot deactivation specialist Colonel Bradbury, but the part is very much another scowling villain role for the actor, who might want to look into some different parts.
Woody Norman as Michelle’s super-smart brother Chris has some nice notes to play, though he is naturally off screen for much of the running time. Still, if there is genuine emotion to be found at all, it’s in the human connection between Chris and Michelle.
Another Woody, this time Harrelson, plays Mr. Peanut, the southern-fried promotional robot of the snack treat. He’s decent, but mostly speaks in platitudes.
Elsewhere, the voice cast is a mixed bag –– Jenny Slate and Mackie are among the highlights, while Brian Cox is saddled with a one-joke character in Pop Fly, a baseball bot.
Final Thoughts
Millie Bobby Brown in ‘The Electric State’. Photo: Paul Abell, ©2024 Netflix, Inc.
‘The Electric State’ seems unlikely to change many peoples’ opinion about the Russo’s non-MCU work. It’s certainly a sweeping story with some fun to be found, but it rarely leaves a mark on the level of movies it has been inspired by.
It’s a shame, as the creative team have clearly poured their hearts into it –– if only the results were better.
What’s the plot of ‘The Electric State’?
‘The Electric State’ is set in an alternate, retro-futuristic version of the 1990s. Millie Bobby Brown stars as Michelle, an orphaned teenager navigating life in a society where sentient robots resembling cartoons and mascots, who once served peacefully among humans, now live in exile following a failed uprising.
Everything Michelle thinks she knows about the world is upended one night when she’s visited by Cosmo, a sweet, mysterious robot who appears to be controlled by Christopher — Michelle’s genius younger brother whom she thought was dead. Determined to find the beloved sibling she thought she had lost, Michelle sets out across the American southwest with Cosmo, and soon finds herself reluctantly joining forces with Keats (Chris Pratt), a low-rent smuggler, and his wisecracking robot sidekick, Herman (voiced by Anthony Mackie).
As they venture into the Exclusion Zone, a walled-off corner in the desert where robots now exist on their own, Keats and Michelle find a strange, colorful group of new animatronic allies — and begin to learn that the forces behind Christopher’s disappearance are more sinister than they ever expected.
Who is in the cast of ‘The Electric State’?
Chris Pratt in ‘The Electric State’. Photo: Paul Abell, ©2024 Netflix, Inc.
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