Death, taxes and A mega-flop from the Russo Brothers. It seems, in the wake of Avengers: Endgame and the Russo’s departure from the Disney content machine, that these are the only guarantees in life. After helming two of the most successful films of all time for the MCU, the brotherly directing duo has since directed two big budget flops: The Gray Man, starring Chris Evans and Ana De Armas and which cost Netflix 200 million dollars to make, and Cherry, a 40-million-dollar Apple TV+ bomb starring Tom Holland. It’s seemingly make-or-break time for the Russo’s, who are headed back to the MCU for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Enter The Electric State, a new Netflix big budget endeavor that cost a record breaking $320 million dollars to produce.
It’s a big swing for both Netflix and the Russo’s, but one that confuses me. Yes, the directors helped create the biggest box office success of all time, but that was the culmination of over 20 films of collective storytelling and a decade of characters the public has come to love. It’s like landing a plane that’s 10 minutes from the end of a 10-hour flight. Sure, it’s an accomplishment, but many other folks helped lay the groundwork. It’s equally as confusing why Netflix would invest that much money with no real way to recoup it. The studio is not releasing The Electric State into theaters, so box office won’t come into play. The only hope they have is through subscribers, but a film like this doesn’t move that needle. Additionally, it’s confusing from a business standpoint why Netflix would double down on their Russo investment after the duo bombed with their previous Netflix effort.
But nonetheless, The Electric State, an “adaptation” of the book of the same name by Simon Stålenhag has finally arrived. The film stars Millie Bobby Brown as an orphaned teenage girl who, after a war with robots for their independence, has lost both her parents and her brother in a tragic car accident. The film’s concept comes from the original novel, where robots have gained sentience and decide to fight for their independence. With humanity seemingly on the brink, an innovative new technology is introduced by Ethan Skate; the “neurocaster”, a headset that allows the user to control non-sentient robots called drones remotely. This advancement wins humans the war, robots are sent away to live in what is essentially a prison camp, and the neurocaster is mass produced for civilian use in order to escape the mundane nature of everyday life.
The background, pulled directly from Stålenhag’s visual novel, is unfortunately the best part of the film. The Electric State is billed as a “loose adaptation”, a description that feels apt for what the film is. The rest of the story is, at best, derivative of the original and, at worst, wholly unrecognizable from the source material. It’s clear that the Russo’s and their screenplay partners Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely either don’t understand the richness of what made the novel great or they just don’t care.
When the plot picks up, Michelle has long since been an orphan. She lives with her foster father, a tech addicted overbearing slob. Suddenly, a robot appears and seemingly convinced Michelle that he is her brother Christopher- or at least a part of him. He knows he’s still alive, but not where he is. The two set out on an adventure to find his human body, eventually accompanied by soldier-turned-smuggler Keats (Chris Pratt) and his own robot pal Herman.
As they cross the country, there are some really great visuals of the aftermath of the devastating war that took place. Decaying robot skeletons lie strewn across battlefields, a dark memorial of what nearly caused humanity’s elimination. But this is where the Russo’s missteps begin. Instead of diving headfirst into the dark themes, the film instead wades ankle deep into them, mixing these moments with a cavalcade of one-liners, bits, unserious jokes and asinine needle drops. There isn’t a moment of seriousness that isn’t broken up by one of these bits. It makes for a frustrating watch that feels devoid of any life or meaning outside of being content for the Netflix algorithms.
By the time the two pairs of adventurers team up, all semblance of the original concepts are gone. Instead, we get to bask in the visually impressive yet equally lifeless robot mall, where giant corporate mascots like a Woody Harrelson-voiced Mr. Peanut have been sent to live out their days. While the visual effects are surprisingly effective, these moments just feel like they don’t matter. When it’s revealed that Skate’s company Sentre are actually bad (a twist only those under 13 won’t see coming), the humans and robots band together to rise up against the corporate entity overlords. But even this message feels muddied, as if the film is trying to say, “THESE corporate entities are bad, but these OTHER ones, helmed by Peanut and Jenny Slate’s USPS mail lady, are actually the ones to root for”. I could see it if this were a first draft that needed to be further refined to make sense, but this is in fact the final result of one of the 15 biggest budget films ever made.
As far as the performances, there’s little to write home about. While there’s nothing overly offensive, most of the cast feels like they’re either phoning it in or not asked to do anything outside of their comfort zone. While I believe Millie Bobby Brown is a talented actress, her character is so one-dimensionally cliche there’s no space for her to actually act. Chris Pratt is doing Starlord 2.0, and even legendary actors like Giancarlo Esposito and Stanley Tucci feel incredibly misused. The only one who seems to be able to balance the films tone is Anthony Mackie, who voices robot companion Herman. For the most part though, the performances feel no better than meh. It’s clear that the Russo’s are much better at telling actors to do what they’ve been doing for 10 years a la the MCU than directing actors to explore new characters in any compelling way.
Final Thoughts
You’d think all of these incredible dystopian sci-fi concepts and a stacked cast mixed with one of the highest production budgets ever would mean success. Maybe in the hands of actual sci-fi filmmakers like Spielberg, Denis Villeneuve or Alex Garland it would. But the way it stands currently, The Electric State is really nothing more than an embarrassing flop that no one will remember in 3 weeks’ time. Don’t waste your time watching it.
1.5/5
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I have been watching movies my whole life and fell in love at an early age. I was entranced by the ability for a film to whisk me away to a different universe, and that really started with the Star Wars Franchise. I'm by no means an expert and can roll with opinions that might be controversial, but that's the beauty of a film; we can all see the same thing on screen, but each of us may come away with a different interpretation of what we saw. When I'm not watching movies, I work in Marketing with my degree from Western New England University.
MY FAVORITE MOVIES: Good Will Hunting, Star Wars: A New Hope (or the whole saga), All The President's Men, Before Sunrise, Ocean's 11, In The Mood For Love and so many more...