Orphaned teenager Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) sets out on a search for her long lost brother with a robot named Cosmo (Alan Tudyk). They form a tenuous alliance with a smuggler named Keats (Chris Pratt) and his robot friend Herman (Anthony Mackie) before setting out into a dangerous desert wasteland. 

Set in an alternate version of the 1990’s where robots and humans have just ended a bitter war over robot rights, The Electric State is a peculiar amalgamation of ideas. 

First and foremost this is Netflix’s latest massive budget action behemoth of a movie. Costing in the region of $320 million. Yet its origins are a small 2018 dystopian graphic novel by Simon Stalenhag. The beautiful visual imagery from the novel is the only aspect of it that has made its way to the screen adaptation and presumably is where a great deal of that budget has gone also. None of the complex or dark storyline has been transposed though. The Netflix movie is a breezy family action flick that requires large amounts of “it’s just a movie” thinking on the audience’s part to make it through. 

Secondly this is a Russo brothers film. Which at this point is hard to define. Brothers Anthony and Joe began their careers with the uneven comedy of 2002’s Welcome To Collinwood and 2006’s You, Me and Dupree. From there they directed four Marvel movies that included two of the largest grossing movies of all time; Captain America Winter Soldier and Civil War. Avengers Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. They then pivoted to streaming movies with a selection of their Marvel stars. Apple’s Cherry starred Tom Holland. Netflix’s The Gray Man starred Chris Evans. And now The Electric State features Chris Pratt and Anthony Mackie. What will follow will be more Avengers movies. Possibly because Marvel films are struggling and want to go back to what brought them success and perhaps also because every non-Marvel Russo film has been functional or uneven. This one is no exception. 

Finally, this feels entirely like a hodge-podge of much better Steven Spielberg films. The robot vs humans civil war featuring Mr. Peanut (Woody Harrelson) feels like a passing attempt at Lincoln. The vast amount of CGI robots and underlying message that we should connect with each other in the real world is Ready Player One. And the idea that robots can become sentient and evolve into real beings is A.I. The issue is that the Russo’s are not on the same level as Spielberg and those comparisons just bring The Electric State’s shortcomings into sharper focus. 

The absolute best aspect of the film is its visual effects. The robotic remnants that are scattered throughout the landscapes look superb and evoke a sense of a lived in world that is still trying to recover from the scars of war. These are noticeably the facets of the book that remain. 

The robots versus humans war is intriguing, but features many of those “it’s just a movie” moments I referenced earlier. How they became sentient is a mystery never answered. Let alone how they worked together to even begin a war, let alone coordinate a strategy and in this case a surrender signed by Mr. Peanut. But the idea is enough to make the main character friendships illegal and propel a plot. You just have to go with it to create this idea of a trek to the exclusion zone where robots now live feasible. 

The villains’ motivations and actions on the other hand are a real struggle. A tech billionaire by the name of Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci) has specific reasons for his maniacal plans, but frankly it’s all ridiculous and farcical, so again go with it. Then there is The Marshall (Giancarlo Esposito) who literally just hates robots… but also has a specific moral code. The fact they cast Esposito, who is at this point in time is the most typecast villain on screen, just about makes this one passable. Honestly though it’s a tough pill to swallow. 

And then there are our heroes. Oh dear. Chris Pratt is doing the same thing he has done since he became a big action star. So you know how you are going to feel about that. And Millie Bobby Brown is starting to make me worry that all the talent she has shown in Stranger Things is just going to be forgotten as she plays a cookie cutter heroine in all of her films. And the less said about their chemistry together the better. The only character who comes out really well is Anthony Mackie’s Herman. 

The result is a visually stunning but all too generic family action movie. 

It is fine…

But is that ok? Is it ok to take a loved source material with nuance and complexity and only take the visuals? Is it ok to create a $320 million film with no intriguing facets or risks? 

Personally I do not ever see myself returning to The Electric State. But it was not a painful or difficult watch. It just felt like a lot of promise being squandered.