Electric State, The | Reelviews Movie Reviews

Many things have been written about The Electric State, few of which are complimentary. I’m here to say that, unfortunately, most of them are true. Many failings can be laid at the feet of those who contributed to the development of this film. It’s not well-written, well-casted, well-acted, or well-paced. The special effects, although solidly crafted, don’t justify the stratospheric budget. But the greatest sin of all is the most difficult to forgive: The Electric State is a huge bore. With its absolute predictability and repetitive, unexciting action sequences, it becomes a chore to sit through. And, for a movie that wants to be Netflix’s version of an early spring blockbuster, few things could be worse.

The concept of a war between human beings and sentient robots has long since become a cliché. Yet that’s the territory into which The Electric State ventures during its early scenes and the result is predictably uninspired. By not taking the time to make the situation seem vital or believable, we are left stranded in an underdeveloped future where the people are as cartoonish as the robots. With a movie like this, I’m not expecting the filmmakers to re-invent the wheel. But there’s a difference between regurgitating overfamiliar tropes and refining them. Outside of their MCU movies, the brother duo of Anthony & Joe Russo haven’t had a lot of mainstream success. Their movies have always been costly and none has garnered much in the way of positive word-of-mouth. They have been granted James Cameron-sized budgets without delivering James Cameron-sized results.

The Russos have assembled a nice cast. Headliners Mille Bobbie Brown and Chris Pratt are arguably the weakest members, with Pratt often trying to reincarnate his Guardians of the Galaxy persona and Brown being too earnest. Their (platonic) Odd Couple routine isn’t as fun as one might expect, possibly because this sort of dynamic works best with a dose of low-key sexual tension – something not really feasible considering the age difference. (Brown is 21; Pratt is 45) Stanley Tucci steals scenes left and right (something not unfamiliar) as the film’s bad guy, Ethan Skate. Giancarlo Esposito also deserves recognition as Colonel Bradburry a.k.a. “The Butcher.” The rest of the cast do voicework: Alan Tudyk as Cosmo, Woody Harrelson as Mr. Peanut, Anthony Mackie as Herman, Jenny Slate as Penny Pal, and Brian Cox as Pop Fly.

The story opens in 1990 on an alternate Earth during the prelude to a war between humans and robots. Presumably, the mechanical entities have attained sentience although no real time is spent on this monumental event – it’s simply accepted as a given. Once the war breaks out, things don’t look good for the flesh-and-blood combatants until a savior arrives in the person of Sentre CEO Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci), who has developed a technology that allows human beings to put on a helmet and have one-on-one control over a fighting drone. The war is won and the surviving droids are exiled to an exclusion zone.

The main character, teenager Michelle (Brown), is visited by a quirky robot crafted in the form of a cartoon character named Cosmo (Alan Tudyk). Michelle soon intuits that Cosmo contains the consciousness of her allegedly dead younger brother, Christopher (Woody Norman). Determined to find her brother’s flesh-and-blood body, she and Cosmo embark on a quest to locate him. Along the way, they are joined by ex-veteran Keats (Chris Pratt) and his robot buddy Herman (Anthony Mackie). Their journey takes them into the exclusion zone where they encounter the ragtag remnants of the robot army, who are in the process of creating a new society, and learn the ugly truth about Skate and Christopher.

The Electric State’s lone surefooted dramatic element occurs during the final act as the screenplay finally (after fumbling around for about 90 minutes) attempts something moderately courageous. Unfortunately, the good is at least partially undone by an anticlimactic resolution and a lot of cheesy dialogue. The film’s robot-on-drone battle scenes are nicely rendered but oddly reminiscent of fights in Michael Bay’s Transformers where the spectacle elements are hollow and ultimately unsatisfying.

This is a case when money is an issue because, without budgetary constraints, there’s no need to drill down and hone the ideas cribbed from Simon Stalenhag’s book into something coherent and compelling. The Electric State has an epic look but that’s increasingly common in any movie with sci-fi elements. But, aside from the special effects, it feels unfinished, with the actors groping to inhabit barely-there characters. What does it say when Mr. Peanut has more personality than either of the main characters?

Netflix cares more about the image of having A-list directors like the Russos working for them than they do about the quality of the resulting product. It’s a good thing, too. If The Electric State had been released in theaters, the result would have shocked the box office in a very bad way.