The Electric State Review

Zero Spark.

Anthony and Joe Russo's The Electric State feels like a movie made with the intention of you being on your phone for its entirety. It is a film inspired by the whimsy and awe-inspiring adventures of the great Steven Speilberg put to the screen, but as though the soul and charisma have been chopped up and regurgitated into this mess. The Electric State is a vapid slog in which actors are either going through the motions or so one-note that it makes you question their range entirely. The film's emotional moments fall flat, leaving the audience feeling disconnected, and the action carries no weight as there are no stakes in this 320-million-dollar slop fest. But hey, there are cool needle drops amongst the dullness, sure.

The Electric State follows the fallout of a human-robot war in the 1990s, in which humans defeated the robots by hooking themselves up to neurocasters. These devices enabled them to control robot suits that could go toe-to-toe with sentient robots who just wanted rights and freedom. We follow Michelle (Milly Bobby Brown), who lost her parents and brother in a tragic accident but is found by a wild robot who claims to be her brother's consciousness and that her brother is still alive out there. She then sets off on an adventure into the exclusion zone where the robots are banished to save her brother and teams up with scavenger John D. Keats (Chris Pratt) and his robot companion Herm (Anthony Mackie) to save her brother and defeat the evil Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci) who's company is responsible for all of this.

Milly Bobby Brown, I'm so happy you got your Netflix money and will continue to do so, but I need a bit more here. Playing this teenager once again in the flattest and most boring possible way, I can't understand what you're doing with your career here when your ceiling as an actor in Strangers Thing Season 1 seemed so high. There's supposed to be this endearing relationship between her and this robot who's supposed to be her brother, a nod to say E.T., but it's just even close to cute where it all feels numb. This lack of chemistry between the characters leaves the audience feeling unengaged. This is paired so nicely with Chris Pratt, who is just doing wish.com Harrison Ford and trying to bring some energy, but it's a character we've seen him do much better under better direction. I didn't see any on-screen chemistry between the two in an adventuring older brother/younger sister type of way, and any of the supporting roles are just fine. The baffling choice of Giancarlo Esposito, Colman Domingo, and others simply behind screens of androids for the majority of the film is just frustrating. Stanley Tucci, as this "complicated" villain, is whatever. Again, it feels like a guy going through the motions like most of the cast and voice actors giving cheesy one-liners after another.

Man, was I bored. The story is incredibly bland, and for a fight between humans and robots, you'd think it would be entertaining, but making all the humans dudes in android suits removes any impact or gravity to any of the action set pieces in the film. The Electric State also has uncanniness with so much CGI. The robots look solid, but the lighting and settings all look drab and uninteresting. How can a movie this expensive still look this bad? The original work by Simon Stålenhag oozes with atmosphere and this feeling of melancholy and experiences where this film feels devoid of any personality besides, remember this '90s reference? There is so much nostalgia bait that my eyes almost rolled out of my sockets.

The film regrettably lacks any semblance of an original idea, and any theme or message trying to be presented here is just uninspired. The Russo brothers' attempt to convey the need to disconnect from our phones and screens and touch grass falls flat. This lack of innovation is why, recently, someone said that Tenet was the worst movie they had seen in the last 5-10 years. I sincerely said, "Please watch more movies because there is a slop for those seeking it." I should have just put on a Kurosawa flick I haven't seen. Please do anything else with your time, I beg. What a frustrating movie.

Final Score: 2/10

Written by Kevin J. Pettit