Streaming giant Netflix has long desired a blockbuster franchise to rival the likes of Fast & Furious or Marvel. Over the years, millions have been poured into action movies for the platform that have been watched by many, but remembered by few. The Electric State represents their biggest gamble to date, bringing in Avengers: Endgame directors The Russo Brothers and an all-star cast. But can they succeed where films like Extraction and Red Notice fell flat?
Based on the 2018 illustrated novel by Simon Stålenhag, The Electric State is set in an alternate history where animatronics evolved much faster, leading to a robot service class by the early 1990s. Those robots rebelled, leading to a war that saw all but a few droids wiped out and humans addicted to VR helmets controlled by an evil tech magnate (Stanley Tucci) and his company Sentre.
Orphan Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) learns that her late brother may in fact be alive when a drone arrives on her doorstep claiming to be controlled by him. Teaming up with a black marketeer (Chris Pratt) and robot liberation leader Mr. Peanut (voiced by Woody Harrelson), Michelle sets out to find her brother and thwart Sentre’s control.
Putting a Spielbergian filter over the visuals and soundtrack, the film looks every bit of the reported $320 million that was spent on it. That budget, one of the largest in history, means the world and its inhabitants are impressively assembled. The robots are the peak of computer animation, coupled with familiar voices to bring them to life.
However, while it looks like it cost a fortune, it feels like pennies were spent on the story. A soulless trudge of a sci-fi road-movie, anything interesting is avoided in favour of limp gags and CGI ornaments. Is it the most depressing category of filmmaking: a movie designed to be empty other than the occasional moments of spectacle that make you look up from your phone.
Even more of a head-scratcher is what the film is trying to say. Films of a similar ilk – Ready Player One or The Creator, for instance – may have been flawed but at least have a message pertinent to the real world. The Electric State feels like broad buzzwords that maybe sounded cool in a writers’ room.
The broad civil rights analogies don’t have much of an impact when they’re coming from the mouth of an animatronic peanut, particularly one based on a real-life corporate mascot. It’s not certain if the Russos are condemning or condoning technology, but with a script so bereft of nuance that’s not a surprise.
The archetypes extend to the cast, with the expensively assembled stars reheating characters from their past. With a shaggy haircut and a ridiculous moustache, Pratt is an approximation of his Marvel persona, a schlubby grifter with unearned confidence. If you love his schtick it may raise a smile, but there’s little for him to work with.
Equally, Brown is the same rebellious teen she was in the Godzilla movies, and Tucci offers a copy-and-paste villain performance indistinguishable from other equally terrible blockbusters he’s appeared in. The only person offering something new is Giancarlo Esposito as a gruff southern general on the group’s tail, although sadly this proves more hammy than menacing.
The Electric State had all the money and talent in Hollywood to make something special. Instead, they made an assembly line product filled with phoned-in performances that will be as quickly forgotten as Netflix’s other franchise attempts.