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The Electric State: Review

Anything but electric

The Russo Brothers have made a career out of injecting rare smarts and soul into big studio films. While perhaps best known for master-minding the high point of the MCU in Infinity War, they also produced the weird and wonderful Everything Everywhere All at Once. That means that their latest film, based on Simon Stålenhag’s graphic novel, arrives with a fair bit of expectation.

For the most part, The Electric State fails to meet them. Set in a technologically dependant version of 1990s America, we open with a rushed news montage that breezes through a multitude of key information in about 5 minutes. After a war that pit humans against their friendly robot aides, a fragile peace treaty has separated the illegal ‘bots’ into an ‘X’ zone behind a massive wall (If that feels like an on-the-nose reference to current political events, just wait till you’ve seen the rest of the film).

At the heart of this story is Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown), a teenage orphan whose brother (Woody Harmon) died in mysterious circumstances. But when a robot based on their favourite cartoon - Kid Cosmo - appears to share his living consciousness, Michelle joins him on a quest to find answers.

On the surface, this journey has all the elements of an engaging sci-fi adventure. As Michelle joins her new companion to the robot-infested desert, there’s plenty of WALL.E level cuteness at play (the leader of the robots is a stately Peanut voiced by Woody Harrelson). There’s also a thoughtful plot about our attachment to technology, and an emotional story of brother-sister reconciliation to tie it all in together. Stanley Tucci even stars as a soft-spoken tech billionaire with questionable intentions - think Elon Musk but more (italics) evil.

In reality, it doesn’t quite come together. For a film about a shady conspiracy, what stands out most is the lack of surprises. Everything in this film feels obvious and over-polished, from the predictable one liners - ‘not in my house!’, quips a robot sidekick - to the rather staid action sequences. Fittingly for a film about sentient robots, it feels like the script - adapted by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely -has been engineered by AI.

This also comes down to the casting. Chris Pratt, while occasionally funny as a loveable rogue that Michelle meets on her journey, is essentially just playing another version of Starlord - complete with a small, fast-talking sidekick. Giancarlo Esposito plays another ruthless villain, this time a robot hunter nicknamed ‘The Butcher’, who gets a laughably formulaic story arc in the final act. Ke Huy Quan makes a charming cameo as a doctor but essentially exists to spout exposition. And while Bobby Brown does get some emotional flash back scenes with her brother, she’s underserved by an otherwise bland teenage rebel role.

It’s a shame, because there are some good ideas here. The Russo Brothers have crafted a beautifully realised world, and there’s some striking character design amid the human on robot carnage. However, it all ends up feeling a bit derivative, with ideas that were seen before in Ready Player One, and recently The Creator. Unlike those films, this does little to inspire the imagination.

Despite a star-studded cast and the best of intentions, this robotic sci-fi adventure ends up on the scrap heap of sci-fi cinema.

★★