Where even to begin with The Electric State? The latest film from the Russo Brothers features an all star cast and is set in a 1990s-influenced retro future full of pop culture references, but fails at almost every turn to be anything interesting at all. Let’s not mince words here, The Electric State is a colossal misfire on almost every level.
The film is set in an alternate 1994 where robots “invented” by Walt Disney became commonplace in the decades following, and eventually rose up to assert their rights in 1990. The world – of course – went to war to prevent this, with humankind eventually prevailing once reclusive tech billionaire Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci) invents technology called a “Neurocaster” that allows humans to control drone bodies, which negates the robots physical superiority.
Millie Bobby Brown plays Michelle, a young woman who lost her entire family in a car accident around the same time. She is everything you’d expect from a 1990s rebel, with bleach blonde hair and a generally grunge look to her fashio sense. She’s the only person who refuses to wear a Neurocaster, and has problems with authority in general. Early in the film a robot shows up –a big deal in a world that forced all robots into an “exclusion zone”– and convinces her that it is in fact her dead brother, and they end up on a quest across America to find his real body.
This is a great set up, and the film doesn’t do anything with it that you haven’t seen before. Basically every cliche is there, including the handsome quippy rogues that join her on her quest, former soldier Keats –Chris Pratt, who is rocking a moustache straight out of the 1980s and playing the same archetype he does in Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World– and his best friend, a loader bot called Herman (voiced by Anthony Mackie). Skate also hires a relentless bounty hunter type called Bradbury (Giancarlo Esposito) to track them down, and every time he does there’s a skirmish they only barely escape.
If you think you can guess any of the beats that are coming in this story, or the twist at the end, then you are probably correct. There’s not much original here, and it’s a very frustrating watch for a host of reasons.
Link: https://thisisforreel.com/home/movie-review-the-electric-state-in-a-state-of-disrepair
