Critics Are Lighting The Electric State Up
Reviews are overwhelmingly negative for Joe and Anthony Russo’s latest Netflix movie.
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If directors Joe and Anthony Russo expected their latest movie to be critically acclaimed, their brains are probably short-circuiting right now. The overwhelming consensus so far in reviews of The Electric State, out now on Netflix, is that the big-budget production was a waste of money. Vulture critic Bilge Ebiri’s review, for example, called it a “$320 million piece of junk” that becomes “actively annoying.” The sci-fi film, which stars Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt in an alternate version of the ‘90s where humans are at war with robots, is a loose adaptation of Simon Stålenhag’s graphic novel of the same name. But even critics that liked certain aspects of Electric State, such as the special effects or a particular performance from the star-studded cast, largely agreed that the positives weren’t enough to salvage the film as whole. Still, while it’s difficult to find a good review, it’s not impossible: Empire’s John Nugent offered rare praise by calling the film a “breezily watchable retrofuturistic jolly” that has “just enough juice.” Below, here’s how critics are reacting.
“The Electric State begs for playfulness, dynamism, some sense of dash and charm. Honestly … it could use the comic expertise of the Joe and Anthony Russo of 20 years ago. It’s an action fantasy built on silliness. Without a light touch, it becomes actively annoying […] You’d think something like this would be somewhat funny. And while there are wisecracks and blandly humorous asides here and there (most of them delivered by Pratt, who to his credit does give it his discount Harrison Ford best), the Russos mostly play it straight. So straight, in fact, that they seem afraid of the whole thing becoming too much of a comedy. Are they running from their former selves? Did they buy into criticisms of the MCU as being too jokey? Maybe it’s just that they’ve got vague metaphors about intolerance and technological repression and mass-hypnosis to deliver, and a brutal robot slaughter to depict, and weak tears to jerk.” —Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
“Naturally, a film can have an autonomous worth, equal but distinct from its source material (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Blade Runner come to mind). But even considered on its own, this Electric State remains a hyper-processed industrial product packed with sugar and sodium (in the form of quips and battles), along with such wonderful additives as goopy sentiment and automatic-pilot acting.” —Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times
“Michelle and Christopher are supposed to be the emotional center of the movie, and yet their connection is so vacant I was left wondering if the filmmakers had ever encountered siblings before (a surprising disappointment when you consider how Joe and Anthony know each other).” —Matt Goldberg, The Wrap
“That final act also sets the scene for an emotional catharsis of sorts that attempts to wring tears out of the audience, with an aggressive assist from Alan Silvestri’s hard-working score. But that would require some kind of emotional investment in characters that seldom get as far as two-dimensional. The actors are all game for anything, but this is thankless work, in which the mix of live action and animatronics has no magic. The same goes for the talented voice cast, which also includes Colman Domingo and Hank Azaria in small roles.” —David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
“The Russos try hard to blend humor, science-fiction and action — plenty of others have successfully before — but they only manage to flatten the stakes and make viewers scowl.” —Johnny Oleksinski, The New York Post
“Directors Joe and Anthony Russo, along with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, surprisingly undervalue their source material’s blueprint when it comes to character construction and immersive world-building. Considering the same talents have previously turned in smart work adapting Marvel’s comic-book IP in the Captain America and Avengers movies, it’s baffling this material wasn’t a better fit. They deliver a superficial read of sibling relationships, as well as the themes surrounding tech panic and corporate malfeasance, and their added contributions lack spark or emotional resonance.” —Courtney Howard, Variety
“With a budget that large and a cast so stacked, you would think that The Electric State might, at the very least, be able to deliver a handful of inspired set pieces and characters capable of leaving an impression. But all this clunker of a movie really has to offer is nostalgic vibes and groan-inducing product placement.” — Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge
“AI-loving Marvel hitmakers Joe and Anthony Russo join forces again with Netflix to deliver a $300-million sci-fi epic you can safely half-watch while doing the dishes or making dinner. Everything about the film, from its formulaic hero’s-journey plot to its nostalgic mascot imagery to the casting of streaming-friendly stars Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, feels calculated to remind you of something you’ve already enjoyed. It’s a synthetic crowdpleaser that would look a little less odious were it not flattening the spooky grandeur of its source material, the striking illustrated novel of the same name.” —A.A. Dowd, IGN
“Brown, as Michelle, has a lot of integrity and charisma. (Pratt’s performance, on the other hand, could just as well have been cobbled together from “Guardians of the Galaxy” outtakes; honestly, I’m not entirely sure it wasn’t.) You might have fun recognizing the all-star voices of the robots, including Woody Harrelson, Jenny Slate, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Cox. Ultimately, this is one of those movies where it seems okay if you like this sort of thing for a while, but after it crosses the 90-minute mark, it seems irretrievably a little much even if you like this sort of thing.” —Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com
“With occasionally repetitive action, the film never quite strikes the aspirational Spielbergian tone it’s reaching for, but as blockbusters go, at least it’s a singular experience with ambition in spades. The Electric State loses some of the quiet profundity of the original text, but as a breezily watchable retrofuturistic jolly, it has just enough juice.” —John Nugent, Empire
“This all plays as exceedingly cutesy and Brown’s headlining turn is wooden and affected, especially when she’s asked to carry a big emotional or rousing moment. Pratt does a very slight variation on his Guardians of the Galaxy routine, which would be more entertaining if he was given something funny to do. The Electric State is similarly devoid of anything meaningful to say about technology, ultimately settling on a middle ground where gadgets are scorned as alienating and corrupting, and sentient robots are celebrated as our great and loving equals.” —Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
“The Electric State synthesizes the worst tendencies of its makers’ work for the MCU, including laborious, grind-things-to-a-halt exposition; sitcom-thin characterizations; Pavlovian pop music cues; and shards of snark lodged like shrapnel in a thick and toxic goo of sentimentality. Imagine Five Nights at Freddy’s directed at knifepoint by Steven Spielberg—or Ready Player One directed by somebody else—and you’re close to the tone of pandering, anodyne emptiness on offer here, which is exacerbated by the feeling that nobody is really sweating basic narrative logic or continuity.” —Adam Nayman, The Ringer
“The movie comes close to being a little subversive and digging into real nuance – especially when it comes to mankind kicking out robots, then using tech to become metal avatars themselves – only to default to a zany gag or earnest sentimentality.” —Brian Truitt, USA Today
“The Electric State isn’t a wholly irredeemable film—a scene of all the robots gathering to watch an old, now-banned cartoon is touching, and Brown lends at least a little gravitas to Michelle’s final speech—but every good moment feels accidental, a scene from a movie this isn’t trying to be. The Electric State isn’t playful and colorful, it isn’t soberly thoughtful, it isn’t bleak yet emotional. It’s just a slog. It’s an airless venture into a world the Russos half-heartedly insist has high stakes, but any meaningful plot developments are buried under ugly politics and barely-there characters. In this battle between man and machine, there are no winners.” —Anna McKibbin, The A.V. Club
“The Electric State is a fundamentally unsatisfying and muddled film, even leaving aside the deja-vu. Robots are good … and Ethan Skate’s robo-tech is bad? Do robots die? Will they all just wear out and rust away (presumably solving humanity’s robot problem) or do they live forever or reproduce somehow? The film sort of hints at an answer, but all the sly, satirical fun implied when it was just humans v robots is removed.” —Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“A better and more intellectually curious film might have leveraged the quality of its effects in a way that deepened this story’s glancing parallels to our real-world crises; there’s a half-assed hint of social commentary buried somewhere deep inside the villain’s strategy to manufacture hate out of fear, and complacency out of dehumanization, but The Electric State is content to waste its cutting-edge tech on one-joke WALL-E rejects who eventually band together to fight Skate for their freedom. Most of the action is limited to the climactic assault on the bad guy’s Seattle headquarters, and while the sequence is a bit more organic than anything from Endgame (a little grass and sky go a long way!), it’s also completely undone by our lack of interest and understanding in what’s at stake.” —David Ehrlich, IndieWire
“The look is mid-period Transformers. The dramatic tension non-existent. And the performances uniformly weak. This is top-dollar tedium.” —Kevin Maher, The Times
“At its best, this attempt to turn a thought-provoking, critically acclaimed graphic novel into what passes for a summer-movie extravaganza these days is merely fodder for a ‘Because you watched I, Robot …’ algorithm-generated list of suggested viewing. At worst, it feels like you’re getting 10,000 volts of electricity applied directly to your groin.” —David Fear, Rolling Stone
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