‘The Electric State’ review: A feat of bad filmmaking that fails to even redeem robot characters to sell merchandise

Set in an alternate 1990s, with the story mostly happening post the “robot uprising” with cuts to before it all went to the robo-dogs, the premise of The Electric State is interesting to hear. Even exciting.

And when you have familiar names like Stanley Tucci, Giancarlo Esposito, Chris Pratt and the impressive Millie Bobby Brown headlining a movie, you expect it to be great. So, imagine my utter disappointment when I cringed from the first minute to the last as I sat through this painful excuse of a movie.

The latest Russo Brothers outing is painful. I’m not even going to mince my words here. It flows like a badly made Instagram reel extending to upwards of two painful hours.

Millie Bobby Brown channels Eleven from Stranger Things, Chris Pratt does his best Star Lord sans The Guardians of the Galaxy, Giancarlo Esposito does a generic, average portrayal of all of his excellent baddie roles put together, and Stanley Tucci gives us the most boring mashup of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs all rolled into one. But that is not even the worst thing about this film.

The Electric State is a feat of bad filmmaking—it manages to make the ‘90s steampunk-inspired sci-fi genre look, sound, and even feel boring.

And yes, exposition. The protagonist Michelle, played by Brown, just says everything out loud to set the scene and context. The best example is how she figures out where to go to find her long-lost brother once thought to be dead. She discovers a courier label on a delivery box that happens to be the address of smuggler Keats, played by Pratt.

As the audience wonders why that is even relevant, Michelle explains it to a robot (Cosmo, voiced by Alan Tudyk) she is harbouring, who also conveniently houses the conscience of her brother Christopher (Woody Norman).

Some teeth-clenching moments later, we are hurriedly introduced to Giancarlo Esposito as Marshall Bradbury, a former war hero who is on their trail for—I honestly have no idea why! Just because, I’m guessing.

Such is the empty hollow shell that this excuse for a film is. On one hand, we have sentient AI battling neural projection mechanical soldiers. On the other, we have computers still running Windows 95 with AOL delivering e-mail. It doesn’t even make an honest attempt to redeem any robot characters to even sell merchandise.

This movie is simply a spoof. A badly made one, but with the great Netflix bankrolling amazing VFX and CGI, no doubt. Futurism, check. Set in a desert inspired by Westerns, check. A callback to corporate America destroying civilisation by use of corruptible addictive tech, check. Favourite actors doing knockoff impressions of their own iconic characters, double-check.

Of course, apart from the impressive VFX, there are some great redeeming portrayals. Brown in the second half makes up for her choppy character in the first half. Jenny Slate impresses as the US mail robot Penny Pal, and Anthony Mackie is wonderful as the voice of Herman, the construction bot.

Key Huy Quan does his earnest best as Dr. Amherst, but the shoddy script, the over-the-top dialogues, and the rusty screenplay do no justice to any of these positives. This movie is unwatchable, for it may even prompt you to wish that Kevin Feige is always there to keep Anthony and Joe Russo in check.

Film: The Electric State

Director: The Russo Brothers

Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, Stanley Tucci, Giancarlo Esposito, Key Huy Quan, Alan Tudyk, Jenny Slate

Rating: 1/5 | ★☆☆☆☆

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