The Electric State - Review

Rating: 3 out of 5

THE Russo Brothers were rightly hailed as masterful purveyors of visual spectacle following their Marvel run of films that started with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and ended with the one-two punch of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Since then, they've struggled to hit the same heights.

The Gray Man, their first venture with Netflix, was a muscular and decent action thriller that benefited greatly from the presence of leading man Ryan Gosling. But, thus far, it has failed to kickstart the franchise many expected it to.

Now, we have The Electric State, a mind-bogglingly expensive ($320 million, apparently) adaptation of the illustrated YA novel by Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag. Yet while born from a book that was, in itself, high on delicious visual spectacle as well as resonant commentary on society and its relationship to technology, the resulting film fails to make the most of its potential.

Rather, it feels too derivative of better ideas, while struggling to hit the emotional notes its story suggests that it should. It's oddly soulless and quickly forgettable.

Set in an alternative reality of the 90s and 00s, the film exists largely in the wake of a war between robots and humans. The robots initially were designed to help humanity [much in the same way as AI], by performing the menial tasks that no one else wanted. But when they became sentient and demanded to be treated fairly, their plea fell on deaf ears and they rebelled.

The subsequent uprising was only put down by a tech supremo named Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci), who invented a way for everyone's consciousness to participate in all activities (work and play at the same time) remotely, via VR headsets, which enabled them to pilot the robo-warriors that eventually defeated the robots.

Struggling to survive against this backdrop is orphaned teen Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown), who lost her parents and her beloved, genius brother Christopher (Woody Norman) in a car crash. Living in a foster home, she is suddenly visited by a robot claiming to be her brother - who has uploaded his soul and consciousness into it in a bid to persuade his sister to come find his body, which is being used and manipulated by - guess who? - Skate.

Along the way, she also enlists the help of a former Marine, turned game dealing trucker, named Keats (Chris Pratt), as well as a ragtag group of robot warriors (led by the Woody Harrelson voiced Mr Peanut), to find and rescue her brother and expose Skate's evil to the wider world.

You can pick the film's references as they arise: with the Russos tipping their hats to everything from The Terminator movies to AI: Artificial Intelligence via The Wizard of Oz, Transformers and District 9. Needless to say, it also attempts to balance the mix of child-style peril with darker edginess that Steven Spielberg made a trademark.

The problem with referencing so many great movies, however, is that you either have to match them on your own terms, or offer variations on themes along the way. And this is something that The Electric State largely fails to do, beyond its undoubted visual style.

So, while you can imagine that a lot of the money is on the screen (with some stunning dystopian imagery of fallen giants crashed against decaying city-scapes, as rendered from the book itself), not enough of an investment has been made in the actual storytelling or character building.

Too much is relied upon - especially in the choice of casting. Pratt, for instance, is doing much the same as he does - albeit endearingly - in every leading role he has taken in blockbuster roles, while Tucci isn't given nearly enough to do to make his villain interesting.

Brown offers much the same kind of heroine that she has delivered in Enola Holmes, Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Damsel, and [again] isn't given nearly enough time to make the kind of emotional connection with her brother (Woody  Norman) that would make for a more lasting impression. 

The robot voices are suitably charismatic, with Harrelson on top form as Mr Peanut, along with Brian Cox (suitably curmudegeonly as Popfly) and Anthony Mackie (smart-talking and funny as Pratt's best buddy Herman)... and playing both  sides of the coin, Giancarlo Esposito, suitably menacing as yet another villain.

But while entirely watchable, not least because of its visiaul aesthetic and the quality of its robot effects, The Electric State still manages to underwhelm - a shortcoming made all the more glaring because of its hefty production costs.

The message behind the movie, while certainly worthy, is too obvious and hardly subtle - with relevant points about the rise of tech geniuses and their motivations and the true cost (emotionally) of over-reliance on technology. It's human connection that counts. 

But the film lacks the intelligence (artificial or otherwise) to dig deep enough to mine any real complexity, emotional or otherwise, offering next to nothing to really challenge viewers. Hence, the film takes a pretty straight-forward journey towards its bittersweet finale.

For all of their technical achievement, therefore, the Russo brothers come up short where it matters most: heart. They could do with studying the films they are borrowing from a little more closely, to see how they managed to achieve both.