Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Writer: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Simon Stålenhag
Stars: Chris Pratt, Millie Bobby Brown, Woody Harrelson
Synopsis: An orphaned teen hits the road with a mysterious robot to find her long-lost brother, teaming up with a smuggler and his wisecracking sidekick.
I used to think the gold standard of product placement in films was any Michael Bay Transformers movie or that moment when Brad Pitt took a satisfying swig from a can of Pepsi in World War Z, proving he was smarter than a world full of zombies who ran past him (and somehow not into him). But no—the Russo brothers told the entire world to hold their beers.
Not only do they discuss Panda Express at exceedingly ridiculous lengths (yes, I agree, everything they make is delicious—please send all Panda Express inquiries to the InSession Film email), but the Russos also create an entire character out of a mascot for a fine American company, Planters. Again, I love the Dry-Roasted variety—send all proposed business collaborations below.
Speaking of product placement, I am writing this review on a brand-new HP Envy laptop. With premium features, top-tier performance, and a high-resolution display, it’s one of the most versatile laptops on the market.
Now, do you see how distracting product placement can be—especially when it’s thrown right into the middle of this review? Yes, Anthony and Joe, we can agree that popular movies can (and should) be held in higher esteem. Here’s looking at you, Top Gun: Maverick, but not at the expense of ruining the story.
Based on the popular graphic novel of the same name by Simon Stålenhag, the story follows a teenager, Michelle (Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown), who lives with her abusive father, Ted (Jason Alexander). Michelle resides in a world under authoritarian rule after a war broke out between humans and robots in the early ’90s.
Fortunately for the human race, Sentre CEO Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci) developed Neurocaster technology, allowing humans to upload their brains to drone robots, ultimately winning the war. As a result, all robots were banished to the “exclusion zone.” However, as a metaphor for the overuse and dependence on modern technology, humans escape their mundane lives through an established virtual reality, remaining in near-comatose states while robots handle all the work.
That is until an adorable robot named Cosmo—who communicates in a way reminiscent of Wall-E—runs into Michelle. She takes them in and soon realizes that this bot contains the uploaded mind of her deceased younger brother, Christopher. After a violent encounter with her abusive father, Ted, Michelle and Cosmo escape. As they venture into the dystopian landscape, they cross paths with Keats (Chris Pratt), a smuggler, and his towering robot companion, Herman (Martin Klebba). Together, they set out for the exclusion zone, hoping to prove that Christopher may still be alive.
The Russo Brothers didn’t just create the year’s biggest dumpster fire; they made a large metal trash receptacle on wheels filled with boxes of fireworks going off. It looks flashy, colorful, and expensive, as the filmmakers hope to use a barrage of bad CGI to cover up a story with little depth, unfunny humor, and—most importantly—such a lack of emotional connection that the big moment the film builds toward feels practically sterile.
This marks yet another Netflix film where Millie Bobby Brown encounters characters with little nuance as the studio attempts to cash in on expensive streaming entertainment that hardly works. I’m worried she will be typecast in these roles when she should focus on mainstream scripts like Enola Holmes, highlighting her strengths, like verbal and physical comic timing. Meanwhile, Chris Pratt does his usual routine. He looks like a disheveled, unkempt surfer living out of his van, going off on tangents that combine comedic relief with product placement word vomit that never seems to end.
To summarize, The Electric State’s story and performances are paper-thin. The movie is a recycled effort, which is also an issue that should be pointed out with the source material. The approach is heavy-handed when the film tries to focus on its core themes. Essentially, this is an expensive story about collective synergy and the idea that “family is what you make it.” Yet, it lacks cohesion and, even worse, fun—pure cotton candy cinema at its worst.
You can now stream The Electric State only on Netflix!
