The Russo brothers are back, but is their $320 million Netflix sci-fi adventure worth your time? Join us as we break down why "The Electric State" falls flat despite its star-studded cast and impressive budget. From generic storytelling to wasted potential, we'll explore how a movie featuring a talking Mr. Peanut robot voiced by Woody Harrelson somehow manages to be forgettable.
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00:00Is that a bot?
00:02Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're watching Netflix's The Electric State, so you don't have to.
00:08I hate it.
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00:33I need to pay a PR wizard to make this go away.
00:36Four million dollars.
00:38I have it. It was bad.
00:42The Russo brothers have directed some of our favorite TV episodes, not to mention several MCU highlights from Winter Soldier to Infinity War.
00:50If their post-Endgame directorial output has demonstrated anything, though,
00:55it's that Anthony and Joe are only as good as the scripts they have to work with.
00:59You trust me?
01:01I do.
01:03While Cherry and The Gray Man were not the worst, we struggle to remember anything about them.
01:08Boring.
01:09With an all-star cast, promising source material, and a $320 million budget, The Electric State should at the very least be memorable.
01:19Somehow, the Russos do the unthinkable.
01:22Make a movie with a talking Mr. Peanut robot voiced by Woody Harrelson feel generic.
01:27Young lady, I would not advise you to go out there at night.
01:32I really don't care about what you would advise.
01:34By the way, kind of a missed opportunity Harrelson isn't voicing a Twinkie the Kid robot.
01:39You're gonna risk our lives for a Twinkie?
01:42There's a box of Twinkies in that grocery store.
01:45Not just any box of Twinkies, the last box of Twinkies that anyone will enjoy in the whole universe.
01:52The first 10 minutes are a hefty exposition dump overflowing with ideas we've seen in countless other sci-fi and young adult stories.
01:59Stuck, aren't you?
02:01No.
02:06I'm done.
02:07A post-apocalyptic world that's futuristic yet retro, this one set in an alternate version of the early 90s.
02:14Sentient robots fighting for their rights in a war-torn world dominated by prejudiced humans.
02:19You famously never owned robots, did you?
02:21I never trusted them. They're not us. So how could they possibly understand our best interest?
02:27An evil tech genius modeled after Steve Jobs who claims he wants to benefit humanity when in reality, he's enslaving them.
02:34A virtual world humans can escape to as the reality around them crumbles to pieces.
02:39And of course, an orphaned teenage protagonist named Michelle, played by Millie Bobby Brown.
02:45Good morning, sunshine.
02:47Don't you knock?
02:48Initially believing her entire family is gone, Michelle discovers that her brother Christopher, Woody Norman, is still alive. Sort of.
02:56We can team up. We can defeat the rock monster.
02:59Why are you here?
03:00We can team up. We can team up.
03:02Are you back?
03:02We can team up.
03:04Separated from his body, Chris's consciousness now exists within a robot modeled after a cartoon character, Kid Cosmo.
03:10No relation to Kid Cosmic.
03:12To save her brother, Michelle sets out on a road trip with the grinning yellow robot.
03:17Along the way, they team up with some other exiled robots and low-life loner Keats, a Chris Pratt type played by Chris Pratt.
03:24You're a kid.
03:25You're a genius.
03:26Yeah, I am.
03:27The electric state isn't without inspired touches.
03:30The self-aware robots forced to live in seclusion all have unique designs, looking like abandoned amusement park attractions.
03:37Meanwhile, human-operated drones all appear identical, ironically coming off as more soulless than the animatronics they oppress.
03:45Humans were finally able to fight fire with mechanized fire.
03:48Some robots have expressive faces.
03:51Others, like Cosmic, have static faces.
03:54Either way, they get a fair deal of personality across.
03:57Oh, crap. That's all we need.
04:00You can be brave in the face of danger.
04:03While the robots are the best part of the movie, they aren't without drawbacks.
04:09Ladies and gentlemen, you're captured.
04:14Seeing Mr. Peanut pop up as the robot's leader, we think to ourselves, this should be funny.
04:19Afternoon. I'd tip my hat, but, uh, well, it's bolted on.
04:24Yet we've seen actual Mr. Peanut commercials with more wit than the electric state.
04:29The humor here primarily consists of the robot spouting modern slang.
04:33What do you have?
04:34I'm gonna break it down to you for real.
04:36This might have been novel in 2007 when the first Transformers movie came out,
04:40but it got old by 2009 when the second Transformers movie was released.
04:46Thankfully, none of the robots here are as annoying or offensive as Skids and Mudflap,
04:51although we wish more time had been dedicated to fleshing them out.
04:54Despite much of the cast being robotic, the main focus is wasted on boring human characters.
05:00Millie Bobby Brown is trying, but Michelle is a thankless role.
05:04The bond between Michelle and Chris slash Cosmic is supposed to be the film's emotional core.
05:11Outside of one nice scene where they watch an old kid cosmic cartoon
05:14with the other robots gathering around them, we struggle to get invested.
05:20Although he's essentially playing another authority figure,
05:23Giancarlo Esposito has the closest thing to an interesting arc.
05:27Chris Pratt does his old schtick, except this time with more needless yelling.
05:31You know, I want you to think about this moment when you're begging me for drinking water in 24
05:37Making it even harder to distance himself from Star-Lord,
05:40Keats is another roguish scavenger who makes an entrance set to a catchy rock song.
05:44Whereas Star-Lord's entrance perfectly summed up the character,
05:48Keats's introductory needle drop feels empty.
05:57The soundtrack and Pratt's presence are not the only aspects ripped from Guardians of the Galaxy.
06:02Nostalgia also plays a significant role.
06:05You know we're gonna need muscle.
06:06Muscles are antiquated and unreliable.
06:10Whereas James Gunn cleverly weaved 80s and 70s nostalgia into the Guardians lore,
06:15the Electric State settles for making random references, hoping it'll trigger your memory.
06:20Remember MTV News?
06:22Remember Masters of the Universe?
06:24I'm not eating the freaking Masters of the Universe tie-in zagnuts in the original packaging!
06:27Remember the old school Volkswagen bus?
06:30Remember the Clinton administration?
06:32Remember the You've Got Mail alert?
06:34You've Got Mail.
06:36R.I.P. Elwood Edwards.
06:38Remember Big Mouth Billy Bass?
06:40Wait, that last one didn't exist until 1998.
06:43And Electric State takes place in 1994.
06:46This doesn't add up!
06:47See?
06:48The fact that we're more invested in the singing fish toy goes to show the movie isn't doing its job very well.
06:56Instead of the next Guardians of the Galaxy,
06:58Electric State seems destined to go down as the next Borderlands.
07:02The Borderlands movie that is.
07:04Your band of merry heroes can stop him.
07:06Oh, we can try.
07:07We just can't watch our backs while doing it.
07:09Whereas Guardians balanced eccentric characters and surprising pathos,
07:13Electric State comes off as tonally confused.
07:15Ah, hair!
07:17Touch my hair and I'll kill you.
07:19Not only are the jokes not especially funny,
07:21but some scenes are borderline unpleasant.
07:24On more than one occasion, the robots are subjected to torment.
07:28You broke the treaty, Mr. Peanut.
07:31Whether or not robots can feel pain,
07:33we can't help but cringe watching Mr. Peanut get his hat torn off.
07:37We think intense imagery like this is intended to be powerful.
07:41It plays more like that scene in Short Circuit 2 where Johnny 5 is dying.
07:46We guess we're supposed to feel sad, but it's just weird.
07:49You go back and tell the ones who are left, this is your fault.
07:53The most amusing part is the end credits listing the big names who lent their voices to the various robots.
07:59You lost a big body, but I'm still bigger than you.
08:02Shut up and keep running.
08:03Anthony Mackie, Brian Cox, and Coleman Domingo are just some of the A-listers we didn't recognize.
08:09Along with the stacked cast,
08:11the special effects shine through in the 320 million dollar budget,
08:15a record high for a Netflix feature.
08:17Freedom's worth any cost.
08:20Even dying?
08:21The VFX team captures the aesthetic of Simon Stolenhog's source material
08:25and creates robots that truly feel alive.
08:28At the same time, the robots spend most of the film standing around talking.
08:32When you have the directors of the two best Avengers and Captain America movies,
08:36we expect wall-to-wall visual splendor.
08:39Alas, the inventive robot designs are washed out in a sea of mundane action and ugly backdrops.
08:47It all builds to Michelle giving an impassioned speech about connection
08:51and how we need to embrace real life.
08:53Hi.
08:55My name is Michelle Green.
08:58I know some of you are a little freaked out about me and my friends
09:04and what we did.
09:06The world's different now.
09:09I just wanted to tell you why.
09:12The film acts as if it's the first film to share this message,
09:15but Michelle's words sound like they were copied and pasted from the ending of Ready Player One.
09:19Real life, it's contact.
09:22It's you and me.
09:24We're flesh and bone, yeah, but we're also electricity.
09:28That film found a more satisfying middle ground between pop entertainment and timely tech commentary.
09:33The electric state isn't as fun, thought-provoking, or original as it thinks it is.
09:38And maybe we stay together forever, but that can't happen if you close yourself off.
09:44You can sense the aspirations to turn this into a franchise.
09:48Like the Rebel Moon movies, though, we don't need to understand who the electric state is for.
09:53If a sequel gets made, it won't be because the masses demand it.
09:57It'll be because Netflix needs content to feed the beast.
10:01We're going to do it right this time.
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10:19Is The Electric State one of the worst movies we've ever seen?
10:22By no means.
10:23Could be your terrible idea is slightly less terrible.
10:29We wouldn't even say it's one of the absolute worst movies Netflix has ever produced.
10:33Those looking to simply turn off their brains for two hours will essentially get what they expect.
10:37This is the kind of movie you fall asleep watching on the couch
10:40before it fades into the streaming void forever.
10:42Remember when I said you were going to change the world?
10:46I do.
10:47That said, Netflix could have delivered the same results on a much lower budget.
10:52Given the talent, resources, and price tag,
10:54we expected something much more from The Electric State.
10:57I don't know what you think you're trying to achieve here, Mr. Nut.
11:02Walking away, all we can think about are the countless projects
11:06Netflix could have produced with that $320 million we'll never get to see.
11:10Give him hell, kid. You got this.
11:14Did you wind up watching The Electric State?
11:16If so, what did you think? Let us know in the comments.
11:19Okay, I'm done.