From Joe and Anthony Russo, who brought us some of the MCU’s very best entries, this pricey blockbuster is the most expensive streaming release of all time, and the 13th most expensive movie of all time - period. Unfortunately, this ludicrous budget only draws more attention to a bigger problem with studio spending, and the current state of Hollywood’s broken business model. The film certainly looks flashy and expensive, but as a straight-to-streaming release, you can’t tell me Netflix was hoping to see a worthwhile return on this investment via subscribers - let alone turn a profit.
But enough about irresponsible studio spending. What about the movie itself? Does it at least provide audiences with something fun and entertaining? Sigh… not really, actually. The film’s shiny coat of paint can’t hide a dull, uninspired and hollow science fiction story that’s been done better so many times before. So much of “The Electric State” is borrowed from other media, and the small amount that is original is painfully bland. For a movie that has a fully autonomous Mr. Peanut robot (voiced by Woody Harrelson) brokering a peace treaty between man and machine, I have to ask, “why wasn’t this movie more fun?” It’s far from a humourless outing, but it’s played way too straight for its own good.
The one thing this film has going for it, is the creative art and production design. Instead of giving us generic looking robots, the “bots” that inhabit this world are all retro-futuristic mascots of sorts. This gives them added levels of expression and a uniqueness that the movie desperately needed to stand out. The attention to detail with things like their wear and tear through the years is impressive, right down to little patches of rust and missing bolts. The visual effects are quite impressive, but I’m still not convinced they’re worthy of the movie’s insane price tag.
Perhaps a lot of that money went to the cast of A-listers, because this roster is stacked with in-demand actors. It’s a mix of in-person and vocal performances, which includes Colman Domingo, Stanley Tucci, Ke Huy Quan, Brian Cox and Michelle Yeoh. Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt star as generic protagonists 1 and 2. Of course, they do have names, but they’re both so bland and devoid of character development that it hardly matters. I found it really difficult to invest in either of them, and was almost entirely checked out during scenes that were meant to resonate emotionally.
“The Electric State” is the cinematic equivalent of a Fabergé egg - extremely expensive and nice to look at, but totally hollow on the inside. No amount of money or star power could save this lame sci-fi endeavour from its own generic pitfalls.
1.5/5
Review by: Benjamin Garrett