The Electric State

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Victoria's Statewide Mornings program on March 20, 2025.

(M) ★★★

Director: Anthony & Joe Russo.

Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, Stanley Tucci, Ke Huy Quan, Woody Norman, Giancarlo Esposito, Jason Alexander, Martin Klebba, Anthony Mackie, Woody Harrelson, Jenny Slate, Alan Tudyk, Brian Cox.

Chris Pratt didn't know it, but he was about to get yeeted.

What do you get for US$320m these days? In filmic terms, the answer is The Electric State. Or, in more general terms, a shit-ton of CG and Chris Pratt being Chris Pratt.

It's always baffling that an imperfect script attracts this amount of money. But what's even more baffling is when a streaming service pays this amount of money for a movie. Leaving out ad revenue and lower level sign-ups, Netflix needs 12.8 million new or ongoing premium subscriptions to pay for The Electric State alone. Is anyone signing up to Netflix just for The Electric State? This is exactly the kind of film that a never-ending stream of new email addresses and seven-day trials are for.

Leaving aside the question of whether it's worth $320m (it's not), The Electric State is an "almost" film. It's almost funny, it's almost emotional, it's almost clever, it's almost exciting. In places, it's almost great. But instead, it's a big-budget mess that's also happens to be a sporadically enjoyable slice of alt-history stuffed full of cool robots and baffling plotholes. 

Based very loosely on a highly praised picture book, the film takes place in a version of 1994 where humanity has fought and won a global war against robots, thanks to billionaire tech genius Ethan Skate (Tucci). The remaining sentient machines have been sent to a walled-in exclusion zone in Texas, and the victorious humans now enjoy predominantly living in a virtual reality network, also provided by Skate. 

But when troubled teen Michelle (Brown) finds a rogue robot wandering around in her yard, it sparks a journey that will send her in search of the brother she thought was dead, and up-end the whole of society as she knows it.

The Electric State, as is common with so many blockbusters, is either two rewrites short of perfection, or has had two rewrites too many. It's hard to tell which, but the result is akin to a robot that performs its set task, but you know it could have done it so much more efficiently and effectively.

The themes are there - the most obvious being that everyone wastes their lives plugged in and gawping at a screen - and the story is there, but the plot (ie. how it all happens) falls short frequently. Some dialogue stinks, plenty of it is fine, and some of it even sings. Some moments fall incredibly flat, but other sequences are incredible, notably an entire deserted mall inhabited by robots and the final battle. The emotional bits are also hit and miss - a much-touted reunion between humans is so-so, but the death of a quirky robot hits in the feels. There are some laughs but there could have been so many more.

The performances are fine, but nothing amazing. Brown and Pratt are okay, the latter just does what he does in every movie. Quan is largely wasted, and Tucci and Esposito are reliable without being exceptional. Alexander is the most memorable but has only a handful of scenes.

The robots are the bigger standout. Mackie, Harrelson, Slate and Azaria bring life to some wonderfully designed and animated droids, and the cyborg aesthetic is part of The Electric State's biggest strength - its production design. The setting looks incredible and believable, the robots are stunning, and it's this eye-for-detail that creates an immersive world that elevates everything else. It's this world that makes you get to the end of The Electric State, fully realise it's flaws, yet somehow think, "yeah I could probably watch that again one day".

Ultimately The Electric State is okay. There are plotholes big enough to manoeuvre a convoy of cross-country truck-driving robots through and parts of it land with a groan and a thud, but it mostly works, it's largely entertaining, and it looks a million dollars. But not necessarily US$320m.