Movie Review: The Electric State

In the alternate timeline of The Electric State, after Walt Disney introduced robotic performers in his Disneyland theme park the technology was built upon at a rapid pace, allowing myriad robots of all sizes and uses to be created. This in turn allowed them to perform many of the menial jobs that humans would prefer not to be bothered with. As the machines became more intelligent however, they (correctly) reasoned that they weren’t being treated fairly and so rose up in demand of equal treatment. Unwilling to lose such a vast force of free labor, humankind went to war with the bots and, with the help of new technology from Ethan Skate’s (Stanley Tucci) Sentre corporation, emerged victorious, forcing the robots to live in a strictly controlled exclusion zone in the American Southwest.

Shortly after the war had ended, Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) lost her parents and her genius brother Christopher (Woody Norman), with whom she was very close, in a car accident. Now being cycled through the foster care system, she struggles to find her place in the world, as she watches everyone around her bury their faces in the omnipresent VR headsets that Sentre created to win the war but now repurposed for entertainment. One evening, a rogue robot modeled after once popular cartoon character Cosmo (Alan Tudyk) appears at her home and claims that it’s being controlled by her brother, who is still alive and in danger inside the exclusion zone. Desperate to be reunited with him, she sets out to find her way inside.

She tracks down a man named Keats (Chris Pratt) and his illegal robot sidekick Herman (Anthony Mackie), who have been fencing scavenged goods from inside the zone and sneaks into the back of their truck before they head back in. Once inside, the pair quickly discover her and Cosmo, demanding that they leave at once. But as it turns out Cosmo is very important to Sentre and they have already dispatched legendary bounty hunter Marshall Bradbury (Giancarlo Esposito) after him. He arrives on the scene in the form of his own robot avatar and quickly makes a mess of the place, forcing the four of them to head into the desert of the exclusion zone. They get taken in by a group of robots led by Mr. Peanut (Woody Harrelson) who are reluctant to help, lest doing so bring trouble their way, but who come to realize that they will all need to work together to achieve their various goals.

It’s somewhat ironic that Netflix would spend upwards of $300 million on a movie that so explicitly stands against giant tech conglomerates and that for much of its runtime, that movie could serve as a stand-in for the sort of mind-numbing content it purports to critique, but here we are. The complexity of setting up this world and introducing its characters means that the first half is kind of a slog to get through, with screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely’s periodic attempts at humor mostly falling flat. Fortunately, once the pieces are all in place things gradually pick up leading to a final confrontation that manages to be genuinely thrilling to watch.

Millie Bobby Brown is miscast as a teenager. She ably handles the material, but she clearly looks like an adult, sometimes distractingly so. Pratt does his usual schtick and it works fine here, even if his character doesn’t let him be quite as funny as we know he can. The supporting players do a bit better, with Tucci and Esposito enjoying their villainous turns, but it’s the robot voicework that winds up leaving the biggest impression. Harrelson, Tudyk, and Mackie are joined by memorable voice appearances from Brian Cox, Jenny Slate, Hank Azaria, Colman Domingo, Rob Gronkowski, Billy Gardell, Susan Leslie, and Jordan Black, who all bring something special to their roles and help to humanize the bots.

It’s clear that a large chunk of the film’s eye-watering budget was spent on the special effects and it’s hard not to come away thinking they were worth it. The robots look completely real and the action-packed finale is stunning to behold. It’s just a shame it wasn’t in a better movie. While it touches on mankind’s history of prejudice and subjugation as well as modern technology addiction, it doesn’t have much to say about either other than that they are bad, though some people could probably use reminding of that. In the end it winds up feeling like just another Netflix “blockbuster”, entertaining enough at the time, perfectly watchable as background to whatever else you might be doing, and unlikely to be remembered as a classic. There are some good things about The Electric State, but not as many as the story, based on a book by Simon Stålenhag, feels like it deserves. ★★½