Spoiler Alert
The Electric State is not an entirely terrible film. Had The Russo Brothers taken more creative liberty and came up with adding a horrific element, I’d love it! When the robots in this film made me think of those from the cinematic adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s, just what I imagined up would have been even more thrilling! But when this work is based on the work of another talent’s work, I have to wonder if Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag would approve.
While this work fails as being a road trip movie, where Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) leaves her foster home to search for Chris (Woody Norman), at least parts of the world building are done right. And when she knows her brother is a genius in science and robotics, this can lead to problems in the long run. Someone can take advantage of him. In what he knows about combining the two, nobody or no device can be safe.
After a robot stumbles into her home and claims to be him, I also got other morbid ideas. When the first flashback revealed everything we as viewers need to know about humanity heading to war because robots are rebelling and humanity is ready to fight back! As a result, I hoped this movie could be like Gareth Edwards’ movie, The Creator. However, what’s presented is half-hearted. The tale of this writing duo created does not fully acknowledge the graphic novel and lacks the depth needed to fit in the genre where other works like Transcendence have phoned in on.
Also, there’s no existential crisis to be aware of. I had to laugh; the technology used is basically using virtual reality and drones to secure this world’s victory against sentient robots. When an engineer developed a clunky headset, which can broadcast thoughts into machines from afar, humanity won. It’s funny the bots did not consider fighting back the same way by dropping some kind of electronic countermeasure or subterfuge to confuse the janky Separatist Droid Army rejects from Star Wars.
Although The Electric State shows a world sort of similar to Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie, the emphasis is more on Michelle coping with life after losing her family. When she’s living in a world where this war with sentient machines is still ongoing, the juggling act to keep viewers interested is weak at best. I still don’t understand why someone dumped her at a random foster home. The surrogate parent obviously doesn’t give a hoot, and that’s a huge plot hole. He’s much worse than Al Bundy.
Also, John (Chris Pratt)’s involvement is not all that heroic. He’s a character that felt more like a third wheel in between everything else that went out. And when the clues were rather predictable, I knew what happened to Michelle’s brother.
As a result, I’m more interested in reading the graphic novel to see just how much of the tale got butchered. Even though this film has an all-star cast, the elements don’t come together all that well. Woody Harrelson was more interesting as the voice of the robot who looks like Mr. Peanut, and Ke Huy Quan can play a mad scientist rather well. Hopefully, the wait for the book I got put on hold at the public library won’t be long.
3 Stars out of 5
The Electric State Trailer
