The commonplace, overused narrative about filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo, aka The Russo Brothers, is that ever since their tremendously successful Marvel run—five films culminating with two of the highest-grossing box office films of all time, “Avengers: Infinity War” and ‘Endgame’—is that they have been in a massive slump. Leaving Marvel to form their production company AGBO, they’ve directed three films since, “Cherry,” “The Gray Man,” and their latest, the sci-fi adventure film, “The Electric State.”
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Each has been at a streamer (Netflix for all, minus “Cherry” made at Apple), and each of them has been tremendously expensive— their latest ballooning to a reported $320 million— the implication being that none of them have been worth the cost given their mediocrity. This narrative has become a tired one, used ad nauseum, which compels any intelligent journalist/reviewer to question it, push back and place it under intense scrutiny.
And yet, here we are, circling back with no real ammo to combat this familiar refrain. It’s a cliché, but essentially true. Now, “The Electric State” isn’t as terrible as some critics would have you believe; it’s competently crafted and made, and recent big budget failures like “Madame Web,” “Joker: Folie à Deux,” “Borderlands” and “The Crow” are far far worse.
But the Russos’ biggest crime is just how dull and unengaging “The Electric State” is despite how busy and buzzing it is with stuff.
Based on the eponymous novel by Simon Stålenhag, the sci-fi action-adventure drama is set in an alternate technologically ravaged 1990s dystopia that has essentially been devastated by sentient A.I. robots. Once serving peacefully among humanity, these cartoon-based robots now live in exile following their failed uprising. And it’s an all-too-familiar setup: the robots gained autonomy, a great war was fought, and eventually, the robots were defeated. Eventually, they are banished to a gigantic open-air prison in the middle of the desert, where they are free to live out their remaining days away from civilization.
Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (all five of the Russos’ largely admirable Marvel movies), the personal story lodged inside that larger postapocalyptic context follows Michelle (Millie Bobbie Brown), an orphaned teenage girl and her robot on a journey to the west coast of the United States in search of her long-lost brother, Christopher (Woody Norman), a brilliant child who vanished during the war.
Along her quest, she reluctantly joins forces in her journey, a cartoon-inspired robot, a smuggler (Chris Pratt, doing his becoming-rather-obvious irreverent Han Solo-ish charming scoundrel thing) and his robot sidekick Herman (voiced by Anthony Mackie) in search of her younger brother.
But so much of it is so routine, familiar and thus increasingly tedious. Again, Pratt is practically phoning in this rogue maverick thing he seems to do endlessly— just another version of ‘Guardians’ character Peter Quill, irreverent, sarcastic, impulsive and self-centered, but ultimately a cheeky rebel with a heart of gold. And maybe it’s her flat role of concern for her brother, listless dialogue, and uninvolving delivery of imploring dull monologues. Still, Millie Bobby Brown really fails to prove she’s one of Hollywood’s biggest up-and-coming stars (not for nothing, but outside of “Stranger Things” and “Enola Holmes” she’s been in nothing but duds).
Likewise, so many of the other roles are just typical platitudes that are all too conventional: Stanley Tucci as the evil billionaire/Elon Musk figure, Ethan Skate, Giancarlo Esposito as yet another cold-blooded, ruthless villain (a terrific actor, Esposito is unfortunately dangerously close to becoming a typecast joke; he’s taken far too many of the same roles and his agents need to be on high alert).
Ke Huy Quan also plays, what else, an anxious, nerdy scientist (just as he did in “Loki” and seemingly all he’s asked to do of late), and the voicework of Jenny Slate, Colman Domingo, Alan Tudyk, and Hank Azaria and many more offers very little other than Woody Harrelson, as the lead robot, Mr. Peanut (a silly idea), failing to impress and Brian Cox being saddled with would-be-comedic dialogue so painfully unfunny its cringe-inducing.
And to be fair to all things considered, the good and the bad, “The Electric State” is relatively harmlessly boring at first, disposable and languid, but as it goes on, its constant failure at being funny, despite many attempts, does become rather grating.
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If there’s anything else worth mentioning, it’s that the great composer Alan Silvestri is utilized. Still, his score, especially the last act, sounds like a bunch of discarded cues from the ‘Avengers’ films that are resurrected and recycled here—terribly recognizable in how musically similarly secondhand they are.
“The Electric State” really aims to be an epic, spectacularly shaped, crowd-pleasing blockbuster, but missing the mark so often, it just veers more and more off course, to be a loud, blustery, hectic extravaganza that’s all noisy dressing and no depth or humanity. It says nothing and offers little other than a folding laundry distraction. Should the Russos continue to be handed gigantic budgets like this in the future? That’s someone else’s concern, but Marvel fans outta be rather nervous about these two returning to helm the next two ‘Avengers movies, hoping to return the studio to its former glory. [C-]