The Electric State Review: A High-Budget Film With Low Impact

No matter how disastrous the reviews are, The Electric State still managed to be number one on Netflix’s streaming list right now. It means the viewers want to see it for themselves and then judge how The Stranger Things star performed in a feature film this time.

Here is our version of The Electric State review with some major details of the filmmaking process from Avengers directors, the Russo brothers. The post will help you decide whether to skip it or stream it without any delay. 

The Electric State plot

In our previous article, we gave an overview of the film’s plot, but for revisiting purposes, an orphaned teenager, Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown), went off on an adventure with a smuggler, Keats (Chris Patt), to find her lost brother.

In a dystopian setting, the story unfolds as a depiction of a war between man and machines. The ruins of the technological world are already in sight and the virtual reality society witnessed a collapse. Watch trailer here:

This is exactly what the directors wanted to show, as was mentioned in the best-selling titular graphic novel with exotic illustrations authored by Simon Stalenhag. The novel has a Goodreads rating of 4.41.   

Russo brothers’ vision: From novel to film

While talking to The Nerds of Color, Anthony Russo explained how it was adapting something from a novel and making it into a feature that feels “fresh”. He said, 

“Look, we always think like a comic book or a graphic novel, it’s so radically different than a film. You can’t do the exact same thing in both formats. So we don’t have an expectation on ourselves to do that.”

He believed that it was their sole responsibility to interpret something from a graphic novel and make it into something new, otherwise, it would have become a repetition. Staying true to the exact same tone in both things is almost impossible, Anthony Russo elucidated. 

He revealed that it is the form of work that they normally do. It was like giving a surprise to their own selves. It is a “pretty natural” line of work, as they have faced minimal issues in doing so. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Patt’s performance

Dystopian movies tend to evoke emotions in the audience as the major goal of these movies is to walk the audience through the love, loss, struggle, and human connections in stressful times like those in The Electric State. 

The buildup in such movies relies heavily on the performances, despite the huge budget of The Electric State. It is remarkable to see how science fiction films speak about human conditions, and the prominent characters in danger are there to create an impact with their acting for feelings like joy, anger, suffering, pain, failure and redemption.

This is where mostly heroes are born as their journey from struggle to relief is what makes their performances powerful. The same stands true for The Electric State.

Millie Bobby Brown appeared charismatic (thanks to her previously held aura in The Stranger Things), but Chris Patt seemed to lack the robustness somewhere between the lines. We don’t say Brown was perfect, but since the film was unable to make an emotional connection with the audience, it wasn’t as impactful as expected.

Since the novel was a great success and the story has a massive emotional appeal (finding the lost brother in times of destruction), the flick is still not successful enough to make a connection with the audience as per the prior expectations set with the trailer. 

What do critics add to The Electric State review?

The overall critics’ review on Rotten Tomatoes is quite disappointing, as it said, 

“The Electric State has plenty of hardware to back it up but none of the spark that’d make it come to life.” 

Similarly, the chief film critic of The Guardian expressed her disenchantment by saying that it was a complete waste of $320 million budget as it was one of the most expensive films made that failed to hit the mark. 

One of the reviews attributed it to a “Spielbergian” feel of the film since the filmmaking style was quite similar to that of Steven Spielberg’s. Still, The New York Times did not consider it even close to “a much worthier adaptation of Stalenhag’s universe ‘Tales From the Loop’”. 

Empire showed a bit of mercy while choosing words for the movie’s review by saying that the Russo brothers made most of their budget with “impressive visual effects and faithful recreations”. The film might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the reboot has been done and is not bad for a single watch experience. 

USA Today was upbeat in its feedback for the film as it gave a nostalgic impression of a “super high-tech society,” which was a pleasant surprise. It was interesting to see things used in the 80s and 90s, like old Macs and email with some impressive visuals. Although there was a divide between the way technology is consumed and how humans respond to the phenomenon, the Russo brothers’ retrofuturistic reincarnation of the story is worth a watch. 

On the other hand, Rotten Tomatoes general users were positive about the movie as one of them said it is great that Netflix did not let the film get out of its hands and introduced it to them on the platform, as the public are quite broke themselves and are not in the position of paying “$40-80” per outing. It was a pleasant watch at home.

Another user had an interesting review, urging people not to believe the disparaging critics’ reviews as if they are better at writing scripts themselves [chuckles]. According to him, “The movie was good and the ending was good as well”. 

Our rating: 5/10

Is The Electric State available for streaming right now?

Currently, The Electric State is playing on Netflix. Grab a bag of popcorn and enjoy it with any kid that you have in the house or in the neighborhood since it’s PG-13.  

Genre: Action, adventure, urban adventure, quest, science fiction, dystopian sci-fi, artificial intelligence 

IMDb rating: 6.1

Rotten Tomatoes: 14 percent on Tomatometer (critics score) and 76 percent on Popcornmeter

Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Patt, Woody Norman, Stanley Tucci, Ke Huy Quan, Jason Alexander, Giancarlo Esposito, Anthony Mackie, Woody Harrelson, and Brian Cox

Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo

Producers: Russo Brothers production company ‘AGBO’, Mike Larocca, Chris Castaldi, Patrick Newall 

Writers: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

Release date: March 14, 2025

Movie runtime: 2 hours 8 minutes 

Would you recommend The Electric State to fellow sci-fi fans? Comment!