The Electric State review: More forgettable streaming fare from the Russo brothers

As for whether they've spent that money wisely... well, that's a different matter.

The pair's first post-Avengers effort was the dismal Cherry, a brash and bloated dud starring Tom Holland as a young man who fell into opioid addiction after a stint as an army medic in Iraq. Next up was the starry but so-so The Grey Man, an espionage thriller whose ambitions of starting a major new franchise have yet to bear any fruit almost three years on. And then there's the Prime Video series Citadel – one of the most expensive TV shows of all time, but one that seems to have left no cultural footprint at all to show for it.

Despite those misfires, though, the brothers appear to still be considered a safe pair of hands by the Hollywood money men. Indeed, their latest film for Netflix – the dystopian sci-fi adventure The Electric State – is another extremely handsomely budgeted affair, with a whopping $320 million having been spent on the project.

For that kind of money, you'd be hoping for something pretty special. But despite some impressive visual effects work and a tiny handful of enjoyable moments sprinkled throughout, The Electric State is another forgettable and decidedly underwhelming work – one that feels all too familiar and is sorely lacking its own unique character.

Millie Bobby Brown leads the starry cast as Michelle, a young woman who we are first introduced to in an opening sequence set shortly before the onset of an all out war between humankind and robots. Sometime later, she is mourning the loss of her missing – and seemingly dead – younger brother Christopher, when a robot with an intriguing connection to her sibling unexpectedly shows up at her door.

It soon becomes clear that her brother is not only alive, but is somehow controlling the robot (named Cosmo), who communicates to her that Christopher is being held against his will as part of a deeply sinister plot. And so, the two venture across the conflict-ravaged American southwest, finding reluctant allies in the shape of smuggler Keats – played by Chris Pratt– and his charismatic robot Herman, voiced by Anthony Mackie.

The film is adapted from an illustrated novel of the same name by Simon Stålenhag, which has received wide acclaim for its bleak tone and grim outlook on the nature of the relationship between humanity and tech. With Stålenhag's blessing, the Russo's have taken major liberties with the source material – changing both the storyline and the mood of the piece – and the resulting dystopia we're served up with seems significantly more sanitised and palatable.

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It's clear that the departures from the novel have been made in an attempt to give the material a family friendly, Amblin-esque quality, but the unintended consequence is that the whole thing just feels rather weightless. As is so often the case in modern blockbusters, moments of sincerity and tension are frequently undercut by glib comments and tiresome banter. What's left is a fairly corny film that gestures at far better movies without the charm or originality to pull the comparisons off.

Throughout, the film essentially functions as a plea to its viewers to put technology aside and embrace the power of human connection. It's a noble message – and one which most audiences members will surely be able to emphasise with – but in truth it feels hollow coming from a work that seems so clearly to have been made with the Netflix algorithm firmly in mind.

And sure, that fact coupled with the starry cast – which also includes Stanley Tucci, Ke Huy Quan and Giancarlo Esposito – means it's a dead cert to feature prominently in the streamer's Top 10 for a couple of weeks.

But for this kind of budget, it's not unreasonable that we should be expecting something a little more than that.

The Electric State will stream on Netflix from 14th March 2025 – sign up from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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