Meh-lectric Avenue
Now in the street there are ro-bots.
I have a confession to make: One that will surely earn me the scorn of fellow luminaries such as
and .I like the Ragetubers. You know the ones: Nerdrotic, Critical Drinker, Mauler, and others. I enjoy their shtick, agree with much of their commentary, and they make me laugh.
It’s certainly worth examining whether or not they add anything constructive to the discourse. And their incessant groaning over the state of all the things gets to be exhausting after a while (though it could be argued they wouldn't be doing all that grumbling if Hollywood wasn't so hellbent on churning out unrelenting slop). But, by and large, I am a fan.
Make of that what you will.
So (as
famously says when he’s finally ready to make his point), it was with some trepidation that I approached watching The Electric State when my father-in-law decided he wanted to give it a try over the holiday weekend, after an interminable amount of wading through Netflix’s crushing surplus of bad decisions. After all, these aforementioned experts whose opinions I've rather dubiously put my faith in assured me that it was one of the absolute worst things ever to tarnish the TV’s comforting, silvery sheen. I was obviously expecting a complete dumpster fire. What I got instead was a middling, wannabe blockbuster that was juiced to the gills with the best special effects other people's money can buy.Perhaps it’s because I only have a vague awareness of the source material - and had no expectations about any sort of fidelity - but I was pleasantly surprised to discover the film was just OK. Is it good? Yes and no. Is it bad? Also, yes and no.
Similar to 2023’s Napoleon, The Electric State is a movie from once vaunted directors (the Russo Brothers) whose recent output has come with increasingly diminished returns. Sure, they directed the second highest-grossing film of all time, but they also have not made a legitimately good movie in six years. Their last Netflix original, The Gray Man, was one of the absolute worst monstrosities I’ve ever had the misfortune of watching. And, like that ill-fated production, The Electric State is brimming with wasted potential.
There is a lot to like about this film: The visuals are often striking, the special effects are second to none (spared no expense, judging by the mind-bottling $320 million price tag), the action sequences are frenetic and compelling, and the cast is absolutely stacked. Stranger Things (astroturfed?) superstar Millie Bobby Brown has been mocked for her appearance as the world’s oldest teenager, but I personally thought she was moderately passable. Plus, there is never any explicit mention of her character’s age (though she is seemingly in high school).
The aforementioned cast is one of my biggest sources of frustration. I am a Chris Pratt fan. I firmly believe that he’s earned his notoriety. With a bit more surly gravitas, he could’ve been the true heir to the void left by Harrison Ford’s aging out. However, he’s just bleh here in The Electric State. His character is a poor man’s variant of his role as Star Lord in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, severely lacking any semblance of Pratt’s trademark panache and personality.
The inimitable Stanley Tucci suffers from a bland turn as the film’s main villain. It wouldn’t quite be a fair criticism to say he’s phoning it in, but it’s not terribly far off the mark. Giancarlo Esposito, another usually reliable villainous presence, fares a little better. At least his character has a modicum of an evolving story arc throughout the movie. Honestly, the most committed actor turns out to be Jason Alexander, with a bit part as a deadbeat riff on George Costanza.
Speaking of story, The Electric State lacks any sort of novelty in the way the plot unfolds. It simply regurgitates story beats from other (though not necessarily better) movies like I, Robot (okay, this one is definitely better) and Ready Player One (this one is not). Perhaps the filmmakers would’ve been wise to hew more closely to the source material, if indeed there are drastic deviations. Again, I’m mostly unfamiliar with the 2018 novel, so these are questions better left for someone more qualified to answer.
All this is to say that I really wanted to prove the Ragetubers wrong - even though I generally agree with them - and genuinely enjoy The Electric State. What I actually discovered, though, is that it’s a hard movie to hate, but it’s also hard to love.
As the ancient wisdom tells us, it just is.
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Oh, Josh - I have no scorn to heap upon you over the ragetubers. It's simply a mismatch in taste. I was going to say that the only critique I have is that you didn't mention the creepy peanut, which was by far and away the worst thing about the movie, but the pun in the title makes up for it. I love that song.
For me, the film conforms to the accountants (they used to be called producers, but let's be real here) belief that if you take a little bit from all the big box office winners, you will create another box office winner... Directors, Actors, Characters, Plot... but as always they forget the most important part - Story... Just because they care - they care its a success, they don't set out to make garbage, they care they will recoupe, they want to make franchise dollars every time - but they don't care about the only thing that truly matters to a large audience... story story story... we want to see characters grow, fail, learn, surprise us, fail again, fall in love but we want them to instigate it, from their actions and their reactions, not because of some contrived plot device, car chase, robo, roger rabbit mash up. Until they can add story back into the algorithm, then this is all we are going to get.. and because it's all we get, it's all we watch, and they stupidly believe we are secretly happy with it. I'm content hating the movie but I had to actually argue to keep it on to see the pointless ending in a room of 15-19 YA who are 100% the target... none of them cared. The story was dull. The movie is not good. All wrapper no present.