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Acclaimed directors Anthony and Joe Russo (Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame) presented another sci-fi blockbuster with The Electric State. A loose adaptation of Simon Stålenhag’s graphic novel, this film depicts Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) as teenager Michelle, who teams up with the robot Cosmo and a smuggler, played by Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy), to find her long-long brother in a world in which sentient robots revolted against humanity in the 1990s.
The Russo Brothers have had a mixed run with their films following Endgame‘s massive success. Nevertheless, The Electric State had been hyped as one of Netflix’s biggest original films with its enormous budget and all-star talent. Though the film is a sight to behold, The Electric State suffers from several problems that have made it an underwhelming sci-fi epic.
Since The Electric State is a post-apocalyptic, robot-filled blockbuster, the filmmakers had to do the visual effects right to have any hope of hooking its audience. Fortunately, they didn’t disappoint in that department, as it seamlessly presents the film’s live-action humans with its many CGI robots. While the mechanical characters were mostly silly, The Electric State at least presented a wide variety of bots with creative designs that harken back to Pixar’s WALL-E.
The movie’s visuals are consistently top-tier, especially during the Endgame-style final battle between Sentre and the machines, presenting a bombastic sci-fi spectacle that has been expected from modern Hollywood blockbusters. On top of that, The Electric State succeeds in building a vast and ruined world filled with giant robot scraps, with images that look like they were taken straight from the pages of Stålenhag’s book.
The Electric State‘s story is notable for its relevant commentary about humanity’s addiction to technology. As characters hook themselves up to machines, working in isolation from home and escaping in the virtual world, this story feels ever more timely following the pandemic and the frightening advancement of artificial intelligence.
Unfortunately, The Electric State spends too much time explaining things and repeating information. The opening sequence about the war with machines is a glaring example of how the film fails to follow the “show, don’t tell” rule. The pacing is also very jarring. Everything happens so fast, with the characters throwing lines at each other at breakneck speed as the film jumps from one scene to the next. The movie hardly gives viewers a moment to breathe and take in what they’ve witnessed.
It’s clear that the Russo Brothers tried to recapture the childlike magic of Steven Spielberg’s films, as The Electric State features many parallels to E.T., Ready Player One, and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. It also helped that the film delivered a thrilling score from legendary composer Alan Silvestri, which invokes the best notes from the ’80s and the Avengers movies.
However, The Electric State overloads on its campiness, presenting several goofy sci-fi characters with so many corny, nonsensical jokes that it’s hard to take this dystopian sci-fi film seriously. Screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have shown remarkable talent with their work on the last two Avengers films, and the duo clearly could’ve tapped into so much more than what was on display in The Electric State.
Considering their success working with A-list ensembles in the past, the Russo Brothers could’ve harnessed so much more from their incredible cast on The Electric State. Unfortunately, much of the acting seems unconvincing and doesn’t always match the tone of the scene. Even when Michelle is fighting for her life against terrifying odds, she still has a habit of giving moody, wisecracking complaints.
Stanley Tucci and Giancarlo Esposito also fell flat with their respective performances as Ethan Skate and Marshall Bradbury, though they didn’t have much to work with playing such lackluster villains. Millie Bobby Brown and Woody Norman still deserve praise for their performances together, as they present plenty of pathos in their scenes as sister and brother. There’s no doubt the cast could’ve done so much better had they had the right material, but there was hardly enough electricity in what they delivered.
Ultimately, The Electric State is perfect for those hoping to watch an easy blockbuster. The film is a bold and timely undertaking, but don’t go into this film expecting the next hit franchise. Whatever great story the filmmakers intended to tell seems buried beneath a pile of awkward jokes, one-dimensional characters, and expositional dialogue. It is worth reiterating that the Russo Brothers have succeeded in crafting some of the world’s best blockbusters and have shown extraordinary skills as filmmakers. Though The Electric State featured great promise, one can hope that the Russos will at least learn from this experience as they continue their craft.
The Electric State is now streaming on Netflix.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.