Review – The Electric State

The best writing advice I have ever received was from an old man who told me, “never write unless you have something to say”. The Electric State is the most expensive project yet from Netflix, clocking in at $330 million dollars and featuring fan favorites Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown. As I sat down to watch it, I wondered whether this would be a movie about nothing, or if directors Anthony and Joe Russo actually had something to say.

Content Guide

Violence/Scary Images: Low-level violence/gore, most of it involving robots as there is a war between robots and humans. Gun-type violence. Multiple deaths. There is a fatal car accident. Medical malpractice.

Language/Crude Humor: H-, d-, a-, s-, swear words. Several times the name of God/Jesus is taken in vain.

Drug/Alcohol References: A character talks about a relative and how they were an alcoholic. The use of VR shares similarities with drug addiction.

Sexual Content: There is one joke about male genitalia.

Spiritual Content: The film contains a search for meaning and a definition of freedom, diving into themes regarding what makes a soul, what makes us human, and the divinity and the machine.

Other Negative Content: None.

Positive Content: Themes revolving around loyalty, life-affirming, how family can sometimes be more than blood, and the importance of living in the real world.

Review

The world of The Electric State is equal parts Mad Max meets Guardians of the Galaxy. The film takes place in an alternate 1990’s where robots have fomented a violent revolution against humanity. Just when the hour seemed darkest, a tech billionaire named Ethan Skate (played by Stanley Tucci) created a VR device that allowed humans to take over the shells of robots, giving humanity the needed advantage to win over the robots. Beaten back, finally Mr. Peanut (voiced by Woody Harrelson) the leader of the robot revolution, is forced to sign a treaty and peace is created. All this takes place in the first ten minutes; that’s a lot of ground for so short a time.

The story follows young teen Michelle Green (Millie Bobby Brown) left all alone in the world, mourning the loss of her family, especially her beloved little brother. Michelle has been essentially abandoned by the foster family, and she feels even more alone as the world around her has gleefully embraced the new VR existence created by Ethan Skate. Her world is upturned when a robot shows up, and not just any robot; a replica of ‘Cosmo’ from her little brother’s favorite cartoon series. Cosmo can’t speak freely and is forced to communicate with only catchphrases from the cartoon series. Michelle discovers, to her shock, that Cosmo is somehow being controlled by her supposedly dead brother, leading Michelle to undertake a journey to discover the truth of her brother’s death. This leads her to a shady black market dealer, Keats (Chris Pratt), and a burned-out Mr. Peanut to learn the truth about freedom and finding family.

The Electric State is a controversial movie; almost every review I have seen has been disparaging. A lot of people seem to be upset that the movie doesn’t resemble anything like the graphic novel, which I haven’t read, so I can’t speak with any confidence on this. I will say that The Electric State is a movie that has stuck with me more than anything I’ve seen from Netflix recently. I found Millie Bobby Brown’s performance to be moving and inspiring. It’s easy to empathize with her character. Several poignant scenes show her life with her brother, and I couldn’t help but get emotionally tied to the story and the gut-wrenching ending. Chris Pratt is always a blast to watch, but here I will say that this felt like a shameless knockoff of Star-Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy. Right down to the rockin’ 90’s soundtrack. Oh, and there’s some awesome 90’s trivia strewn throughout. (Anybody else remember Big Mouth Billy Bass?)

I spent days musing over the concepts and themes from this film. There are several deep concepts about life and existence that the movie gently probes. (Major spoilers follow!) Throughout The Electric State, the idea that robots eventually develop personalities and even souls is pervasive. It made me think about how our consciousness, our personalities, identities, and everything that makes us who we are is clearly proof that we have souls.

The idea of souls is more overt. Towards the end, Michelle is about to watch her brother die (for real this time). Her brother comforts her by telling her that he will never die. I’m about to garble a really great speech; essentially, he tells her that his body is electric and that when he held her, his electricity rubbed off on her. Therefore he would also be with her. It was a poignant moment and a reminder for us as believers of our eternal souls.

I also wanted to briefly mention Stanley Tucci’s underrated performance as Ethan Skate. Stanley Tucci does arrogant and condescending quite well, and nothing changes here. Towards the end, there is an interesting scene where Ethan Skate is eating dinner with his mother, and everything seems normal and fine. Then the scene dissolves away and his VR headset is taken off. The inventor then reveals how his mother was hopelessly addicted and abusive. Rather than deal with things, Skate instead created his VR tech to create a reality where she was always sweet and kind. Unable to deal with reality, Skate created his own reality. Throughout the film, the idea that real life has to be experienced with all its joys and griefs is highlighted in several poignant scenes. In an age of digital interaction, I applaud the Russo brothers for this.

(Spoiler talk ends here).

I’m not saying the movie was perfect. It would have greatly benefitted from some more detailed worldbuilding. Some of the film’s cartoony nature was a little overboard. I would have appreciated some extra backstory. What caused Mr. Peanut to become a revolutionary? At what point did he start to believe in freedom and independence? Maybe I’m overthinking this. I suppose another way to look at this would be because the robots are meant to be a stand-in for the mass of people being overloaded by consumerism and big corporations.

Despite a few small flaws, The Electric State is a movie well worth watching. This is a movie that actually has something to say. As believers we will obviously approach the philosophical concepts a little differently. As C.S. Lewis was fond of pointing out, even secular stories can have grains of eternal truth. I applaud the Russo brothers for having the courage to make a movie reminding us all of the importance of living real lives, of finding family, and how we are so much more than flesh and blood.