The Electric State
A 2025 American Science Fiction Film
Director Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Screenplay by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFreely
Budget Reported $320 million. It is one of the most expensive films ever made.
Music by Alan Silvestri, who also composed for Ready Player One 2018, Lilo and Stich 2002, Contact 1997, Judge Dredd 1995, Back to the Future I, II, & III 1985, 1989, 1990, and The Abyss 1989
Distributed by Netflix
Release dates February 24, 2025 (Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre)
March 14, 2025, (United States)
Running time 128 minutes
Language English 1,2
Cast
I’m only going to list the main characters (in my opinion) because these players were most of the story. The voices were numerous and well-known but didn’t add much to the story (again, in my opinion). The Wikipedia source lists all of them.
Millie Bobby Brown as Michelle Greene. Ms. Brown also starred as Eleven in the series Stranger Things 2016-2025
Chris Pratt as John D. Keats. Mr. Pratt played Peter Quill in Guardian of the Galaxy 2014, Jurassic World 2015, and Dan Forestor in The Tomorrow War 2021.
Stanley Tucci as Ethan Skate. Mr. Tucci also played Cesar Flickerman in The Hunger Games 2012.
Woody Norman as Christopher “Chris” Greene. 1,2,3,4,5
Plot
Robots are a large part of the world. Humans had them doing the labor humans didn’t want to do. Finally, the robots rebel, and there is a war. A creepy scientist, Ethan Skate, finds a way to use a young genius, Christopher, to create a way for humans to run robot skeletons and compete and win the war with the robots. Ethan Skate gets his hands on Christopher when he is in a car accident with his family; his parents are killed, and he is reported dead. His sister, Michelle, survives and tries to struggle without her family until a strange robot shows up, and Michelle realizes it somehow is Christopher reaching out to her. The story turns into a journey movie as Michelle and a ragtag group try to go into robot no man’s land (where they’ve been exiled) and find the doctor who can answer questions about Christopher.
The film also raises thought-provoking ethical questions about our relationship with technology. Humanity, now addicted to the new invention called Neurocast Technology, finds itself lost in the virtual world it can create. This aspect of the film left me pondering about the potential consequences of our increasing reliance on technology.
Positives
The main plot of trudging through danger and finding people and robots to help along the way was a compelling aspect of the film. It was inspiring to see the group manage to achieve their goals, and I found myself rooting for them. The actors, who have delivered stellar performances in other films, added to the anticipation. However, I wished the film had taken more time to develop the characters and make them more relatable.
Negatives
Unfortunately, I found the movie to be lacking. Two things held it back. First, the development of the characters was weak; I didn’t feel much, so I wasn’t too involved in their struggle. Surprisingly, I was moved by two robot characters who had tiny roles. Mrs. Scissors looks like a robot in a wheelchair. She ached to do her job- cutting hair. The second one, Penny Pal (a post lady), conveyed her sincere love and competency in her career, and willingness to help. There were a lot of robot characters, so I imagine the writer had to cram stuff in to make this fit. As it is, the movie is 128 minutes.
Secondly, the robots were too cartoonish for me. I found it hard to take them seriously. There were also scavenger robots that weren’t focused on but were the opposite of comical. Another dark venture for the storyline is too dark, with themes of loss, sacrifice, and the consequences of technological advancement.
Of the main characters, Michelle had the most development. Christopher, her brother, had a fair amount in his role in the robot but it was truncated because he couldn’t communicate much.
A conclusion echoed in Roger Ebert’s review- “Well, Brown, as Michelle, has a lot of integrity and charisma. (Pratt’s performance, on the other hand, could just as well have been cobbled together from “Guardians of the Galaxy” outtakes; honestly, I’m not entirely sure it wasn’t.)” 6
I’m afraid Rotten Tomatoes wasn’t any kinder.7 “The Russos have churned out the ultimate overpriced, overblown widget, a conglomeration of compelling IP rendered generic, wearisome needle drops, slumming-for-bucks talent and unceasing green-screenery.” John Serba Decider wrote “[The Electric State is] not well-written, well-casted, well-acted, or well-paced. The special effects, although solidly crafted, don’t justify the stratospheric budget.” James Berardinellie ReelViews
Spoiler Alert
The climax involved going into Christopher’s mind, using the dreaded Neurocast Tech, and finding out what is actually going on in this child’s mind. This I found appalling, mainly because the choice was made to let him die. You see, he had been in a coma and then came out of it. At this point a doctor (a subordinate of Skate-Stanley Tucci) working with him tries to give Christopher a life without Skate’s knowledge, trickling out his consciousness to the robot world. So now the child says he has to die, and his sister has to do it.
This ending is similar to that of Surrogates, a 2009 movie starring Bruce Willis. Like in The Electric State, the hero in Surrogates sees humanity lost in a virtual world and decides to pull the plug. However, the consequence is that everybody has to live in the real world now —nobody is sacrificed to achieve this.
The childish movie, with the goofy robots, turns very dark at this point and should be only for adults. I didn’t find any images of Christopher where he was being stored and used, something I think shows someone knew this was too much.
Conclusion
I am afraid I have to give this a 3 out of 5. There was a lot of potential, but I just came out of it not really caring—until the child was killed, then I was sick. The growth of the characters wasn’t there and it didn’t lead to a point where I could get behind it. The little that leaked through in the two robots Mrs. Scissors and Penny Pal did make me care somewhat but Michelle killing her brother (yes I know the foundation was laid) messed that up.
We all worry so much about AI getting ‘Intelligent’ or, as I prefer, ‘sentient’ that we often forget how incredibly difficult that will be. Somehow, we believe we could just do it (isn’t science fabulous? Capable of anything?). While I believe in a future where that could be possible, I don’t think it’s close. Certain things are very close, like computation speed and the ability of AI to reason things out. There is a rumor about a self-aware computer at Google, but it is a rumor. That I think, would make some kind of mark on our society, somewhere. However, being self-aware and having a consciousness, I think, is quite a great leap. It must be possible, after all we do it! However, we don’t know how we do it and therefore don’t understand it.
A considerable amount of ethical questions must be answered before that. If AI can evolve, is it moral to make them do anything? Having a land of their own was a favor in this movies (not counting the scavengers, but hey, humans have that, too!).
And then what about bad human actors, like our villain Ethan Skate, who enslaves the boy and makes his robots do evil things. That is the first thing that will go wrong with A.I., and will we must know the difference between what a robot does and what a human makes it do?
©JM Strasser March 2024 All Rights Reserved
Sources
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_State
2. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006293/
3. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5611121/
4. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chris-Pratt
5. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392170/?ref_=nmbio_mbio
6. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-electric-state-netflix-film-review-2025
7. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_electric_state/reviews
Images
2. https://modern-neon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-abyss-feature.jpg
4. https://www.comboinfinito.com.br/principal/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/A-Guerra-do-Amanha-2.jpg
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9. https://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/still/surrogates04.jpg
10. https://observer.com/2022/07/meet-lamda-the-freaky-ai-chatbot-that-got-a-google-engineer-fired/
11. https://survivetheai.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/can-AI-become-self-aware.jpg
