Skip to content
The Electric State begins in 1990, “before the war”, with Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown – Damsel) enjoying life with her family, although the war against robots leads to deaths aplenty, as well as cartoon Kid Cosmo being cancelled, due to anti-robot sentiment.
The war process includes some amusing archive footage of robots being manufactured for Disneyworld in the ’50s, but moving forward, they’ve got bored of doing menial tasks, and think they “deserve freedom from servitude“, and that buying a new toaster to replace a broken one is “murder“, hence their retaliation.
As Staff Sgt John D Keats (Chris Pratt – The Garfield Movie 3D) surmises, wryly, to a news reporter, “Robots don’t eat, sleep or blink… *I* blink!”
Meanwhile, Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci as Stanley Tucci – Conclave), CEO of Sentre Technologies, has made a link between robots and the human mind, creating the Neurocaster, which allows you to place your mind somewhere else, like Star Trek’s Holodeck.
Moving forward to 1994, “after the war”, Michelle is now a rebellious teen, with robots now being excluded to an area in the back of beyond (known as the ‘EX’), and schools requiring the Neurocaster in class, looking rather like the VR helmet in The Simpsons, when Lisa ‘met’ Ghenghis Khan.
With her parents dead, and her brother missing, a Kid Cosmo unit enters her house, and claims there’s a problem on the moon… like you do, while foster Dad, Ted (Jason Alexander), is getting upset!
Amongst wanting to go to the EX, as well as looking for her brother, Christopher (Woody Norman – Susan Hill’s Ghost Story), The Electric State has things to say about wanting to escape the shitty reality of life, whilst living forever in a virtual reality land, instead, but it’s not feasible in actuality.
At a shade over two hours, though, it does go on too long. There were times when I was quite enjoying it, then the story just drifted off for ten minutes getting nowhere, before beginning to get back tonn track… and then drifting off again, before too long. It’s like a robot trundling along on three wheels, occasionally breaking down and needing a jolt to get moving on again.
Cast-wise, Millie and Pratt are fine – albeit not exactly pushing the boat out, Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once) and Giancarlo Esposito put in similar amounts of lack of effort, as the latter also did in Captain America: Brave New World, while various robot voices blend into each other, including that film’s Anthony Mackie, alongside Woody Harrelson and Alan Tudyk.
As such, I didn’t hate it, but it’s just… okay, which is not what filmmakers want to hear when the budget is a humungous $320m. Regardless of whether or not you enjoy it, who’s letting such budgets spiral out of control like that? That’s way over a regular blockbuster’s budget, aside from the same director brothers’ – Anthony Russo and Joe Russo – Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, neither of which wowed me, but for some were more essential than oxygen.
I can’t see even those die-hard fans forming the same opinion over The Electric State.
NOTE: There is NO mid- or post-credits scene.
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
The Electric State is on Netflix from Friday March 14th, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 128 minutes
Release date: March 14th 2025
Studio: Netflix
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (ARRIRAW (4.6K))
Score: 5/10
Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Producers: Chris Castaldi, Thiago Da Costa, Mike Larocca, Patrick Newall, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Angela Russo-Otstot
Screenplay: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Novel: Simon Stålenhag
Music: Alan Silvestri
Cast:
Michelle: Millie Bobby Brown
Keats: Chris Pratt
Christopher: Woody Norman
Mr. Peanut (voice): Woody Harrelson
Cosmo (voice): Alan Tudyk
Garbage Bot (voice): Billy Gardell
Colonel Bradbury: Giancarlo Esposito
Ethan Skate: Stanley Tucci
Mom: Ann Russo
Dad: Greg Cromer
Ted: Jason Alexander
Madeline Vance: Holly Hunter (not that one)
Arthur Meadows: Tuc Watkins
President Clinton: Joe Avena
Farah Bedi: Necar Zadegan
Ms. Sablinsky: Marin Hinkle
Dr. Amherst / P.C. (voice): Ke Huy Quan
Wolfe: Colman Domingo
Herman (voice): Anthony Mackie
Skeevy Bot (voice) (Joe Russo, as Gozie Agbo)
Perplexo (voice): Hank Azaria
Penny Pal (voice): Jenny Slate
Mrs. Scissors (voice): Susan Leslie
Uncredited voice: Billy Bob Thornton
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.