‘The Electric State’ Review: The Russo Brothers Turn Postapocalyptic Picture Book Into a Bland Millie Bobby Brown Vehicle
Lately, it seems that illustrated novels are having a tough time being properly adapted for the silver screen. It’s only been a few months since the last ill-fated outing, “Here,” in which author Richard McGuire’s profound rumination on time, space and humanity was re-envisioned as a gimmicky schmaltz-fest. Unfortunately, such is also the case for author-artist Simon St?lenhag’s “The Electric State,” which turns his salient, bleak thriller about a young woman searching for her missing brother in a techno-dystopia into a whimsical, sanitized mess of mimeographed ideas from a handful of far better cinematic inspirations.
Directors Joe and Anthony Russo, along with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, surprisingly undervalue their source material’s blueprint when it comes to character construction and immersive world-building. Considering the same talents have previously turned in smart work adapting Marvel’s comic-book IP in the Captain America and Avengers movies, it’s baffling this material wasn’t a better fit. They deliver a superficial read of sibling relationships, as well as the themes surrounding tech panic and corporate malfeasance, and their added contributions lack spark or emotional resonance.
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Teenage Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) lived an idyllic life until a car accident robbed her of both caring parents and her genius, mop-headed younger brother Christopher (Woody Norman). Over the years that followed, during a third World War waged by sentient robots and won by human-controled drones, she’s become a rebellious hellion raised in a derelict home by deadbeat foster dad Ted (Jason Alexander). She’s also flunking out of school since she refuses to wear the headwear required for learning: the Neurocaster. This sleek virtual reality helmet invented by Sentre tech billionaire Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci) was first used by the military and then popularized post-war for the civilian market so humans can rest and their mechanical drones can work.
One night, Michelle is visited by a ghost from her past — a life-sized robot version of her and Christopher’s favorite cartoon character, Kid Cosmo (voiced by Alan Tudyk), hiding in her shed (a nod to E.T.’s introduction in “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”). This unexpected arrival signals to Michelle that her sibling might actually be alive and in desperate need of rescue. To find him means traveling across the country to Seattle, through a dangerous wasteland filled with rogue robots, while evading the ruthless Col. Bradbury (Giancarlo Esposito), who has been hired by Sentre to apprehend them. They also need to convince charismatic smuggler Keats (Chris Pratt) and his right-hand helper bot Herman (Anthony Mackie) to guide them through the sun-bleached, treacherous terrain to their final destination.
While there’s no reason to add to the two-hour run time, it would’ve behooved the filmmakers to utilize their time more economically, plopping us right into the action as the book does and eschewing standard forms of exposition to set up their world and muddled character motivations. Instead, they rely on an elongated news montage and plodding, expository speech dumps from both scientist-in-hiding Dr. Amherst (Ke Huy Quan) and the leader of the robot rebellion sect, Mr. Peanut (Woody Harrelson). They downplay the darker aspects of the narrative (dealing with technology’s worst side effects) in favor of a generic conceit centered on freedom, preachy commentary on prejudice and a reductive, rote conflict between humankind and robots.
It’s never made clear why Michelle despises Neurocasters, leaving us to extrapolate her rationale. So when the situation inevitably culminates in her putting one on, the weight of this decision rings hollow — whereas in the book, her reasons are well-defined and utterly heartbreaking. Brown does what she can to elevate the material, but she’s shown wider range in her plucky Enola Holmes franchise. Comedy falls flat more often than not. Pratt, whose character plays like a cross between Han Solo and Jack Burton, is gifted with a moment or two, bickering with Herman like a married couple and yeeting cars at Sentre headquarters. Otherwise, the material renders him rather superfluous to Michelle’s quest.
Meanwhile, “The Electric State” suffers from a villain problem. Neither Evil Steve Jobs nor his mercenary lackey are given much of a motor and oppressive presence. They stalk and bark commands, but Skate’s flimsily constructed “Minority Report”-like scheme to rule the world and Bradbury’s “Edge of Tomorrow”-esque nickname, The Butcher of Schenectady, feel weightless. Blessedly, Tucci and Esposito infuse their cheesier character moments with a decent dose of sincerity to blunt the edges.
The filmmakers’ largest oversight is forgetting to have fun with their alternate, retro-futuristic ’90s setting. There are a few jokes involving schlocky sensations like Billy the Big Mouth Bass, vintage Nintento consoles and The Clapper, but that’s about it. Production design discards the novel’s dark cyber-punk aesthetic (showing the omnipresent tech corp looming large over cityscapes with its octopus-like tentacles outstretched and the helmet-linked, desiccated dead littered everywhere) and embraces a brighter, family-friendly look with cartoonish robots and sleek corporate offices.
That said, the production design and visual effects are a genuine highlight, in particular Terry Notary’s movement choreography for the robots, which helps to better anthropomorphize the characters. It all looks and feels cohesive, with humans and robots well-integrated with the environments, elevating their interactions above the sometimes-washed-out look of a volume stage. The effects are especially strong in the climactic third-act battle sequence.
There’s no rule that says book-based films shouldn’t diverge from what’s on the page. Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” and Paul Verhoeven’s “Starship Troopers” certainly did, and those stories found their audiences in both mediums. In this case, however, the filmmakers have diluted the source material, showing a clear lack of interest in making their creation just as haunting, searing and satisfying as the original product.
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