The Electric State

It's hard not to have seen the bad reviews that seem to be on all the news streams about this film being a disappointment or just bad. If you love movies and read the gossip about upcoming films it is almost impossible to avoid the hate but it's just not right this isn't high theatre and it's not a perfect movie but it is by no means a bad film, there is some truly good aspects to what is a emotional romp through retro science fiction.

Don't sit down and expect an epic movie that will change the world but not all movies need to be this, some just need to take you on a journey and let your brain and emotions have a refreshing experience this is what electric state is it's a vacation for the soul that is enjoyable, simple and freeing in a time when every other film seems to be a noble and worthy movie about people or times that, as important as they are to tell, are not the most escapist of experiences.

So give Electric State a go it won't make you a better person from watching it but it will give you a sci-fi romp that passes a couple of hours and won't leave you thinking the world and people in it are doomed!

The Electric State wants to be a requiem in retro-futurist tones, a tale of loss and wanderings, robots with forlorn eyes, and a girl drifting through the ash-heap of civilisation. But though the frame is stunning and the budget considerable, the film slips through the fingers like vapour.

The Russo brothers summon their usual largesse of scale, but seem uninterested in the subtler contours of feeling. The performances are hemmed in by the architecture of the film. Millie Bobby Brown, oddly airbrushed and disconcertingly polished for someone meant to carry the ache of memory, never quite finds the soul of the part. Her face, perhaps shaped more by surgeons than experience, distracts from the emotional weight the role asks of her.

The robot companion, tender in design and nearly mute, is meant to be the beating heart. Instead, it feels like window-dressing for a story that can't commit to intimacy. There are fragments that glint, an abandoned cinema, a voice on a forgotten radio, but they aren't allowed to resonate.

I watched it unfold with admiration for its mechanics and a growing indifference to its meaning. The Electric State has all the signs of a journey, except the feeling of having gone anywhere at all.

Honestly, I guess this film is aimed at the 5-10 age group, and I think that makes it fine....ok....not too awful etc etc.

For a background film while you cook, it's ok. Difficult to follow anyhow when you sit and concentrate.

With the amount of well known names in this film, and the fact I love sci-fi, I was truly expecting and hoping for so much better.

People giving this a ten? Really? Have you never watched a film before, or think this is the height of sci-fi?

Acting for me was all good, even MBB whom I'm not a fan of. It's the story that lets it down. Lack of cohesion, lack of direction, absolute lack of compassion for any of the characters. :-(

If viewers are looking for the haunting, dystopian vistas and devastating landscapes from Stalenhag's book, they'll be disappointed. But there are amazing and captivating effects, practical and digital, that build a unique world vision.

What this film has going for it is Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown (more on them later), combining with a talented group of voice actors. Tucci is as good as ever but his part is thinly developed. Giancarlo Esposito brings his trademark gravitas and emotional weight to the story as well, in a role that, while not perfectly written, provides a surprising part of the movie's center.

The Mr Peanut (Woody Harrelson) role, for me, didn't quite work. The "bots" I enjoyed were Herm ( unrecognizably voiced by Anthony Mackie) and the postal bot Penny Pal (Jenny Slate).

There are definite plot holes, but considering the at times preposterous world we're in, is it worth complaining about story gaps? The robot cavalry makes a long sojourn to their final battlefield in a long caravan that doesn't get attacked, and improbably makes crazy good time doing it. And there's the disposal of a very central bot in a very uncaring way that wouldn't happen, but provides a sentimental wink at the viewer.

Humorous, with lots of crash bang and very cool looking shots, especially with the giant sized robots, it's just fun enough, and interesting enough to watch all the way through. Pratt and Brown are fun-ish together, and bring their acting talents to a movie from a genre they are both very familiar with, so I do recommend it.

But Brown feels wrong in this: her appearance as a bounced around foster child feels too "glam" at times, because she isn't grubby enough. Her acting also feels very much as though she's going through the paces, almost too self aware. Her fluffed up lip's lipstick and gloss doesn't fit with Keats' (Pratt) grimy, disheveled bootlegger.

While Brown is given too many "noble" lines to deliver without coming off as sanctimonious, and Pratt is a little too much like Starlord at his most shrill and irritating; you can mostly forgive them because of their innate charm.

The Russo brothers are definitely talented, so there is a high bar set before you watch the first scene.

But they made a choice, the scary barren world that the book painted beautifully, is not the direction they picked. Instead they leaned into a little Spielberg, a little Lucas and some James Gunn. It doesn't make for a perfect movie, but hey, I watched the whole thing and wasn't mad that I did.

There's a lot of kvetching about the big budget and where did it all go. I have two thoughts on that: one, those cool shots of the giant bots, and the very good animatronic facial expressions weren't cheap. Second, the movie definitely feels like there were a number of scenes that were cut. Quite a few actually. I'd definitely watch the full cut, if there is such a thing. There are many telling points, story jumps being one, but Holly Hunter is too much of an accomplished actress to appear in one scene, and a voiceover.

So, give it a watch, you won't be mad that you did, and if you are, well, there's worse things to be mad at.

Just don't expect to be blown away, and hoping for a new franchise.

So wanted to enjoy this. But... Oh, boy, what a dull movie. The actors look bored. The script is one of the worst I have witnessed. It's a hodge podge of other movie's scenes. ET, Aliens, T2 in the first 10 mins alone.

What a waste of talent. Is everyone now just cashing in the Netflix dollar and not caring about entertaining the audience. $320m and there's no soul, nobody to care about, no humour, no story, no jeopardy, nothing.

Predictable. The two stars look lost. The only redeeming feature is the FX which are phenomenally good. But you'd have as much fun flicking through the pictures in the book than you would sitting through 2 hours of this trite.