directed four of the best instalments from the MCU, including Avengers: Endgame, which became the highest-grossing film of all time before Avatar reclaimed that title. Afterwards, their latest wave of directorial features through their production company AGBO have been middling works made for streaming services from Apple TV+ to Netflix, both of which produce films as if through a factory line that dishes out content. Before we see the Russos returning to Marvel, they have one more film that you might find on Netflix, despite having a reported budget of $320 million. 

With a script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely that loosely adapts the 2018 illustrated novel by Simon Stålenhag, The Electric State takes place in an alternate 1990s, in which a war between humans and robots has left the world in disarray. When the teenage orphan Michelle Greene (Millie Bobby Brown) finds a robot companion with clues that suggest his younger brother Christopher might still be alive, she sets out across a dystopian landscape to find him.

Whereas the source material was praised for Stålenhag’s striking illustrations that showcase a technologically ravaged America with the presence of mechanical beings, the creative team behind the last two Avengers movies takes inspiration from those illustrations to craft a very recyclable movie. Nearly every scene in The Electric State feels like it is from another movie, while it uses its all-star cast in roles that have played countless times. I mean, how many times have you seen Chris Pratt playing a Han Solo-like character, or Giancarlo Esposito as the glorified cold-hearted henchman? 

Through a montage from earlier on, we see an alternate history of humanity’s relationship with sentient robots, which obviously leads to a war which gets resolved through a peace treaty between the races, whilst most of humanity spending the rest of their lives in VR sets, thanks to a corporation led by the nefarious CEO Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci). The Electric State is trying to say a lot about our current society when it comes to virtual reality and artificial intelligence, not least of which a ham-fisted speech towards the end that is clearly meant for us, the audience, and yet its storytelling is a mishmash of sci-fi ideas you have seen in better movies. 

Whatever attempt there is at an emotional human story, with Millie Bobby Brown bringing some heart in the leading role, the writing feels as mechanical as the robot themselves, which are The Electric State’s successful element. With the exception of multiple stars involved, you can tell most of the money was spent on the retro-designed robots that greatly realized through impressive CGI. And yet, despite the fun robots and the attempt of evoking those Spielberg-Amblin movies from the eighties, the film’s dour tone makes the problematic Ready Player One look like a masterpiece, especially when delivering a climax that is explosive and more inventive than what we see here.