The Russo Brothers trade in the nuance and melancholy of Simon Stalenhag’s graphic novel for formulaic dialogue and excruciating mawkishness.
The Russo Brothers trade in the nuance and melancholy of Simon Stalenhag’s graphic novel for formulaic dialogue and excruciating mawkishness.
By Kylie Northover
March 11, 2025 — 11.00pm
The Electric State★★
Netflix
When beloved books get the blockbuster adaptation treatment, disappointed fans are an inevitability. But Netflix’s new big-budget adaptation is more likely to inspire outright anger.
The Electric State is based on the 2018 graphic novel by Swedish artist Simon Stalenhag, whose artworks depict unsettling images at once mundane and otherworldly. His earliest works, which he began sharing on social media in 2014, feature scenes from a desolate Swedish countryside littered with mysterious machinery and giant abandoned robots. The retro-futurist images evoked a distinct sense of melancholy, even before Stalenhag began telling their backstories in his books.
The Electric State, Stalenhag’s third book, is a chilling tale of humanity’s relationship with technology, in an alternate 1990s in the US, after a war between humans and robots. It’s a poignant story that touches on grief, memory and human connection.
So what did Netflix do for the adaptation? They handed the story and a reported $US320 million ($507.5 million) to the Russo brothers, the pair known for their loud, colourful, brash Marvel action films. You can probably guess where this is going.
They’ve taken the bones and the gorgeous aesthetics of Stalenhag’s story and Americanised them beyond recognition; this version of The Electric State is a family-friendly action film utterly devoid of subtlety or nuance.
Set in an alternate 1994, two years after a human-robot war, started in this version by the Worldwide Robot Rebellion and essentially won after the evil head of Sentre Technologies, Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci as a hammy panto villain) introduced Neurocasters, devices used for fighting the robots that have now been repurposed for leisure activities, causing many to be addicted to their headsets.
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Not sassy teenage orphan Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown), though. After her parents and her genius younger brother die in a car accident, she lives with foster parent Ted (Jason Alexander) who, like most, is Neurocaster-addicted.
When a robot version of a cartoon character beloved by her brother (Woody Norman) appears and convinces Michelle that he contains her brother’s consciousness, the pair embark on a cross-country trip to find his physical self.
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Then they meet Keats (Chris Pratt playing Chris Pratt), a smuggler and his – wait for it – wisecracking robot sidekick Herman (voiced by Anthony Mackie), and they team up to visit the Exclusion Zone, where robot survivors now live, seemingly spending their days trading quips. Visually, some of the film is amazing (despite the lurid colour palette), and these scenes, like Star Wars′ Cantina scenes, showcase a slew of retired robots, which is fun, if predictable. You can imagine what happens next.
Reportedly the Russo brothers spent seven years bringing this overlit, sanitised crime to the screen, most of which must have been spent working on the visual effects because the overwrought script and formulaic plot that trades thoughtful melancholy for excruciating mawkishness could have been written in a week – by a robot.
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Kylie Northover is Spectrum Deputy Editor at The AgeConnect via email.
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