KSL Movie Show review: ‘The Electric State’ is so expensive and so cool
Mar 13, 2025, 8:00 AM | Updated: 9:54 pm
"The Electric State" is one of the most expensive movies ever made. Does it pay off?
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SALT LAKE CITY — Fans of source material don’t like it when somebody buys the movie rights for a book, and then changes it to make it more cinematic, visual or dare “they” say fascinating. It’s a betrayal of biblical proportions and there’s usually no coming back, no matter how good the hybrid turns out to be.
I had seen another adaptation of Swedish author/artist Simon Stålenhag’s work, “Tales from the Loop” from a few years back, but had not made the connection.
There was something oddly familiar about his retro-futuristic style — mainly rusting robotic relics strewn about a farmland setting that caught my attention, specifically a decaying harvester combine hovering in a field with no explanation as to how it got there — oh and — why is it still hovering like a Star Wars land speeder?
So in Stålenhag’s third art novel, “The Electric State,” a teenage girl and her robotic companion travel across the Western United States in search of her long-lost brother, according to Wikipedia.
The Russo brothers, Anthony and Joseph, used that as their jumping-off point to create their own version of this story. Love it or leave it.
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In 1990, before the robot wars, Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) and her younger brother Chris (Woody Norman) lived in a cruel foster family. Chris tested off the charts as a pure genius and so went to college early like a Doogie Howser.
His vast intelligence comes to the attention of Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci) whose advancements in robotics within his company, Sentre, have revolutionized virtual reality to such a degree that all of humanity is tuned in, rather than live their dreary lives. Yes, like “WALL-E.”
Michelle is approached by a Cosmo robot (voiced by Alan Tudyk), who was Chris’s favorite cartoon character in his younger years. He claims to be controlled and inhabited by Chris’s intellect, but has no idea where his body is being kept. Yes, like “Minority Report.”
She knows the answers to her many questions can be cleared up by a “doctor wearing glasses” (Ke Huy Quan) who now lives in the Exclusion Zone, where robots are quarantined behind massive walls mainly in the southwest desert, but Moab is mentioned to be along the northern border.
She and Cosmo track down a bad boy exporter, Keats (Chris Pratt) who illegally deals with forbidden treasures from the Exclusion Zone with the help of a wise-guy construction bot called Herm (Anthony Mackie.)
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On this adventure, they will run into a number of characters from robot tracker (Giancarlo Esposito), a robot leader, Mr. Peanut (Woody Harrelson), a magician bot Perplexo (Hank Azaria), a mail carrier lady bot, Penny Pal (Jenny Slate) and a baseball-themed bot, Pop Fly (Brian Cox) — just to name a few (and there are so, so many).
That brings us to the vast amount of visual effects done so seamlessly, that it could explain why this Netflix creation cost $320 million, making it one of the most expensive films ever made. And there goes your monthly rate hike!
But I have to admit, I was definitely entertained throughout, to the point where I wrote in my notes, “Wow. So cool.”
I guess I could have just said that. Others have not been so kind.
“The Electric State” (B+) Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence/action, language and some thematic material. Starring Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, Stanley Tucci, Ke Huy Quan and an A-list of voice talent. Directed by the Russo Brothers (“Avengers: Infinity War” “Avengers: Endgame”) – filmed in Georgia, Brazil, India and France. Running time: 128 minutes. A NETFLIX exclusive.
The KSL Movie Show with Andy Farnsworth and Steve Salles airs Fridays on KSL NewsRadio from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Follow the show on Facebook, and join The KSL Movie Show Club for exclusive perks by texting MOVIE to 57500. Message and data rates may apply. Text STOP to cancel. Message frequency varies.
