‘The Electric State’ is way more fun than you’re giving it credit for
Sometimes people are mean to movies just to be mean. That’s kind of what I think is happening with Joe Russo and Anthony Russo’s The Electric State.
The Netflix film throws us way back into the 90s (gross don’t remind me how old I am) after the rise of the robots, which led to a technological hero (played by Stanley Tucci) giving the world the way out they needed. The crux of the movie is focused on Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) who mets a robot that isn’t supposed to exist. She learns that he is the embodiment of her brother, Chris, who she thought died.
After teaming up with a man named Keats (Chris Pratt), the trio embark on a journey to get Michelle to her brother’s body so she can be reunited with him. The cast is filled with actors you know and love but many of them are robots so you’ll ask yourself “is that who I think it is?” And there is even a tiny Parks and Recreation reunion with both Adam Scott and Jenny Slate lending their voices to the Pratt co-led film.
While the plot is straight forward and pretty much an easy to navigate robot movie, I do think that it is a lot of fun. Which is why I’m mad at those acting like this is the worst movie to happen. It isn’t! It’s cute! And sometimes, a movie can just be a sweet movie. Especially one geared towards younger audiences.
I’m sure that some adult watched The Goonies back in the 80s and thought it was foolish and silly. But it meant a lot to kids. Not that The Electric State is up there with The Goonies but you get the idea. Let kids have their own action comedies to love.
You can just enjoy a movie for what it is sometimes
We’ve fallen into this upsetting pattern. If a movie doesn’t reinvent the wheel, people are mad at it. Watch something that is just okay? Not possible! It’s either the worst thing ever or life-changing cinema. What I love about The Electric State is that it is just a fun time. It isn’t trying to be anything other than a fun look at an apocalypse film with robots.
There are things that I’d change but for the most part, it is a movie that is entertaining to watch and Millie Bobby Brown is so good as a young action star that you really do forget that she wasn’t actually running around a set with a robot brother. And maybe this is the perfect time to remind audiences that movies can be fun!
I think that we’ve forgotten that movies can just be escapism. That’s how some of our beloved favorite movies came to be. They were trying to change the world and they weren’t some Oscar winning flick. They were just movies we all had fun watching and that’s kind of what happened with me and The Electric State. I just had fun and maybe you will to if you don’t hold it to some impossible standard and accept it for what it is.
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