The Stream: It takes a while to get going.

The Big Screen: Heartfelt moments and a couple funny moments

The Final Bill: A nice adaptation makes a lackluster product, but the cast saves what they can.

– S2S: Movie Review
Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Writers: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Simon Stålenhag
Stars: Chris Pratt, Millie Bobby Brown, Woody Harrelson
Genre: Sci-Fi, Epic, Action, Adventure,
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour 54 minutes
Production Companies: AGBO, Anthem & Song, Double Dream
Platform: Released March 14, 2025 on Netflix
Coming Soon to Netflix: Nonnas, Happy Gilmore 2, Jay Kelly, Madea’s Destination Wedding, The Thursday Murder Club, The TwitsArti

Streamers, spring hasn’t sprung yet, but it some new streaming movies are springing for us to watch. Last week brought us The Electric State. The movie is based on the graphic novel by Simon Stålenhag. It goes a little something like the 80s and 90s you knew got a reboot with robots being prominent features in society. There’s a fight between the humans and robots, and humans won because they found new technology. The robots are put on a trail of tears to a particular zone. We follow Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) as she travels with a robot that needs help, and she thinks this might be her missing brother. Human and robot buddy film hijinks ensue.

Initially, the use of the graphic novel as source material is pretty great. While this movie feels like 3 or 4 movies we’ve already seen before, there is still some originality to the story. In fact, the best part of this movie is the emotional depth that it has. From Millie to Woody Norman to Woody Harrelson, the characters are able to convey the emotion of the moment. Additionally, the cast is full of star power and the movie needed every bit of it to stay interesting. While the movie has its moments of intrigue with the different robots and Chris Pratt, there are far more lulls than excitement. Maybe I just had higher expectations because I thought the movie had such an interesting take on how history could’ve turned out. Or, maybe the Russo Brothers couldn’t decide if they wanted to be a drama or a buddy road trip movie. There’s a piece missing to this movie that keeps it from being really good.

Long story short, The Electric State is a solid movie that takes too long to get going, but the solid performances by the cast keep the slightly boring movie from completely faltering. The movie benefits from going straight to streaming missing some of the scrutiny of big screen expectation. Nevertheless, grab a big bowl of popcorn and check out The Electric State.