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Chris Gore and Alan Ng review “The Electric State,” now playing on Netflix.
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0:03
hey let's talk about this big budget
0:07
movie on Netflix uh the the reported
0:11
budget for this thing is
0:15
crazy
0:17
crazy uh north of 400 million we'll
0:20
we'll find out um this movie is from the
0:24
Russo Brothers Anthony and Joe Russo
0:27
it's the electric State based on novel
0:30
that became a graphic
0:33
novel and it's a it's about a brother
0:38
and sister um kind of an alternate
0:41
timeline of Earth where Walt Disney
0:46
invented robots and robots became a big
0:49
part of
0:51
society and Michelle and her brother her
0:55
brother's this Super Genius Michelle
0:59
played by Millie Bobby Brown uh lost her
1:02
brother in a tragic accident but in the
1:07
midst of this there is a robot war where
1:11
people are fighting robots that are
1:13
since that are defeated through the use
1:16
of uh
1:18
VR controlled by humans other
1:22
robots
1:23
it's I it it's crazy so Michelle goes on
1:27
a journey to find her brother when she
1:30
discovers a
1:31
robot says he is her
1:36
brother a little robot that's that's
1:39
based on a cartoon that the brother used
1:42
to watch when he was a
1:45
kid it's all very convoluted like the
1:48
first 10 minutes there's a prologue that
1:51
does the World building and I'll say
1:54
this the World building is amazing in
1:58
this film the special effects are
2:00
incredible you have these
2:03
anthropomorphized robots based on like
2:06
Mr Peanut lemon head a a taco that plays
2:11
piano um a postal woman that's a mailbox
2:16
like amazing weird anthropomorphized
2:20
robots the World building is amazing the
2:23
problem is the world is
2:26
dumb it's dumb and illogical he runs
2:30
into a character played by Chris Pratt I
2:33
forget his name and um what's his name
2:37
Keats Keats who has another robot
2:42
friend these these he's a he's a dealer
2:46
and in maybe illicit items he should not
2:50
have like the human version of eBay
2:53
selling stuff off in a warehouse and
2:58
Michelle and Keat go on this adventure
3:00
to try to find her brother the robot
3:03
version of her brother that is their
3:07
companion um is sort of has the brain of
3:11
her brother but doesn't know where his
3:14
body is so his body is somewhere they're
3:17
trying to reunite the brain that's in
3:19
the robot with the actual physical
3:22
brother that is somewhere in the world
3:25
Stanley tuie plays an evil character
3:28
named Ethan skate who seem to be modeled
3:30
of Jeff
3:32
Bezos I mean really truly is Je they
3:34
look similar let's just put it that way
3:36
they look similar very similar very
3:38
similar and he's the one that has
3:41
created this sort of um I don't know
3:44
this police state with these robots that
3:46
keep things in line robots are now
3:49
outlawed humans can't have robots and
3:51
they're relegated to a safe Zone as long
3:54
as as long as they stay there they're
3:56
okay so they go to this Zone and then
4:00
team up with other robots who go on the
4:02
journey to try and find her robot
4:06
brother's brains
4:08
body it's convoluted it's it's very
4:12
simply laid out in the film um he Quan
4:16
plays a scientist Dr
4:20
Amherst who who uh plays a part in this
4:23
with a an avatar component robot and
4:26
I'll say the World building incredible
4:30
the the effects amazing CG I mean you've
4:34
got colossal construction robots used to
4:38
fight battles you've got action Coleman
4:42
Domingo plays a mercenary
4:45
robot The Butcher of what is it the
4:47
Butcher of I
4:48
forget uh
4:50
um I'm the Butcher of SKC or something
4:54
yeah that's right and and they're off on
4:56
this journey together so it's it is very
5:00
much inspired by like 80s movies there
5:04
tons of Pop Culture references because
5:07
the movie is set in
5:09
1994 kind of an alternate history where
5:12
pop culture is the same but the world
5:15
technologically is different it's
5:18
incredibly
5:20
ambitious but like I said the World
5:23
building is so well done but here's the
5:26
main flaw with the movie it feels like
5:29
the whole movie was written by AI every
5:34
line of dialogue in this movie is a
5:38
cliche I could predict what characters
5:41
were about to say don't do this you'll
5:44
kill yourself I'm your friend it's it's
5:49
so Earnest almost slavish to 80s and 90s
5:55
Blockbusters it just copies that
5:58
dialogue Style
6:01
and I thought the characters are all
6:04
two-dimensional uh Woody Harrison plays
6:07
Mr Peanut kind of the head the FDR of
6:11
the robots the
6:13
leader benevolent leader and and I got
6:17
to say I was so impressed by how I mean
6:20
this is a multi hundred million dollar
6:24
can you look up the box office or the
6:26
yeah someone just said three 3 320
6:29
million I mean it is a huge budget movie
6:32
so I'll say this I do think the Avengers
6:35
movies are in good hands with the Russo
6:37
brothers because what they're able to do
6:39
is spectacle but wow they need help on
6:43
the script the flaw in this movie was
6:46
the screenplay everything else although
6:49
I'm not a huge fan of Millie Bobby Brown
6:52
I don't know what it is with brother
6:53
sister relationships in movies these
6:55
days seems like they're kind of overused
6:58
like way too affe
7:00
because we can't have romance anymore so
7:02
we can't have romance so there's a
7:04
really weird connection between Millie
7:07
Bobby Brown and her brother like I don't
7:10
mean it's sexual it's just it's too much
7:13
and not believable at least my
7:15
recollection of I have three sisters and
7:18
we would tease each other a lot yeah but
7:21
that's the point is they've replaced
7:23
romance with family love but the thing
7:25
is you can't make a family without
7:28
Romance
7:29
it's weird so look I I I I I I'm very
7:33
mixed on this movie um I would only
7:36
recommend it for the spectical so it
7:38
gets a bare recommend but the the script
7:42
is terrible now I heard from um nerd
7:44
rodic the the comic book is great I
7:48
never read it it's very it's something
7:50
that I could see this visually working
7:53
great in a comic in real life and the
7:57
effects like that we have seen some bad
8:01
CGI lately really bad CGI in movies of
8:05
late you cannot say that about this
8:09
movie it is phenomenal I would have
8:13
liked to have seen this in a theater
8:14
actually just for the spectacle which is
8:18
the only reason to see this on Netflix
8:22
because the story is so lame on every
8:26
level 2D characters
8:29
the you know I mean the uh
8:33
anthropomorphized
8:34
robots it's so weird cuz they assume
8:37
you're going to feel something there's
8:39
some very ET like moments with the
8:41
robots like with relationships with
8:44
humans and they come off flat so I'm
8:49
only recommending it only for the
8:51
spectacle the story is dumb the world is
8:55
dumb the script is dumb the effects are
8:59
the best I've seen this year the best I
9:02
could see this winning uh Oscar for best
9:06
special effects they were that good but
9:09
every on every other level a colossal
9:12
disappointment so probably five out of
9:14
10 for me Alan what' you think yeah so
9:17
uh I'll start by saying go to my
9:19
companion review uh because again I
9:22
don't understand this Fascination that
9:25
people have with cute robots and why why
9:28
we need spend so much time and
9:30
energy saving cute robots from
9:33
destruction I mean that's essentially
9:35
this movie it's save the cute robots say
9:37
the cute robots um the to me it's just a
9:41
waste of time from from a story
9:43
standpoint from a philosophical
9:45
standpoint um so having said that let's
9:48
talk about the movie do you remember the
9:49
movie heart beeps yes I do yeah I
9:53
remember because I was I was uh I was on
9:56
the tail end of Junior High Middle
9:57
School at the time it came out and I
9:59
remember really wanting to see this
10:02
movie it was Andy Kaufman and bernardet
10:04
Peters and they played robots and it was
10:06
just and I remember how excited I was
10:09
wanting to see heart Beeps in the movie
10:11
and you know I think I think my love of
10:13
robots at that time kind of swayed my
10:16
opinion about the movie a little too
10:18
much toward toward good because that
10:20
movie is very dated this movie reminds
10:23
me of that and I think the key to uh to
10:26
the electric state is understanding the
10:28
audience this this audience is for uh
10:31
pre-teens and younger uh maybe early
10:34
teens uh that's the vibe I get it's for
10:37
kids this is a kids movie and I think as
10:40
a kid who likes robots whether you fall
10:42
in love with the cute ones or or the or
10:44
hate the E ugly ones um this movie is
10:47
for kids and uh I think kids will have a
10:51
good time with this movie I think you
10:53
are 100% correct in the special effects
10:55
in the world building it is incredible
10:58
and that's why I'm saying
10:59
if you have a young young teens uh I
11:03
think this movie will appeal to them
11:05
much more than older adults uh it might
11:07
be a little too violent and scary for
11:09
younger kids but this movie I believe
11:12
hits that sweet spot of of pre-teens and
11:14
young teens yeah and um and I think it
11:17
will do well and and we talk about the
11:19
budget I'm looking at it here uh Netflix
11:21
has 300 million subscribers as of
11:24
January over 300 million subscribers
11:27
paying what 20 bucks each uh yeah so
11:30
they can afford to make a
11:31
$320 million movie and that's the
11:34
problem I've always had with streamers
11:36
making movies because you don't have
11:38
that metric uh you don't have the
11:41
accountability I mean why would you make
11:43
a $320 million movie not you know I
11:46
think the algorithm is what they uh they
11:48
rely on to say okay it's worth the
11:50
expense but it just seems like uh a
11:53
Monumental uh um waste of money and um
11:57
and this is the issue I've had with
11:59
streaming streamers making movies from
12:01
the very beginning because you know
12:04
because at least with the box office you
12:06
have an idea of whether a movie is a
12:09
success or not but when you just make
12:11
the movie and throw it on your streaming
12:13
platform you don't know if it's a
12:15
success unless that company releases the
12:18
data um so this is you know I can
12:21
believe it would cost 320 Millions I
12:24
can't believe they would spend 320
12:25
million to do it uh they got to Doge
12:28
Netflix Let's do let's say
12:30
that well I like I said my only reason
12:34
for recommending you see it even though
12:36
it's a five out of 10 is the effects are
12:39
just absolutely spectacular the best
12:42
I've seen in a long time like like on a
12:46
par with Dune part two that's how good
12:48
they are like believable
12:51
characters yeah and the robots the
12:53
interaction with the robots uh they
12:55
they're there's an avatar element with
12:57
the these cyborgs that uh that just
13:00
menacing looks great uh in the way they
13:03
they portray and um and the robot fights
13:05
felt real you know it it didn't feel
13:08
like it was uh yeah just watch it but
13:11
the the uh robot fights are weird to
13:14
watch but it feels authentic well like I
13:17
said the World building was amazing
13:22
spectacular
13:23
colossal believable but the world is a
13:27
dumb world
13:35
m
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