It’s become a fairly regular occurrence for Netflix’s movie schedule to feature A-list names, and the Russo Brothers’ The Electric State, one of the latest to hit the 2025 movie calendar, is no different. In fact, Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown are just two of more than a dozen well-known actors in The Electric State’s cast. Before the flick hits streaming on March 14, critics had the chance to give it a watch, so let’s see what they think.
The sci-fi adventure is an adaptation of the illustrated novel, centering around a teen girl and her robot traveling through an alternate version of our world in the aftermath of a devastating war between man and machine. In CinemaBlend’s review of The Electric State, Nick Venable gives it 2.5 stars out of 5, saying that overshadowing the gorgeous visuals is a story that’s both predictable and forgettable. He says:
For all the quirky CGI bits and bobs sprinkled throughout, The Electric State doesn’t give any of its living and breathing characters a single hero moment that feels destined to inspire any fan art, and there isn’t a single line of dialogue that I can imagine ever entering the pop culture lexicon. I honestly can’t remember if Pratt’s character had a purpose or a goal, and that’s not the kind of thing that fans of the Russos expect.
Alex Harrison of ScreenRant gives it a 4 out of 10, saying the Russo brothers should know better than to make a film this bad. While the VFX looks great, the critic says, The Electric State may actually be harmful to movies overall because audiences might forget that films can and should be better. Harrison continues:
The Electric State’s sci-fi is muddled and empty, smashed together with references to our ’90s for seemingly no reason other than to press a certain demographic’s nostalgia button. Does it make much sense to have a world with sentient AI and neural projection where computers still look like boxy PCs and AOL still announces that ‘you’ve got mail’? … Another dead giveaway is typically found in the dialogue. The Electric State is loaded with exposition of various kinds, and you’ll recognize it by its awkwardness. … Then there’s the storytelling, which is what I find most insulting.
Nick Schager of The Daily Beast says to “Skip This” nostalgia overload. Millie Bobby Brown is “wobbly” in the lead role, the critic says, calling the Russo brothers’ reported $320 million project “a colossal waste.” Schager writes:
The Electric State is just about as derivative as a modern blockbuster can be, and worse is that it skates along from one cacophonous and jokey set piece to another as if on rails; there’s never a sense that unruly, unpredictable danger or surprise is waiting around the corner. No matter its superficial polish, it’s a soulless replica.
Justin Clark of Slant gives The Electric State a brutal .5 out of 4 rating, writing: “There’s nothing behind its contemptible eyes, no spine to house the fading diode that once contained a soul. This is ‘content’ at its most nakedly bankrupt.” More from Clark’s POV:
Every cheap quip, action beat, and moment of physical comedy plays out like the slurry of every kids’ film from the last 40 years. This is a banal scrapple of supposed four-quadrant appeal double fried and presented up without any sense of spice or personality. And just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, a pervasive ickiness starts to overpower the boredom of it once a ragtag band of bots serving as comic relief and led by the disquieting cybernetic visage of a robotic Mr. Peanut—who, as voiced by Woody Harrelson, is played as serious as a heart attack—decide to help our heroes in their quest.
A.A. Dowd of IGN rates the movie a “Bad” 4 out of 10, saying this “anti-event movie” is little more than corporate mascots like Mr. Peanut slinging one-liners and begging for our nostalgic affection. Dowd writes:
AI-loving Marvel hitmakers Joe and Anthony Russo join forces again with Netflix to deliver a $300-million sci-fi epic you can safely half-watch while doing the dishes or making dinner. Everything about the film, from its formulaic hero’s-journey plot to its nostalgic mascot imagery to the casting of streaming-friendly stars Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, feels calculated to remind you of something you’ve already enjoyed. It’s a synthetic crowdpleaser that would look a little less odious were it not flattening the spooky grandeur of its source material, the striking illustrated novel of the same name.
The abysmal 19% (from 53 critics) that The Electric State has earned on Rotten Tomatoes pales in comparison to the Russo brothers’ MCU movies, and while critics had plenty to say about what they didn’t like, many agreed the visual effects were impressive. If all of this sounds like enough to fire up your Netflix subscription, The Electric State will be available to stream on Friday, March 14.
