'The Electric State' review: Star-studded, chaotic Netflix sci-fi adventure

WHAT IT'S ABOUT The Netflix sci-fi movie "The Electric State" finds the Russo brothers of "Avengers: Endgame" fame telling the story of the aftermath of a war between humans and robots, in which the humans won.

They did so because of a technological innovation called the neurocaster, spearheaded by the tech titan Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci), which allows for humans to control their own robots with their minds. This has led to the real robots, who rose up against their human oppressors, being banned from society and forced to live in an "Exclusion Zone."

Into this universe, set in the 1990s, comes Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown). She's lost everyone, including her little brother, Christopher (Woody Norman). One day, a robot named Cosmo (voiced by Alan Tudyk) shows up at her foster home, and she learns that somehow, somewhere, Christopher's controlling Cosmo and trying to bring her to him.

Did you get all that? No? Ready for more?

Chris Pratt co-stars as Keats, yet another Han Solo type for an actor who seems to have made his entire career out of playing them. He's got a robot pal named Herman (Martin Klebba, with Anthony Mackie doing the voice work). 

If we told you that the movie also starred Ke Huy Quan, Giancarlo Esposito, Jason Alexander and actors providing voices including Woody Harrelson playing a robotic Mr. Peanut, you'd probably not believe us. We wouldn't believe it ourselves. But it does.

MY SAY This is one of the craziest movies to come along in some time.

At a different moment in film history, when movies were actually all released in theaters, it would have joined the likes of the great, weird flops of cinema lore, pictures like Kevin Costner's "The Postman" or Will Smith's "Wild Wild West," or, famously, the studio-destroying "Heaven's Gate."

Instead, it lands straight on Netflix, as a curiosity at best.

There's some promise in the design concept, which gives a futuristic jolt to '90s staples. And no one would ever accuse the filmmakers of being afraid to try something different in this very loose adaptation of a 2018 illustrated novel.

But let's be clear: It does not work. At all.

The movie jolts the audience between disparate tones, with every scene and character seeming to belong in a different movie.

We've got Pratt doing his usual rogue comic hero thing, Brown playing Michelle's quest totally straight, Tucci straining to be a sniveling tech-bro villain, and serious dramatic moments being given over to, we'll remind you once again, Mr. Peanut. There's also a robot called Pop Fly, who looks like a 19th century baseball player and is invested with gravitas by the vocal stylings of none other than Brian Cox. Your jaw stays dropped the whole time, trust us.

Sometimes, we're supposed to care about the emotional journey. At other times, the filmmakers practically beg us not to take things seriously. The action scenes unfold in a muddy jumble, with lots of money being burned on screen.

BOTTOM LINE At least it's not boring.