10-Year-Old Me Would've Loved The Electric State
General Reviews
The reality of it all... I can't stay young forever, and with my growing age comes changing preferences. I don't know what I expected to find when I turned on The Electric State. It was the top trending movie on Netflix; Millie Bobby Brown was calling out her haters; and I'd heard about the movie's exorbitant budget. This mixture of trends, gossip, and overspending usually would've kept me away from such a movie. But, for one reason or another, on that fateful week night, I decided to press play.
In hindsight, The Electric State feels like it's meant for a very specific audience, and it's not who I currently am. However, it is for who I used to be — an adolescent who loved action adventures, wonky robots, and epic stories. With its big-movie feel and its fair share of cinemagic, The Electric State is meant to leave kids under the age of 14 awe inspired, and I can't deny that 10-year-old me would've loved it. Even current-age me didn't think it was all bad.
It was definitely a nostalgic experience, as lots of what happens throughout the movie reminded me of classics I'd watched while growing up. In the scene where Michelle (Bobby Brown) discovers Cosmo, the robot who will guide her through this adventure, I was reminded of that famous E.T. scene. You know the one where E.T. emerges from the shed and gives Elliott the M&Ms. It's a classic scene but it's also more than 40 years old. Almost immediately after this scene in The Electric State, Cosmo explains to Michelle, with the few voice commands at his disposal, that he needs her help. This played out like the iconic scene in Star Wars: A New Hope when Luke discovers the holographic message from Princess Leia.
Chris Pratt's character, John Keats, is a junk-collecting outlaw whose best friend is a robot named Herman. John instantly reminded me of Han Solo, while Herman was more like a cool version of C-3PO. These are all heroes from my childhood. I can't help but think that, if I was still in my youth in 2025, maybe John and Michelle would be my Han and Luke, and that Herman would be my C-3PO while Cosmo would be my R2-D2. Don't call it a remake; call it an update. And it's not like the entire story and themes are directly ripped from the classic sci-fi adventures of the late 20th century. The Russo Brothers, who directed this movie, manage to stand on their own, by blending current pop culture trends like 90s nostalgia with technological phenomena like virtual reality.
What really made my inner child amped was how this movie feels like a blockbuster. It has that cinematic feeling that seems to have disappeared from our theatres. Even though it's a streamer, it felt like it knew it was larger than life, and that's something that kid-me used to really go for. One scene that stands out is with Stanley Tucci, who plays the villain, as he stands on water to talk with Giancarlo Esposito. It's a total CGI set, but it looks beautiful and epic. There's also the final battle scene with lots of fighting robots. That's an easy sell, for the kid in me. It was like the big battle at the end of Attack of the Clones, only better.
The Russos use routine story beats in The Electric State, but in a way that feels natural. It felt like each beat was in its correct place. It wasn't until I was much older that I started to want movies to subvert expectations and take stories in zany directions. As a kid, I just wanted something that was fun and exciting. The Electric State doesn't bring in a bunch of crazy, brand-new ideas. It properly uses tried and true story elements. Yes, they're familiar to me now, but a younger me would've thought that this story was pretty interesting. Truthfully, it's not so far off from what Lucas and Spielberg did in the 1970s and 80s. It has enough story to keep me engaged while also not being so heady or unfamiliar that I felt like I had to watch with laser focus.
However, the Russos made some decisions that took me out of my childlike wonder and reverted me back to my old, critical, cynical, cinephile ways. The most grating was the music. There's a lot of popular songs in this movie and, at the beginning, I was loving it. The legendary guitar intro to Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance" was the perfect lick to establish the 1990s setting. Then John being introduced to the crushing harmonies and ominous vocals of Danzig's "Mother" was awesome. But that's where the sonic jubilation ended. They kept spamming more popular songs until, by the end, I was completely sick of it. I wish they'd cut out the Journey, which is a band that needs no more unnecessary rotations. Meanwhile, the sentimental finale being backed by a piano interpolation of "Wonderwall" was just too much. Ten-year-old me probably wouldn't have noticed this, but current me cannot accept this level of cringe. It hurt to hear; it hurt to identify; it hurt to watch.
The Electric State also feels very sanitized and safe. It never goes out on a limb, except for maybe the final twist, but even that felt intentional to spark conversations among viewers after the credits rolled. For preteens, it's best to keep things safe — you don't want to upset their parents. That's why the Russos are great at what they do. They are so comfortable making movies that their stories feel almost predetermined. There is never the feeling that something unexpected will happen in the next scene, at least not to cinephiles. When I was more immature, maybe John having Marshall figured out long before he tried to rob John for the weapon would have surprised me. Predictability isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially for a less experienced audience, but it can make parts of The Electric State feel routine.
What I'm trying to say is that I can see what the Russos were going for. Although the movie is not a revelation to me now, I can see my younger self totally loving The Electric State because it feels epic, it has cool characters and there is lots of robot action — also Mr. Peanut is a central character.
In the end, I don't understand the hate against The Electric State. Not to be too oversimplistic, but it's a Chris Pratt movie — what should I expect? It's a movie with a good heart and some pretty fun sequences. If I was still in grade school, I'd probably think it's one of the best movies ever, because it's fun and action heavy; its tunes are rockin' and the comedy is pretty good, especially in the film's later stages. For us older folk, if you're willing to have a slight headache from the continuous bashing of metal on metal, you'll find The Electric State is a perfectly serviceable action adventure. Yes, Pratt's wig is absolutely horrible, but it's so ludicrous that it's charming. And yes, he and Bobby Brown struggle to land the more serious scenes, but I don't think it's a movie that's supposed to move us bitter cinephiles to tears. It's a movie for spring-break sleepovers, school nights with the folks, and grounded siblings. It plays on the parents' nostalgia while giving the kids something that feels new to them. Not every movie needs to be a commentary on the social and political state of the world. Good action, a well-structured story, a few laughs, and endearing characters is enough to get 10-year-old me's seal of approval.
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