For a film about robot uprisings, people escaping reality by living in virtual reality and evil mega-corporations enslaving free will, The Electric State ends up being a solid story about the missing human connection in today’s technology-driven world.

The messages are never that subtle in this adaptation of Simon Stålenhag’s graphic novel of the same name; in fact, they’re pretty darn in-your-face.

The huge wall in New Mexico that goes as far as the eyes can see; the deportation of robots when they ask for civil rights after gaining sentience (replace the word robots with ‘immigrants’), the utter reliance on technology to escape the worries of today and, lest I forget, the absolute control of a tech-corporation over our very lives.

The setting is an alternate reality 1994: a retro future where ‘90s computers and big analogue-buttoned terminals live side by side with our upcoming future.

Here we have Michelle Greene (Netflix’s darling Millie Bobby Brown of Enola Homes, Stranger Things), a ninth grade teenager living in foster care with a deadbeat state-assigned foster father (Jason Alexander) after her mother, father and Einstein-level genius brother Christopher (Woody Norman) die in a car accident.

One night though, a sentient, damaged robot named Cosmo (voicework by Alan Tudyk) sneaks into her house and tells her — in English that is more broken than Short Circuit’s Johnny 5 — that Cosmo houses her brother’s consciousness, and that the body still lives somewhere in the New Mexico wastelands, where sentient robots were exiled and imprisoned after the human-robot war of 1990.

So off Michelle and Cosmo go, chased by both the robot-killer ex-military hero (Giancarlo Esposito) and the CEO (Stanley Tucci) of the tech mega-corp Sentre (pronounced Centre).

Michelle and Cosmo befriend, and end up escaping with Keats (Chris Pratt) and his robot pal Herman (Martin Klebba). Keats was a war veteran who learned that not all robots are bad.

Actually, during the course of the film — which the kiddies and family will love, by the way — one realises that the only bad guys are humans and their inflated egos (these roles come naturally to Esposito and Tucci).

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (Avengers Infinity War, Endgame, The Gray Man) and written by their regular writers Christopher Marcus and Stephen McFly, The Electric State may touch on deep issues, but the storytelling is not designed to be that deep. Its intention is to be an adequately paced blockbuster with a good budget, excellent visual effects and, most importantly, a human soul. The film succeeds on all counts.

Streaming on Netflix — though it should have been a theatrical release — The Electric State is rated suitable for ages 13 and over. Children younger than that should be welcomed as well

Published in Dawn, ICON, April 13th, 2025