The Electric State

 One of the most expensive movies ever made, The Electric State was made by and for Netflix this year, hitting the service back in March.

 

Featuring a star-studded cast with Chris Pratt, Millie Bobby Brown, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci and more, it definitly drew my attention to give it a watch, and so I did with Noshi.

 

In an alternate 90s, the world had been left in disarray after a war between man and robot, which humanity won by uploading their minds into drones.  However, as a result of the success, humanity has become addicted to these Neurocaster technology, living in a virtual state with the drones doing most of the work.  Michelle is a teenager who lives with her foster dad, after having lost her parents and younger brother in a car crash.  But one day a robot resembling Cosmo, a cartoon her brother watched, tries to communicate with her.

 

She finds out he is indeed controlled by her presumed dead brother Christopher, and they set out across a dystopian landscape to find doctor Amherst, who confirmed his death.  They meet Keats, a veteran of the war, and Herman, his robot friend, travelling to a mall ran by Mr Peanut and a sanctuary for now discarded robots.

 

He leads them to doctor Amherst, who tells them Sentre, the developpers of the Neurocasters, and how they found Christopher, linking him to the Neurocast system to give humans the edge over the robots in the war.  But when Christopher seemingly started to awaken, they forced him back into a coma, but not before a remorseful Amherst gave him a way for his mind to escape at least in the Cosmo robot.  Sentre attacks them, killing the doctor and taking Cosmo.

 

Determined to rescue her brother, Michelle, Keats and the robots attack the Sentre HQ, resulting in the commander of Sentre's security to defect, allowing Peanut to confront the CEO, Skate.  Michelle finds Christopher and enters the system to contact him.  He tells her she must disconnect him to set him free, even if this will kill his physical body, and in doing so shuts down the Sentre system.

 

Skate is arrested in the aftermath as the world begins to rebuild from the war and corporate greed, as the robot exclusion zone is settled as a place of peace.  A discarded Cosmo robot though seemingly gets up after being brought to the junkyard, hinting some of Christopher's conscious might still be inside it...

 

This certainly wasn't a bad movie at all, and the various robots are actually quite loveable, and to be honest I don't really get the backlash it got from critics.  Surely it isn't as great as it's budget could have made it, but it isn't as terrible either as it was made out to be.

 

Though miss Brown and the big screen, that is never going to be a good match I fear...