I own (and love) most of Simon Stålenhag’s story art books, but this Netflix movie has had almost universally terrible reviews, so I went in with low expectations. But I’m pleased to say that I (mostly) actually quite liked this adaptation. It does veer quite dramatically from the source material in terms of tone, it’s a lot more pop-y than the dour tone of the original book. The end result is a lot more hollywood blockbuster, but there’s enough of the original spirit to still allow it a bit of unique character. Sure, it’s pretty dumbed-down, but it’s still a million times better than movies like THE CREATOR (which I absolutely hated for its dumb storytelling and wooden acting – despite some beautiful visuals)
In terms of cast, everyone here is just doing their schtick. No-one gives career-defining performances, but at the same time, that doesn’t mean they’re bad. Though I think Stanley Tucci wasn’t great in the role of the main villain – It could have done with someone a bit more genuinely menacing. And likewise although the film’s directiing isn’t as strikingly good as anything the Russos did for Marvel, it’s still got enough flair and character to make it better than most other supposed blockbuster slop foisted on us.
Anyway, if you want some entertainment, you could do a lot worse. It’s the polar opposite of Amazon’s glacially-paced TALES FROM THE LOOP, but that is both a good and a bad thing. I ultimately quite like both, but for very different reasons. It’s kind of a mashup of Spielberg/Kubrick’s A.I. and The Creator, but I actually enjoyed it a lot more than both of those dumb, pretentious movies. THE ELECTRIC STATE might be a bit dumb, but it’s no-where near as pretentious – and that has to count for something, right?
