With the marvel-lous success they achieved with 2018’s Avengers: Infinity Wars and the following year’s Avengers: Endgame, brothers Anthony and Joe Russo have become a formidable directing duo. So much so that they currently rank third on the highest-grossing directors of all time, just behind James Cameron and Steven Spielberg respectively.

But success can be a fickle thing, which they have discovered since leaving the MCU, with their films since – 2021’s Cherry and 2022’s The Gray Man both being decidedly average.

Their latest is certainly in their wheel-house, a sci-fi film set in an alternative timeline, but does it have any of that earlier Russo magic?

1994, in an alternative United States timeline, and man has entered into a war against the robots they have created. Genius Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci) has managed to resolve the situation, by creating robots that can be controlled by humans via a headset, that are capable of destroying robots, who now find themselves in hiding.

A young woman living in foster care is Michelle (Mille Bobbie Brown), whose parents died in a car crash, separating her from her brother Christopher (Woody Norman).

One day she is visited by a curious robot, which is breaking the law by being there, but claims to be connected to her brother somehow. So much so that it insists that it can take Michelle to him, on the other side of the country.

Her path crosses that of smuggler Keats (Chris Pratt) and his robot Herman (voiced by Anthony Mackie), who end up joining the road trip, whether they like it or not. But can Michelle find her brother and put a stop to the current regime?

You can see the appeal that the 2018 dystopian sci-fi graphic novel by Simon Stålenhag had for the Russo brothers, especially with a robot wars at the heart of it.

And this vision for it didn’t come cheap, with an eye-popping budget of $320 million, the highest to date for a Netflix film. But was it worth it?

Well, it looks expensive, being very CGI heavy, and the robot designs are certainly eye-catching and varied, with a number of them being fairly entertaining.

And then there’s Chris Pratt, a smuggler, who behaves and dresses (white shirt and black vest) suspiciously like the greatest space smuggler of all time (of course Han Solo, duh), and his homage, for that’s what it basically is, is enjoyable enough.

Millie Bobbie Brown is also agreeable as the main female protagonist, who handles the story of being separated from her brother well.

But here’s the but. And it’s a big one. The story is far too convoluted for the film to be truly enjoyable. It’s a shame as the characters are all in place, but the scenario they find themselves in is a bit of a head scratcher. Tucci is the evil genius, but you never really get a sense of why. He also has a maverick robot, controlled by Colonel Marshall Bradbury, played by Giancarlo Esposito, as a kind of Darth Vader/Boba Fett sidekick, hunting down robots.

It lacks cohesion, which is a shame, because all the other elements are in place. It could have easily been simplified, that would have made the narrative far tighter, and therefore more enjoyable.

The fact that this was released directly onto the streaming service will certainly paper over the cracks in terms of success, because there’s no doubt it would have been a big flop if released theatrically, which would make this the third strike in a row for the brothers Russo.

It’s no wonder that the pair are returning to more safer ground with the MCU, undoubtedly with their tales between their legs, with them down to direct both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

So the notion that they can’t make a successful film outside of the MCU continues, with this latest effort certainly coming at a price.

Yes a film about a robot war was certainly a good idea, and it’s definitely visually appealing, but with such a mangled, incoherent storyline, The Electric State suffers from lacking that certain spark to bring it to life.