The future is both bright and doom-laden for the filmmaking siblings Anthony and Joe Russo, who are handling the most important pair of upcoming Marvel movies possible in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. But before all that superheroic chaos comes their latest cinematic effort, Netflix’s original feature The Electric State, a bonkers-looking novel adaptation that unfortunately isn’t winning over critics nearly as much as their MCU features.
At least when it comes Rotten Tomatoes’ aggregated reviews, The Electric State sounds like it’s lacking in electrical power, which is disappointing to see ahead of the film’s release. (It’s available to stream on Friday, March 14, with a Netflix subscription.) The cumulative response to the Russos’ latest film, which boasts Mr. Peanut as a main character alongside Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt’s leads, is surprisingly low overall, but especially when compared to their action-packed efforts for Marvel.
The Electric State’s RT Score Is Undeniably Rotten
One of the most expensive films ever produced, with a reported budget that’s well above $300 million, The Electric State will almost definitely generate a ton of viewership and I wouldn’t be surprised if the platform enjoys a subscriber uptick specifically from the Russo brothers‘ fans. And it’ll be very interesting to see where the Audience score lands for Electric State on Rotten Tomatoes, because the current critical score is rather abysmal.
- The Electric State – 23% Rotten (based on 22 reviews)
And not to beat a CGI-crafted dead horse here, but even the handful of reviews that eked past the Fresh-threshold weren’t exactly glowing, and fell on the side of “it wasn’t so terrible that my day was ruined.” To the Russos’ credit, many critics appear to agree that The Electric State looks vibrant and engaging throughout, and mostly nails effects sequences, which is something they’ve long had experience with in the world of Marvel’s heroes.
However, unlike the strong screenplays and story beats that the duo’s MCU projects gave fans, The Electric State‘s script from Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, and Simon Stålenhag gets the biggest amount of blowback in reviews. The narrative struck many as hokey and by-the-numbers, without any of the comedy that Anthony and Joe Russo excelled with in Community and Arrested Development.
The Netflix movie drew way more comparisons to their 2022 thriller The Gray Man (45% RT score) and Cherry (37%) than Captain America: Winter Soldier and their other Marvel fare. Which is possibly telling, depending on one’s mileage where those films are concerned. Speaking of the MCU…
All The Russo Brothers’ MCU RT Scores Tower Over The Electric State’s
Given how more recent Marvel Studios releases such as Captain America: Brave New World have fared with critics and moviegoers, it’s sli-i-i-ightly easier to forget just how acclaimed Anthony and Joe Russo’s four films were, and they will likely continue to set a high bar for future MCU efforts to aim for.
Here’s where each of those films currently sits on Rotten Tomatoes:
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier – 90% Critics, 92% Audience
- Captain America: Civil War – 91% Critics, 89% Audience
- The Avengers: Infinity War – 85% Critics, 92% Audience
- The Avengers: Endgame – 94% Critics, 90% Audience
So much of the filmmakers’ immediate future will be invested in bringing Robert Downey Jr. back into the MCU as Doctor Doom and grouping myriad superheroes and villains together again for their pair of Avengers films, which will reportedly be filmed closely together, with a relatively short hiatus between productions. And with respects to those hoping for Mr. Peanut to breakout as a character actor, maybe that’s a good thing.