Movie Review: The Electric State (2025)

The Electric State (2025) directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

Back in an alternate 1990s, the world's population was served by a variety of service robots. These robots became frustrated with being used as slave labor and rose up against the humans. A war broke out that humans were losing until Sentre (run by Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci)) made a VR technology to enable humans to interface in real time with drone versions of themselves. This discovery created mechanically equal warriors who were able to outfight the robots, resulting in a peace treaty in 1994. The robots (lead by Mr. Peanut (voiced by Woody Harrelson)) were exiled to a walled-off wasteland in the middle of the United States. Humans continue to use the VR tech as a way to detach from reality and get things done with stronger drone bodies than they could ever have or visit places without actually going there. Lots of people stay in Sentre's VR tech practically full time.

Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) lost her family (two parents and her genius younger brother) during the war and has been living in foster homes. Her latest home is run-down with a foster-parent who is exploiting her for money, making her go to school and insisting on after-school activities that he will get paid for. She finds a robot has wandered into the house, something completely illegal. She realizes it is housing her brother's consciousness. They escape the home and head west to find his body.

The story moves along in a haphazard fashion as she travels to the wasteland which is off limits for humans. She gets inside with the help of a smuggler (Chris Pratt) and his robot pal (voiced by Anthony Mackie). The plot gets more intriguing from there as they learn more about the robots and about the larger situation. The resolution deals with the robot threat and the VR threat.

The movie has a lot of interesting issues but never delves into any of them in interesting ways. There's the "robots are humans/have rights" bit that should feel more compelling. VR addiction is depicted as bad but doesn't get explored too much and by the end it seems like plenty of people (employees of Sentre) are perfectly able to manage their VR use. The actors are good but they don't have a lot to work with plotwise. The characters change motivations with little cause and sometimes their behavior just doesn't fit. The visual effects are amazing and fun to watch. The fight scenes are perfunctory with little stakes as robots fight drones. It reminded me, not in a good way, of the Gungans versus the Battle Droids in Star Wars Episode I.  With all the talent involved (the Russos directed a lot of top-notch Marvel films), I expected more.

Barely recommended. I'm not sorry I watched it but I have no desire to rewatch it.

Movie Review: The Gray Man (2022)

The Gray Man (2022) co-written and directed by Joe and Anthony Russo

The CIA has extra-special operatives for whom there are no records, just numeric designations. Ryan Gosling plays Six, an operative who at the beginning of the movie is sent to Asia to stop a sale of secret information. He's about to make the hit at a night club when he realizes that a child is in the line of fire. His superiors want him to take the shot but he improvises some chaos. Six winds up chasing down the target who admits he's Four (another secret operative!) and gives Six the information on a microchip. Six can't quite decrypt it but does see that it has information about CIA higher-ups who have run illegal operations for their own profit. He has a hard time bringing the information in since the CIA is out to get him, going so far as to hire Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans). Lloyd is a psychotic CIA dropout who will do anything to get a job done. The back-and-forth fight spans the globe and causes a lot of mayhem and action.

The plot is a standard premise and works to string together a lot of action set-pieces. The fights and chases are exciting. Evans enjoys himself as the scenery-chewing bad guy who loves what he does. Gosling can do the action but has no emotional range or expression, even though he has mentor figures (Billy Bob Thornton and Alfre Woodard) and a little girl (Julia Butters) to take care of as he's trying to get the information in the right hands. Since he's the main character, his lack of performance makes the film drag in the quiet scenes. The rest of the cast carries the film. The action sequences are fun and over the top, making this more like a summer popcorn movie than a great action thriller.

Slightly recommended.

Movie Review: Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Avengers: Endgame (2019) directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

After failing to stop Thanos's plan to kill half the living things in the universe, the few remaining Avengers band together and take him out. But they still aren't satisfied. They try to move on with their lives. The devastation is very hard on everyone. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has settled the few remaining Asgardians on Earth but hardly provides any leadership. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) has settled down in the country with Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow). Captain America (Chris Evans) is trying to get people to move on with their lives, but both regular people and superheroes. When Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) returns from the quantum realm, he has a crazy scheme to save everyone. The other Avengers are desperate enough to try anything, so they go with it in hopes of changing things back to normal.

The story is a sprawling epic that rewards faithful viewers who have watch the twenty or so previous films. A lot of previous characters and plots are revisited in a clever and satisfying way. Some are given short shrift (Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) is basically a deus ex machina plot aid, not really a person) but not too many. Legitimate moments of suspense are balanced out with humanizing comedy and impressive action sequences. The ending wraps up a bunch of plot threads nicely while leaving new opportunities open (though some look more promising than others).

Highly recommended.

Movie Review: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

Thanos of Titan has set himself a quest. He wants to collect the Infinity Stones, a set of six gems that give the wielder power over the Soul, the Mind, Power, Time, Reality, and Space. Combined, he will have the power to do anything he wishes. What he wants to do most of all is solve a problem. On his home world of Titan, the population outgrew the planet's resources. Titan was devastated. To prevent such a tragedy on other worlds, Thanos decided to wipe out half of all life on every other planet in the universe. He justifies himself because it's necessary and he randomly chooses who will die. He begins a literally semi-genocidal campaign. With the Infinity Stones secured in a special gauntlet, he will have the power to halve the universe's population by merely wishing it so. If he can get them all.

This being the Marvel Cinematic Universe, several of the Stones have already appeared in previous films. Vision's forehead gem is the Mind Stone, Doctor Strange's Eye of Agamoto is the Time Stone, etc. Thanos and his minions split up to collect the Stones, which means a lot of battles with the Avengers who have been scattered since Captain America: Civil War. Loki still has the Stone from the Tesseract. The Asgardians are Thanos's first target. Thor and Loki have a humiliating defeat, which puts Thor on the path of revenge. Back on Earth, Iron Man (Tony Stark) teams up with Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange) to protect the Time Stone while Captain America and a handful of other Avengers fight in Scotland where Vision has been laying low, though not low enough to avoid the notice of Thanos's minions.

The movie quickly turns into an action-packed fight to keep the Stones from Thanos. Even with the very grim plot, the filmmakers are able to keep up the comic tone of the previous films, giving many characters moments to shine and to look like human beings rather than costumed crazy people. Almost every character from previous films shows up which does mean that some get short shrift. The film moves swiftly but doesn't feel rushed.

The ending is a huge cliffhanger which may be frustrating for some viewers, especially with the end credits scene that references a hero who has not yet appeared in the MCU. I recognized the logo and am excited for this character to show up.

Highly recommended, though it might be difficult to follow if you haven't been keeping up with the Marvel movies. And the cliffhanger, while very dramatic, is not very convincing.