Netflix And Chill: The Electric State (2025)

Based on a book by Simon Stålenhag, and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, The Electric State is a sci-fi drama that packs every scene with numerous robots that seem to exist for no other reason than to justify the ridiculously bloated budget (which I've seen in the range of $275M-$320M). It's horribly empty stuff, not helped by two leads who aren't able to distract from the weaker elements.

In an alternate timeline, robots tried to demand more rights, which started a war between them and the humans. Robots are now held in an exclusion zone, and humans are kept docile and "safe" by wearing headsets that keep them connected to an online world overseen by tech mogul Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci). Millie Bobby Brown plays Michelle, a young woman who had her life ruined by the death of her parents and brother, and she ends up heading on a perilous journey when approached by a robot that claims to actually BE her brother. Her chances of success in getting into the exclusion zone will depend on enlisting the help of a scavenger named Keats (Chris Pratt), but there's a determined soldier (Giancarlo Esposito) using his remote robot body to hunt them down.

Re-uniting once again with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the Russos show a level of incompetence here that is bewildering to those who know how well they can do with big-budget spectacle. Despite keeping everything busy and overstuffed, nothing here has any impact. It's mind-numbingly predictable, none of the attempted small emotional beats work, and it should be a crime for any film-makers to manage to waste both Tucci and Esposito in such thankless roles.

Both Brown and Pratt can be very good in the right roles. These are not the right roles for them. That would be easier to accept if the robot cast was a better mix of fun designs and canny voice casting, but the voice cast ends up being as wasted as every one of the visible performers. Woody Harrelson is fun, overall, but Anthony Mackie, Brian Cox, Hank Azaria, Jenny Slate, and Alan Tudyk never get to be as good as they can be. As well as Tucci and Esposito, Ke Huy Quan is also left floundering with the poor screenplay, and both Holly Hunter and Jason Alexander are given far too little screentime.

A film of many paradoxes, this is an epic tale on a grand scale that never really feels as if we are really seeing a big picture. It's a film about technology that rarely feels relevant, but it's also looking at humanity without managing to find the warmth and emotion needed (particularly in the third act). It throws money around in a way that doesn't translate onscreen, completely fails to entertain at the simplest level, and seems to consistently and determinedly dull the potential shine of the stars at the heart of it.

I would compliment the soundtrack, if stretching for something nice to say, but even that is marred by a moment that has a melancholy piano version of Wonderwall on it. I'm sure everyone tried their best, from the production designers to the cinematographer, but it's all mashed together with a laziness and cynicism that easily makes it a contender for one of the worst modern blockbusters I have seen in the past few years (and, yes, that includes every non-Spidey-but-Spideyverse film from Sony).

2/10

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Netflix And Chill: Damsel (2024)

With a cast that includes Millie Bobby Brown, Ray Winstone, Angela Bassett, Robin Wright, and Shohreh Aghdashloo, and with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo in the director's chair, I went into Damsel with as much optimism as I could muster. That was tough though. The trailer didn't really win me over, and all of the reviews seemed to be fairly harsh. Sadly, most people who saw this before me were correct to warn others away from it. It's not good.

Brown plays Elodie, a young woman who is handed over by her father and stepmother (Lord and Lady Bayford, played by Winstone and Bassett) to be married to Prince Henry (Nick Robinson). This will end the money problems for the area ruled over by the Bayfords, but the marriage is not intended to last. It's not long until Elodie discovers that she is to be used as a sacrifice to appease a giant dragon (voiced by Aghdashloo). She's determined to fight back and survive though.

Despite already hearing a lot of negative talk about this, I hoped for something that might subvert some fantasy adventure movie tropes and allow Brown to be a badass able to draw on her courage and intelligence to face off against a terrifying enemy. That's not what writer Dan Mazeau is interested in though, and I should have known the screenplay would be a major weak spot, considering the previous two movies that he worked on. The problem with Damsel is summed up in a scene when the dragon compliments Elodie on being smart enough to stay quiet while it is trying to locate her, immediately followed by a sequence in which it seems as if our lead character makes as much noise as possible while trying to stay alive. Seriously, I wondered if it was going to tip over into parody at this point.

Director Fresnadillo isn't working at anywhere close to his best, hampered by a script that doesn't have enough substance to it and poor cinematography from Larry Fong (who may, in turn, blame others for leaving him stuck with little more than dark caves and tunnels to try and make interesting onscreen). The lighting is too low for most of the runtime, although I will say that things are much better in the scenes that AREN'T set in the dragon's lair, and this has a smothering effect on almost every other department.

Things could have been saved if the cast worked though. I think me saying that already indicates further disappointment though. Brown isn't engaging enough in the lead role, unhelped by a script that only seems interested in building up to different moments and lines of dialogue that are ultimately underwhelming, and Winstone, Bassett, and Wright are all sorely underused. The highlight is Aghdashloo, her unmistakable voice used brilliantly to realise a sly and fierce creature that is equally well-realised visually by the computer programmers working on the VFX.

Not helped by the fact that the few decent moments will remind most viewers of a very popular animated franchise, Damsel is a disappointing and unexciting trudge through familiar territory made by people who seem to think they are delivering something clever and subversive.

3/10

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Godzilla Vs. Kong (2021)

Adam Wingard gets his turn to direct a film featuring famous giant monsters and you may have already heard from a lot of people who are delighted with how Godzilla vs. Kong plays out. I enjoyed it, particularly the fun little moments that seemed to reference other movies (there's a particularly enjoyable Jaws reference during the first major encounter), but there are some things stopping it from being the film that finally gets everything right in this developed Monsterverse.

Let's get the plot out of the way first. A big corporation, Apex, want to find a way down and into the Hollow Earth, a space underneath us where the titans may have originated. They hope to find a powerful energy source down there, and the best way of making it there is to follow Kong, who has been kept in a containment unit near Skull Island that looks generally pretty similar to Skull Island. This leads to some Monarch staff (mainly Ilene Andrews, played by Rebecca Hall) journeying with a scientist (Nathan Lind, played by Alexander Skarsgård) and some Apex bods to a place where they can drop off Kong, and hopefully follow him down into the Hollow Earth. But transporting Kong may alert Godzilla to his presence, which could lead to a fight between the two of them. There's also a little deaf girl (Jia, played by Kaylee Hottle) who can communicate with Kong, and the return of Madison Russell (Mille Bobby Brown), who teams up with a friend (Josh, played by Julian Dennison) and a podcaster/Apex-insider (Bernie, played by Brian Tyree Henry) to find out what is behind the recent resurgence of Godzilla, and his attack on a specific Apex site.

What I've just summarised there is pretty much everything you need to know about the plot of Godzilla vs. Kong. In fact, if you were to miss large sections of the movie and only saw the fight scenes then you could thank me for keeping you up to date. It's understandable that this is a film that plots everything out as an excuse to give viewers scenes with the two titans battling one another. That's the selling point, and Wingard definitely delivers on that front.

The action is nicely shot, enough of the surrounding environment has some weight to it as it all gets demolished, and there is a smooth and clear approach that allows you to enjoy the loud noises and spectacle without getting a headache. No small feat.

The screenplay, by Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein, is nonsense, but it's nonsense that is generally perfectly acceptable for this kind of thing. The science seems vaguely plausible, the characters work together, or fight one another, for believable reasons, and everything kills time in between the moments of mass destruction. It's a shame, however, that the script feels the need to include the characters of Madison, Josh, and Brian. Their inclusion feels completely unnecessary, and moments featuring them could have easily been transferred to other characters. It would have also saved us from some of the worst of the acting, which I'll get to next.

In the Kong-centric narrative strand, the cast do well with what they're given. Skarsgård is likeable and has the right motives for his actions, Hall feels very much like a perfect fit for her character, and young Hottle shines in the moments that highlight her smallness against the giant figure of Kong. Eiza González also works well, the company figure along to make sure any decisions made protect the Apex investment. Elsewhere, sadly, the acting ranges from poor to downright abysmal. Demián Bichir is Walter Simmons, heading up Apex, and is basically asked to act as if he's wearing a monocle and twirling a moustache. Then you have that aforementioned trio. Henry is good fun, but Dennison is wasted (it's the only film I have seen him in so far where I didn't warm to his character), and Brown is so bad at times that I was waiting for her to "break character" onscreen and show that she was playing someone trying to emulate tough and determined from characters she'd seen in other movies. She doesn't, which means the moments with her over-acting to show she is tough and determined are actually choices made for the performance. She's never been that bad in anything else, which leaves me to wonder whether she'll struggle to transition into other non-Stranger Things roles, or whether Wingard was just not great at directing his cast.

But the action delivers, and that's what a lot of people wanted from this film. It's what a lot of people wanted from all of the films in this Monsterverse, but different approaches elsewhere have led to wildly varying results. Personally, I prefer the first two movies in this cinematic series, but this has a number of highlights that are undeniably pleasing for fans of the featured titans (including a third "fighter" that was obvious to anyone who looked more closely at some of the trailers).

Watch it, enjoy it, have a big bowl of popcorn with it, and don't overthink any of the plot details. I'll happily buy it when it becomes available, but I still much prefer the stranger pleasures of Shin Godzilla.

6/10

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Godzilla: King Of The Monsters (2019)

Oh boy, I was pumped for the latest big-screen outing for Godzilla. I fully bought into the hype. The trailer worked for me, advance word was that it made up for the lack of action in the previous American Godzilla movie, and knowing the other monsters were going to be getting some screentime had me practically salivating.

Reviews weren't always kind, however, when they started to appear. But there seemed to be a clear divide. Those who were happy with the monster fights, and those who seemed to miss the point and think that the failings elsewhere (poor script, thin characterisations) would bother Godzilla fans who went along to see a titanic smackdown.

I have to say that I am in the camp of those who seem to have missed the point, despite believing that I really do GET the point. I don't think a blockbuster of this type needs to have such poor writing or characterisation in place but I can overlook it if the action is pleasing enough. That wasn't the case here, for reasons I will delve into shortly.

The basic plot concerns a group of people who are using a machine to wake up the titans (giant monsters that are now known to the world, and being debated by governments). They have a plan to bring balance back to the planet. That plan goes out the window when King Ghidorah sets itself up as the apex predator and leader of the titans. This means that the only hope us puny humans have is Godzilla. If he can be put in the right place at the right time, and if he wants to help. Although other giant monsters are shown, this is a battle between Godzilla and King Ghidorah, with some nice set-pieces involving Rodan and Mothra, both separately and together. Which is enough to keep many fans very happy, especially with the quality of CGI on display.

Directed by Michael Dougherty, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Zach Shields, what we have here is a bloated disaster movie in the shape of a kaiju flick, and you can see the boxes marked off that particular checklist if you look out for them. The big opener and then standard scenes of character establishment, the one person who rallied against a certain invention that is now the cause of all their problems (in this case it's a way to kind of communicate with the titans), the tough decisions made about who can be helped and who must be left to die, and the moments of noble sacrifice. Although I almost daren't say his name in relation to another incarnation of Big G on film, this is almost more like a Roland Emmerich movie in terms of the structure and plotting. I do like Dougherty. I just think he got carried away here with the set-pieces and the opportunity to create visions bigger than anything he'd previously been able to get close to.

The human cast are a mixed bag. I really like Kyle Chandler, who plays the lead, a man personally invested in fixing the situation as he attempts to locate his ex-wife (Vera Farmiga) and his daughter (Millie Bobby Brown), both of whom are currently being dragged around the planet by the sorta-villain played by Charles Dance. Chandler ends up in a group that includes Sally Hawkins and Ken Watanabe, reprising their roles from the 2014 movie, Zhang Ziyi, Bradley Whitford, Aisha Hinds, and Thomas Middleditch. David Strathairn, CCH Pounder, Joe Morton, and O'Shea Jackson Jr also help to fill out the supporting cast, some for what seems like mere seconds of screentime.

What hurts everyone is the script, which just gets worse and worse as the film plays out. Character motivations seem murky, at best, any moments that are supposed to feel powerful and moving are exactly the opposite, and it's all weak filler in between the action beats.

And I understand that many others have been pleased by those action beats. They have been able to overlook the obvious failings elsewhere because, to them, this delivers the goods. It throws major devastation around onscreen as if it's making a statement in direct response to the Gareth Edwards movie (which I like more nowadays, the more I think about it). I just don't know how other people weren't bothered by sore eyes and headaches as I was. The action here is shot by people who just graduated from the Michael Bay School Of Making Every Frame Busy And Letting An Epileptic Octopus Be In Charge Of The Editing (that's a real school, honest). I have yet to be beaten into submission by any film that I have opted to see in the cinema, but I came perilously close to walking out of this one after being so pained by the first big fight between Godzilla and King Ghidorah. Overdo everything, make sure to add cloud and rain and debris

Look, I'm not completely oblivious to the charms of this movie. There are quite a few shots throughout that are stunning, in terms of scale and shot composition (and most of the scenes with Mothra are beautiful). And the idea of these giant creatures fighting is great, obviously. I'll also admit that the plotting works when it comes to the actual behaviours of the monsters. And every moment featuring Rodan is fantastic. There's also a superb score by Bear McCreary. But none of these things really make up for the fact that so much of the film is such a chaotic mess that it can cause actual pain.

And none of this negative take on the film has stopped me from pre-ordering it to check out again on a smaller screen (where I might end up actually enjoying it slightly more, being able to enjoy the scale and effects without feeling over-stimulated by the busy visuals and noise).

4/10
Upgraded to 5/10 as I really cannot have it at the same lowly rating as the Emmerich movie.

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