The electrical state is the latest big budget science fiction adventure film from Netflix. The film, which was presented on Friday on the streamer, is an adaptation of Simon StålenhagDystopian graphic novel. He takes viewers in an alternative version of 1994. It takes place in a very different America in the middle of the backdrop of a country always gathering after a civil war between robots and humans have torn the cities.
If it seems dark, it is because the original subject is exactly that. The story of Stålenhag, like a large part of his work, is loaded with beautiful images that compensate for a painful story.
In the electrical state, Millie Bobby Brown Play Michelle, a young woman who ventures into her post-apocalyptic mouth to find her disappeared brother. The remains of the Robot War dismiss the American campaign, leaving the mission impossible. It is until she meets Keats (played by Chris Pratt) and her acolyte robot Herman (expressed by Anthony Mackie). Together, they are faced with a cavalcade of strange characters and to fight the chances of reconnecting with his younger brother and, potentially, of humanity itself.
If it seems a little Schmaltzy, it is. And that’s all by design. You see, this version of the electrical state – now the most expensive film that Netflix has ever made – in a tone entirely different from that of the beloved book on which it is based. This tonal change was a point of collision for many criticisms. But there is a distinct reason for this change.
Like a producer friend and I like to say, There were meetings. It was a collective decision that the Russos made with Stålenhag. During a zoom conversation with Joe and Anthony Russo, I used this subject to launch our speech, which turned into a perceptive exploration of the long process of giving life to the electricity.
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Millie Bobby Brown embodies Michelle in the electrical state on Netflix.
“What we loved most in the electricity is the work of art and themes,” said Joe Russo. “But we had the impression, as parents, the themes – and these are themes on technology and drug addiction to technology – will be the most resonant and impactful with a younger audience which is more submerged in technology than older audience.”
Accessibility was the key. And it was not only the Russo brothers who felt like that.
“Simon Stålenhag also has children and accepted,” he said. “So we arrived at this conclusion. You can tell a story in any tone, and you can go in all the directions you want. Part of the pleasure of adaptation is that you adapt it in a new form of itself. It was therefore the intention behind the modification of the tone: to reach this younger and wider audience.”
Throughout the duration of the film of more than 2 hours, two themes reproduce: the disconnection of humanity due to the implementation of technology in our daily life and the dependence on dopamine that accompanies it. Paraphrase Kendrick LamarThe Russos say that young viewers “turn off the TV”.
Chris Pratt is Keats and Millie Bobby Brown is Michelle in the electrical state on Netflix.
But how exactly do they reconcile the fact that they relay this message to reduce screen time through a story that must be seen on a screen, to start?
“There are only many ways to reach a large audience,” said Joe Russo. “Whether it is a cinema screen, a television screen or a phone screen, I would say that they all have positive points and negatives. In many ways, you disconnect from the world to look at a story. And if history, at the same time, can also draw attention to what we consider to be an overuse to escape reality? Problems of anxiety and depression.”
It should be noted that it is not an anti-tech propaganda film. Going in this narrative direction would be too easy. Anthony Russo accepted, saying: “The message of this film is not, Do not use technology. “”
He continued: “The film is on our paradoxical relationship with technology and the fact that there are positive aspects to technology; there is a real human connection that you can find in technology, but you can also find the opposite.”
Keats by Chris Pratt and Michelle by Millie Bobby Brown with Herman and Cosmo robots in the electrical state on Netflix.
He cited two examples of the film to support this declaration: a real romantic relationship of Keats with his robot Herman and the use of technology by Michelle to release his brother.
I cannot discuss the electrical state without talking about the captivating visual effects. He is sure to say that there were more robots than real human characters in the film. Tackling such a creative challenge means working tirelessly to guarantee that technology seems analog. I admit that the differentiation between practical effects and the CGI was difficult. It is an accomplishment in itself.
So how much was scanned and how much was real? I do not have the exact statistics. “Whenever the actors interacted with a robot, we threw these robots,” said Anthony Russo. More specifically, they threw talented motion capture actors to play these robots.
“These are real and entirely dimensional actors who have trained for weeks and repeated for weeks and helped us develop these characters for weeks before hitting the set,” he continued. “Regarding the way they moved, we had artists playing these robots on the set.”
The development of these unique robots characters did not stop there.
“Many of these robots have been expressed by better known actors,” said Anthony Russo. “We would show these actors the conceptual art that we had for the characters, we eliminate their vocal performance, and we would use this vocal performance with our motion capture troop.”
The finished product is there after two years of post-production, during which more sophisticated digital graphics were implemented. “It took a long time in the post for these things to look real and as if he were there,” said Anthony Russo. “There were so many diapers, and it was a commitment to a very real and tactile performance between robots and actors.”
The apocalypse robot seems a little different in the electrical state of Netflix.
It has been almost three years since Anthony and Joe Russo started shooting the electricity. Throughout our speech, it was easy to see how it continues to be connected with the subject and each other concerning their love to transmit emotions through stories. As Anthony Russo says, this is the link he hopes that viewers will live by watching the film together.
“We think it can be a powerful form of human connection, and this is, of course, a great theme in the films,” said Anthony Russo. “How does it bring people together? How does it bring together friends? How does it go through generations? Can it offer a common experience for people to share and then become a point of contact with each other in terms of emotion or intellectual ideas? The themes of the film are simply the ideas that we hope that people can have experiences to come to the cinema, in general.”
With a laughing laughter of his brother, Anthony Russo closed our speech by saying with a sincere smile, “that’s really what made us fall for the film.”
