One of Netflix’s most anticipated movies of 2025 finally arrives next week

Netflix has been swinging for the fences lately with big-budget movies — but if early reviews are any indication, The Electric State is looking like yet another swing-and-a-miss.

Hitting the streamer on March 14, this dystopian sci-fi epic comes from the Russo brothers — the same duo behind Avengers: Endgame. The movie stars Millie Bobby Brown as a teenage girl on a cross-country journey through a crumbling America, accompanied by a giant robot and a drifter played by Chris Pratt. On paper, that all sounds like the perfect recipe for a Netflix blockbuster. Giant robots, plus post-apocalyptic vibes, plus Eleven from Stranger Things — what could go wrong?

Apparently, quite a lot.

The Electric State review embargo has officially lifted, and the first wave of reactions from critics isn't painting a pretty picture. Looper went in especially hard, describing the film as if the Russo brothers "hastily made" ChatGPT prompts on their way to the set each day for everything from the character designs to the story beats. Other critics have echoed the same sentiment — opining that The Electric State feels like a hollow, paint-by-numbers sci-fi flick stuffed with CGI and star power, but not much else.

Mashable even laments that the Russos “turned a junkpile aesthetic into a trash movie.”

Unfortunately, I can't say I'm surprised, as this is becoming an all-too-familiar formula for Netflix's original movies these days (so many of them suck, basically). And it's frustrating, because The Electric State is based on Simon Stålenhag's stunning illustrated novel, which blends retro-futuristic art with a haunting story about loneliness and technology. Nevertheless, from a 1-star Rotten Tomatoes review about the movie: “In its original form, The Electric State is a work of exquisite and smart alternative history. As a film, it’s a waste of everyone’s time and energy.”

At this point, it shouldn’t come as a shock that a Netflix movie adaptation trades nuance for noisy action sequences and lifeless dialogue. It’s also become a fact of life that Netflix has a knack for turning critically panned movies into streaming hits — Red Notice and Back in Action both pulled in massive viewership numbers despite terrible reviews. So The Electric State could still wind up dominating the Netflix Top 10 for weeks. Whether anyone will actually like it, however, is another question entirely.

If it’s a thoughtful, emotional sci-fi journey that you’re after, I’d recommend hopping aboard the Severance train on Apple TV+ if you haven’t already. But that’s just me.

The post One of Netflix’s most anticipated movies of 2025 finally arrives next week appeared first on BGR.

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One of Netflix’s most anticipated movies of 2025 finally arrives next week originally appeared on BGR.com on Fri, 7 Mar 2025 at 15:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.