Netflix’s 19% Scored, $320 Million Movie Arrives Today, What Happened? – Forbes
ByPaul TassiByPaul Tassi, Senior Contributor. The Electric StateNetflix has dumped out a new, original blockbuster onto its service today, and I do mean dumped. What should be one of its highest-profile releases ever is instead a cautionary tale of bloated budgets, overexposed actors and apparently a set of directors who should only be working on superhero films.The movie is The Electric State, adapted from an exceptionally good graphic novel, but despite this, the end product is a truly terrible movie starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, directed by the Russo Bros, who made the last two Avengers movies for Marvel, and will make the next two.The film has a disastrous 19% score on Rotten Tomatoes from dozens of critics, where sure, we’ve seen not-great Netflix original movie scores, but sub 20%? This is Rebel Moon territory, though at least double the cost. And for a single movie.The main story here is not that The Electric State is this bad, it’s that it’s this bad with a reported budget of $320 million, which makes it one of the most expensive movies ever made. That is already a risk when you’re talking about trying to make that back at the box office, but on a streaming service? Many are wondering how this happened and how it can possibly be justified.The last time we were eying a big Netflix original budget was The Rock’s Red Notice, a Christmas film that came in at $200 million. It reviewed poorly (but not this poorly), though it grabbed a 92% audience score, at least. This? We’ll see, but again, we’re talking about $120 million above and beyond that.The film is massively heavy on CGI in a way that few of Netflix’s other films are, albeit sure, we see that all the time in superhero and Star Wars films, but those rarely hit this budget point, if ever. There are loads of different types of bots in this world and to do the graphic novel justice, you’ll have to throw cash at it to make that happen. But even then, many fans of the source material are noting that the aesthetic still comes off as much different.The second issue is probably salaries. Again, you have the Russo Brothers, who will have directed five MCU movies now, so they’re probably not cheap (they also did the middling The Gray Man for Netflix). Then a huge line of stars, Chris Pratt, Millie Bobby Brown, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Key Huy Quan, Anthony Mackie, Giancarlo Esposito, Colman Domingo, Jenny Slate, just name after name after name and more than a few Oscar nominations or wins between them. Not cheap.The Electric StateI have no doubt that The Electric State will make it to #1 on Netflix’s Top 10 movie list. But unless fans absolutely adore this movie and it somehow drives a lot of new subscriptions to see it, I don’t know how that’s remotely possible. And while you may not trust critics, there is a point where something reviews so low that it seems almost impossible to have audience opinion be this disparate. If you want something similarly scored, you can look at Rebel Moon: The Scargiver with its 16% critic score and 47% audience score, even with a significant Zack Snyder fanbase tuning in.The Electric State is a disaster in the making. Well, it’s already here now, so you can check it out yourself and see if you either agree with critics, or believe it was worth $320 million.Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
