Much has changed in the world of moviemaking since Avengers: Endgame came out in 2019. For starters, the Marvel machine is no longer a guaranteed blockbuster engine and somehow even Endgame‘s own directors can’t be trusted to be deliver the goods anymore, either. Ahead of their grand return to the MCU with next year’s Avengers: Doomsday, the Russos just deployed Netflix’s most expensive movie of all time, The Electric State, and reviews have been more brutal than Thanos.
Critics have dubbed the $320 million production “totally incoherent,” “soulless digital content,” and potentially even “harmful to movies.” With a abysmal Rotten Tomatoes score of just 18%, it’s easily the worst-received film the Russos have ever made (and they directed You, Me & Dupree!). As you would hope, the filmmaking brothers have admitted they have learned some lessons working on this movie that will impact on how they go about making Avengers 5. Although their biggest takeaway is actually something they believe they got right.
The Electric State will have one positive impact on Avengers: Doomsday
One thing that even The Electric State‘s harshest critics all agree on is that the integration of CG characters into its live-action world is on another level from what we typically see from Hollywood, with the various robots that Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown’s characters interact with seem impressively tactile and real. Unsurprisingly, this updated tech is something the Russos are keen to explore further on their next two Avengers films.
When speaking on how their Netflix not-buster has prepared them for Doomsday, Joe Russo said that it’s The Electric State‘s “refinement of motion capture” that is the main thing they will carry with them back into the MCU.
“There’s new methods that are available now to help capture it on set,” he explained in a new interview. “The tricky thing, when you’re working with visual effects, is, if it’s a green screen, we have an award-winning camera operator we work with, named Geoff Haley,” he explained. “He has nothing to frame to, other than a face.”
Anthony Russo then added, “But, when you’re layering in on sets, rough comps into the eyepiece for him, now he can actually do his job. These are some of the advancements that are really enhancing the quality and look of the effects in movies.”
As epic and as satisfying as Endgame undoubtedly is, some of its visual effects could certainly be improved on — the muddy backdrop of the final battle springs to mind — so this is actually one way in which The Electric State feeding into Doomsday is exciting to hear. In every other department, though, we need the Russos to wipe the slate clean and remember what they got so right with their earlier Marvel entries: big budgets aren’t as important to a film as big ideas and a big heart.
OK, one more thing we wouldn’t mind from The Electric State is Millie Bobby Brown. She is due a superhero gig now her Stranger Things co-star Sadie Sink has joined Spider-Man 4.
Published: Mar 14, 2025 12:45 pm