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Review of The Electric State (Alan Silvestri)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... for an unoffensive extension of Alan Silvestri's drama
and action sensibilities, neither in top form here but the entirety a
pleasant reminder of his past successes.
Avoid it... if cohesive narratives are a must-have in your film music, for Silvestri somehow manages to miss the melodramatic potential of the concept.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Electric State: (Alan Silvestri) Despite the
fact that its directing duo, Anthony and Joe Russo, created two films in
the Marvel Cinematic Universe that each grossed over $2 billion, their
next major venture, The Electric State, was an absolute financial
disaster. Reportedly costing $320 million, the 2025 movie adapted a
popular 2018 graphic novel and did so extremely poorly, irritating
concept enthusiasts and opening the door for critical lashing that
identified the screenplay and wasted budget as travesties. At its heart,
the tale is one of familial reunion and the redemption of artificial
life forms. In an alternate version of the 1990's, an evil American
business oligarch (in other words, Elon Musk) creates a way for a human
consciousness and memories to be transferred into robots after those
machines had turned on the humans to nobody's surprise. After the
human/robot combinations defeat the lesser, violent mechanisms, people
become vegetables while letting their droids do all the work. Robots,
meanwhile are banished to the parts of America that Hollywood thinks
nobody wants to reside in anyway. A girl who has lost her family
realizes that her brilliant younger brother might still be alive and
involved somehow in the merging technology when a robot seemingly with
his characteristics seeks her out. There's a vigilante, evil overlord,
robot battles, emotional goodbyes, and everything else that a Hollywood
script seemingly must convey. But none of it seemed to work for most
audiences, yielding a disaster for Netflix. On the upside, the project
gave film music collectors another large-scale score from veteran
composer Alan Silvestri, who had supplanted Henry Jackman to collaborate
with the Russos on their two most major Marvel successes in the late
2010's. In its retro science-fiction musings, The Electric State
is also fairly similar to Ready Player One, another failed film
for which Silvestri wrote ambitious music reminiscent of his prime.
Silvestri had worked exclusively with director Robert Zemeckis on only
three scores in the early 2020's, fueling speculation that he was
coasting into retirement, so his return for this assignment, among
others in his schedule to follow, was highly anticipated.
Listeners who harbor continued nostalgia for Silvestri's 1980's and 1990's style will find pleasure in the absolutely saturated nature with which the composer approaches The Electric State. It's a Silvestri score from start to finish, reminding of everything from Predator to The Witches and Here in its instrumentation, chord progressions, and other mannerisms. Hearing the composer in this mode once again resurrects similar appreciation as Ready Player One, though the end result is not quite as spirited. And that's this score's downfall; despite sounding very much like an impressive Silvestri work, it has almost no spark of life or sense of passion anywhere in its ranks. It sounds almost as though the composer (or an artificial intelligence) wrote this music on autopilot. The basic ingredients are all in place, though. He stays faithfully symphonic, with sparing accents from acoustic guitar and choir at times. There are some short interludes for guitar, harmonica, and fiddle in "The Dr. With the Glasses" for unique Western flavor for America's Southwest. Also in the mix are electronic elements, as at the start of "We're Always Connected," which clearly remind of The Witches. But the presence of the synthetics is underutilized generally throughout the score, Silvestri declining to run with them for the robotic and other futuristic aspects of the story and instead opting to concentrate on the orchestra for the organic relationships. The score offers surprisingly little action, but it's trademark Silvestri when it happens in "It's Time to Zoom," late in "Not Some Spring Break Hot Spot," during most of "He's Marked for Deactivation," and with his famous double-note slapping in "Poor Taco." There's almost an equal amount of outright dissonance and horror of extremely unpleasant force, as heard near the end of "Do You Feel the Air on Your Face," at the start of "Kid Cosmo Arrives," and late in both "What's the Call Pops" and "The Butcher of Schenectady." Many listeners may find that the most major fault with Silvestri's strategy lies in the poor enunciation of his themes, his protagonist identities bleeding together to form an adequate presence in the moment but absolutely no memorable identity overall. Generally, this score may generate a shrug from listeners who never warmed up to Ready Player One for the same reasons. While proficient at the task of punctuating the emotions required by each scene, The Electric State suffers from one of the least satisfying narrative flows of any Silvestri score. There's no punch to any of his ideas for the story, and the final set of cues is especially dissatisfying in their inability to provide a payoff for the muddy thematic attributions prior. Both the pivotal scenes comprising the cues "It's Coming From Me" and "We're Running Out of Time" represent massive wasted opportunities for thematic drama at the tale's emotional conclusion, Silvestri playing his hand too light and not expressing any obvious closure for his character themes in these moments. Nothing at the end of this score is satisfying whatsoever, and the style may not be impressive enough alone to carry the day. His theme for the brother, Christopher, doubles for the fantasy concept of the "Neurocaster" technology that connects people with machines. A separate, two-part identity for his sister, Michelle, follows her journey and connects the two as a representation of the siblings. The most common theme is one for suffering and despair that eventually earns some triumphant stripes on the behalf of the friendly robots and people persecuted by the evil of society. Finally, there's a pair of themes, one for Stanley Tucci's corporate bad guy and another for his enforcer drones. There are some connections between these ideas, particularly the one for Christopher (and the Neurocaster technology) and the evil drones as appropriate. That identity for Christopher and his capabilities is the main core of the score's first two thirds. It opens and ends with hopeful, ascending, three-note phrases as heard at 0:12 into "We're Always Connected?" on synthetic celeste, much like The Witches. After recurring on faint strings at 3:53 into "The Year the World Changed," this theme receives more detailed exploration at 0:55 into "Do You Feel the Air on Your Face" and continues through the end of the cue, eventually fusing with the action of "It's Time to Zoom." This main theme is slight early in "The Dr. With the Glasses," continuing against the cue's Western mode later, and is barely conveyed at 0:34 into "Scavenger Bots." It melds with the Western elements again for some life at end of "Nothing but Oil Stains and Screws," becomes very slight with fear at the outset of "What's the Call Pops," plods on piano early in "Consequences," and emerges from the action in "Poor Taco," where it adopts a lighter form of the evil drones' identity. Sadly, the main theme for The Electric State disappears from score for no good reason in the finale, including the moments when the boy's consciousness is revealed to have possibly lived on. For these moments, Silvestri turns to the two-part theme for the sister. This sibling representation's first part contains an opening four note phrase that flourishes in its second line, heard on piano, strings, and woodwinds at 1:04 into "We're Always Connected." It returns in the latter half of "Kid Cosmo Movie Night" with kindness while fragmented early in "You're Not Alone" and reminding of its duty at 0:09 into "We Live" on flute over a high string wash. The secondary part of the theme is even more tender and meandering, with some chord shifts that remind of Here in its own extended phrasing. Debuting on solo piano at 1:58 into "We're Always Connected," this melody intertwines with the main brother theme early in "The Dr. With the Glasses." It's tender but frail on piano in the middle of "We're Running Out of Time," building to a large, choral fantasy statement mostly with only its underlying chords. Like the primary phrasing, this idea guides the middle of "We Live" with more gravity. More impactful, though, is the defiance and suffering theme for the friendly robots and group of humans at the center of the tale. A lightly heroic identity rising from key, this theme is very malleable throughout the score. It opens "The Year the World Changed" on strings and returns in cue's middle, informing a brief action fanfare and trumpet solo later. The theme starts "Do You Feel the Air on Your Face" in aspirational mode, becomes very faint in the latter half of "Kid Cosmo Arrives," and stews at the start of "It's Time to Zoom" and almost prevails at the cue's end. The theme opens "He's Marked for Deactivation" in reserved tones, is slight in the first half minute of "Scavenger Bots" before gaining more strength at 1:45, and toils vaguely in the middle of "See Where the Day Takes Us" before one statement at the end of the cue. It takes a more patriotic turn for Mr. Peanut and associated robots in "The Cradle of a New Mechanized Civilization," making a sensitive and pretty shift in the moment's latter half. This defiance theme offers very soft ambience during "Kid Cosmo Movie Night" and becomes a rhythmic device on harp early in "Nothing but Oil Stains and Screws," gaining moment for another patriotic moment in the middle of the cue. The cyclical, rhythmic formation for the defiance theme is a frequent application by Silvestri in the open rebellion portions, this mode returning with worry in "What's the Call Pops." The defiance theme transforms into a sinister violin bit in "The Butcher of Schenectady," then emerging with force in the middle of "Consequences" with striking variations later. It provides some minor agony in the atmosphere of "You're Not Alone" and strikes a pose early in "Here's Johnny" before returning to its harp cycles, taking some melodramatic stabs in the middle against the villain material. Darkly postured early in "Poor Taco" before factoring repeatedly in the cue's action highlights, this inspired theme enjoys a choral outburst at 2:04 as a highlight, followed by an almost sad version at 3:00 for ensemble lament. The theme is restrained in minor heroism near the beginning of "God Bless America" and tries a more optimistic snare presence later but never takes hold. It's tired but nicely carried by strings in "The Day is Ours." For the villains, there is an idea for the main baddie, Skate, and his Sentre operations, offering descending menace like the witch motif in The Witches with a touch of Predator gravity. Heard at 0:43 into "The Year the World Changed" and late in "Not Some Spring Break Hot Spot" for a few reminders, this idea haunts "See Where the Day Takes Us" in various descending guises and enjoys a moment of despair early in "The Cradle of a New Mechanized Civilization." It explodes against the defiance theme in "Here's Johnny," especially at 1:41, and sprinkles its descending lines into the middle of "Poor Taco" on brass. The evil drones theme consists of three note blurts from and/or to key in an intentional twisting of the main theme. It factors at 1:05 and 1:43 into "The Year the World Changed," supplies a reminder of menace at 2:44 into "It's Time to Zoom," and teases in the middle of "Power Save Mode." It later torments "Not Some Spring Break Hot Spot" and at 0:27 into "He's Marked for Deactivation" before issuing a martial statement early in "Poor Taco," finally becoming the brother's piano melody at 2:43. There's a secondary motif of sorts for the Keats and Herman characters, a muted Western influence without much memorable melodic structure and not well utilized. It occurs at 0:38 into "Power Save Mode," continues in the middle of "Not Some Spring Break Hot Spot" in equally sparse tones, and offers a brief reminder at 2:23 into "Nothing but Oil Stains and Screws" and faint reference in the middle of "God Bless America." In the end, none of these themes will remain memorable for a casual listener, and because the narrative doesn't clarify their purposes, The Electric State will be disappointing for some collectors. The long, 79-minute album could bore despite its pleasant drama and decent action. This story badly needed a more dramatic heart from the composer, but it's still vintage Silvestri in style and rarely offends, thus barely earning a fourth star. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 78:44
NOTES & QUOTES:
There exists no official packaging for this album.
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