The Electric State (Alan Silvestri)

What is it?

The Russo brothers (Anthony and Joseph) have tried to find their way, post-Marvel, with varying success. For The Electric State, they’ve taken Simon Stålenhag’s famous source material and turned it – very loosely – into a family-friendly, retro-futuristic adventure about a young teen (Millie Bobby Brown) in search of her brother, who teams up with a smuggler (Chris Pratt) and a couple of robots in her quest. It premiered on Netflix March 14, 2025.

It’s apparently difficult for foreigners to adapt Stålenhag’s material (which is so intrinsically tied to Scandinavian social-realism meeting science fiction elements), as we were not particularly thrilled with the TV adaptation Tales from the Loop either (reviewed here). But at least that had a sense of philosophical weightiness about it – this waters everything out into superficial Hollywood pap.

Still, it’s a rather enjoyable piece of pap if you take it for what it is. Loads of “meet cute” elements are thrown into a fairly straightforward parable on oppressive regimes and technology.

The score is by veteran composer Alan Silvestri (b. 1950) who continues his collaboration with the Russos after the Avengers movies. If it hadn’t been for them (and Zemeckis), I doubt he would have been very active these days. That’s something to be treasured, regardless of the score’s merits.

How is it?

Stålenhag’s artwork ideas were originally “scored” by himself, in a gorgeous, Vangelis-inspired concept album. Tales from the Loop was more minimalist in style. When I heard that Alan Silvestri had been tied to this project, I thought – or at least hoped –  he would bring out his old synth gear again, like he did so well in the 80s (plenty of Synclavier and Linndrum loops), thereby bringing it closer to the original conception. That didn’t happen at all, barring a few electronic sprinklings.

Instead, the score is firmly rooted in an orchestral tradition. The first three tracks («We’re Always Connected», «The Year the World Changed» and «Do You Feel the Air on Your Face?») are all excellent displays of Silvestri’s warm, playful, thematic style. But from there on out, it begins to wander aimlessly with very perfunctory noodlings filled with suspense and tentativeness, occasionally a little bit of dusty Americana thrown in, like in «The Dr. With The Glasses».

If that is because he has to write his way around all the needledrop songs, I do not know. But when the album is almost 80 minutes long, it becomes one giant drag. It does pick up a bit towards the end, but by then you’ve been waiting too long. There’s probably a decent 30-minute album hiding in there somewhere, if you’re up for playlisting.

It’s not that Silvestri has “lost his touch” or anything. Just last year, he produced one of the ten best scores of 2024 for Robert Zemeckis’ otherwise problematic Here. Similarly, he showed – at least partially – some impressive sci fi/adventure chops in Spielberg’s Ready Player One (2018). But there doesn’t appear to be anything in this film that made him reach those heights.