Movies always end up changing a novel in some way for the sake of being able to adapt it to the big screen. Sometimes it is for pacing, budget, or even just because the writer thinks they have a better idea how to work the film. However, there is usually something that ends up going wrong whenever a film decides to take the task of adapting a novel, while not adapting its atmosphere. There are cases of it working before as in the case of the 1993 adaptation of  “Jurassic Park.” It was able to take a horrifying novel and turn it into an action-adventure that was still able to get the novel’s themes across while making it a bit more digestible for modern audiences then.

This technique of adapting is getting old and stale, especially when the Russo brothers attempt to do the same thing with “The Electric State,” based on the novel of the same name, which was written and drawn by Simon Stålenhag . By this point, it may start to make most people wonder if the Russo brothers had any writing talent whatsoever after their success with Marvel Studios.

The novel, which the film was based on, was an apocalyptic art book that mainly focused on allowing the reader to absorb its atmosphere. It was a novel that traded long-winded storytelling for visuals and ideas that left the reader thinking even after they had flipped from cover to cover. However, as they had done with their other films, the Russo brothers ended up taking these ideas and turned them into a mosh pit of good special effects mixed with a forgettable story.

It is spectacular how so many talented people could work on this film and still make it go from a novel that is worth devoting attention to into a film that is barely even worth playing in the background. Changes are made to bring more heart into the story, but it only makes the story feel more cliché and broken. Despite so many great actors involved in the film, they all feel wasted in some way, either a waste of good talent or a waste of a big budget.

The budget on this film is making headlines for a good reason. It is reportedly one of the most expensive films ever made at a budget of a whopping $320 million. What is even more mind-blowing is it is more expensive than the combined amount of money it took to make the entire “John Wick” franchise and even more money than it took to make the past 15 years worth of Best Picture Winners — 10 if accounting for inflation.

The Russo brothers have worked with a budget like this before with “Avengers: Endgame” costing even more than that, but the hard work put into that film clearly showed and no steps were taken to make that film less impactful than it should have been. But now, it is downright insulting to see something that could have been great, that had the budget and talent to make it so, be turned into another bit of random garbage thrown at the audience. At the end, it really feels like the film is committing the very same sins of consumerism that it tries to warn against in the first place.