The Russo Bros. are prepping for their big return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. But before diving back into the world of superheroes, they took a detour with The Electric State, their latest Netflix film, which has been met with harsh criticism, currently holding a 19% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Despite the lukewarm reception, Joe and Anthony Russo believe the experience has better equipped them for their upcoming MCU projects.
In a conversation with CBR, Joe Russo explained how the extensive visual effects work on The Electric State gave them valuable insights.
“Our VFX team was incredible on this. They were painstaking with the work, and they had two years to [work on post-production for] the movie as well, which rarely happens, so all credit to Netflix for understanding the scale of the film, and being willing to be patient with the length of time it was going to take to execute correctly.”
The filmmakers pointed out that this kind of flexibility in post-production is rare in traditional studio settings. “Which we wouldn’t have got at a studio where we had a slotted date, and we had to hit the date. A lot of the times, that’s why the effects turn out poorly.”
Anthony Russo added that their work on The Electric State pushed them to think more critically about design elements, particularly when it came to the film’s robots, saying:
“What we were dealing with in those robot designs, we wanted to be very period-faithful in terms of textures, and the way the mechanics worked, and we would sort of decide what decade was each robot built in. Was it the 90s, or the 80s, or the 70s, or 60s, etc., we would get very specific.”
Of course, they hope that attention to detail will carry over into Avengers: Doomsday, particularly when it comes to refining motion capture techniques.
Anthony explained: “There’s new methods that are available now to help capture it on set. 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 has nothing to frame to, other than a face.”
“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.”
Sure, I never doubted that the visual effects would look good. What I’m worried about is the story. The Electric State clearly doesn’t tell a good story and the script is weak. The movie looks visually cool, but that’s not waht makes a good movie. The story and the script are always the key!
I recently wrote an article about how all the films the Russo Bros. made since leaving Marvel have been duds, and that worries me. I seems like they’ve lost their mojo. I hope that they are able to pull it together, though, and give us a couple more awesome Avengers movies.
He said: “It’s the simple fact of opportunity really. When we started AGBO, part of the imperative was let’s look for things to adapt, ideas of our own. And by luck or preference, I wound up with a whiteboard full of things—two series of books that we had optioned, a spec script. about three or four other ideas and a TV pilot that was there to be written. And this was prior to all that ‘Avenging’ coming on the horizon.”
“But it got to the point where it was like, ‘Look, I need to grow these plants or they’re going to die,’ And [Marvel] is very extremely full-time. And so, I just said, ‘Let’s just everybody be under the understanding that this is what I’m doing because [those movies] need a brain on them.
“They need a guide and I love them. So, when it came Avenging time—I mean, you don’t Avenge part-time, you don’t do anything Marvel part-time. That is a years-long commitment.”
As for the screenplay, longtime Russo collaborator Christopher Markus, who co-wrote Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame, recently explained why he opted out of returning to the MCU this time. Another worry of mine.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released in May 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive in May 2027.
