10 Best Movies To Watch Instead Of The Electric State

"The Electric State" has generated nothing but trouble for Netflix.

The streamer spent a whopping $320 million on the film –- which boasts the expensive but wasted talents of Chris Pratt, Millie Bobby Brown, Stanley Tucci, and the blockbuster titans Joe and Anthony Russo –- only for it to debut as an almost immediate viewership flop on Netflix. This was no doubt due to the poor reviews it received upon release (sharing little in common with its lauded source material), as even the platform's own subscribers had already seemingly passed on it in favor of a little-known natural disaster documentary.

But if tornadoes aren't your thing -– and you're not looking to get involved with an overlooked sci-fi series like "Tales from the Loop" –- we've found loads of films currently available to stream or rent online that offer more compelling stories, more impressive visuals, and more human performances than "The Electric State" has to offer. Don't get caught in this techno-wasteland -– check out the 10 best movies to watch instead of "The Electric State."

Where to watch: Starz

If you're looking for a film that emphasizes the robot-human relationship at the root of "The Electric State" (as opposed to diluting it with heaps of mindless, CGI action and underwritten dialogue), the 2022 mockumentary film "Brian and Charles" is a great option. In terms of scale, budget, and (most importantly) quality, it's the polar opposite of "The Electric State," and packs in more humanity in about half the runtime.

Co-writers David Earl and Chris Hayward play the titular duo, a human man and his robot creation, respectively. Brian is an eclectic, self-taught inventor who has isolated himself to a rundown farmhouse on the outskirts of a small Welsh town. Despite being a fairly hopeless engineer, Charles comes to life with an unsettling level of autonomy and quickly becomes Brian's closest companion. Their interactions thus begin to be documented by an unseen film crew.

With some thematic and tonal similarities to "Lars and the Real Girl," "Brian and Charles" explores themes of loneliness, community, romantic anxiety, and reckoning with one's adulthood. There are no large-scale battles or towering mechanical beasts, which may turn away some potential "Electric State" viewers. If a good story and great performances are more important to you, we recommend giving "Brian and Charles" a chance.

Where to watch: Tubi

The main argument anyone could make for watching "The Electric State" is the spectacle it offers. After all, how bad can a movie possibly be if it has a bunch of weird-looking robots fighting each other? Fortunately, there are still better alternatives available –- at least one of which looks three times as good as "The Electric State" for less than half the budget.

Gareth Edwards (the filmmaker responsible for modern sci-fi franchise blockbusters "Godzilla" and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story") shot his apocalyptic robot flick "The Creator" for just $80 million, and did so without sparing the awe-inspiring spectacle the genre demands. "Tenet" actor John David Washington stars as Joshua Taylor, a disillusioned former U.S. army sergeant caught in the middle of a years-long war between a waning human race clinging to nuclear power and a rapidly expanding race of robots equipped with lifelike artificial intelligence. Five years after losing his family as part of an operation gone wrong, he is recruited one last time to go behind enemy lines to recover an existentially threatening weapon being developed by the A.I.

At the risk of putting too fine a point on it, "The Creator" — while far from a perfect movie itself — does just about everything "The Electric State" does but better. The cinematography is gorgeous, melding real landscapes with uncanny digital assets to make this hyper-technological world feel tangible; Washington and his co-stars (including "Eternals'" Gemma Chan, Allison Janney, Ken Watanabe, and Madeleine Yuna Voyles) deliver solid performances that make the most of the film's stabs at A.I. personhood and the impact of large-scale warfare. And whatever pitfalls do bug you about "The Creator," take comfort that you're avoiding far more in "The Electric State."

Where to watch: Available to Buy or Rent

Of course, we couldn't write about great low-budget sci-fi films absolutely lapping "The Electric State" without giving special mention to "District 9," a film that has thrilling action, realistic VFX, and deeply challenging ideas despite coming out in the late 2000s and costing less than a tenth of what Netflix spent on the Chris Pratt-Millie Bobby Brown starrer.

Brilliantly spun out of a failed "Halo" adaptation, Neill Blomkamp's "District 9" provides a new and bizarrely moving perspective on xenophobia and racial segregation by imagining an alternate reality where an alien race landed in South Africa in the 1980s. Though they were largely innocuous travelers, the local government (eager to understand their advanced weapons and technology) prevented them from leaving, keeping their entire population contained in a tiny camp on the outskirts of Johannesburg. 

The film, presented as a documentary, picks up in the late 2000s, during which a middle-of-the-road government worker (played by the grossly underrated Sharlto Copley in his feature film debut) is tasked with leading a forced migration of the aliens who've lived there to prevent conflict with neighboring human cities. Chillingly, "District 9" was shot on location in Chiawelo, a formerly densely populated Johannesburg community of lower-income individuals who had similarly been forced to move by the government.

That the film is able to reimagine something so real and so horrible as an apartheid regime without letting the audience off the hook is due to the grounded filmmaking and performances, and Blomkamp's confident, insightful engagement with the themes at hand. These are qualities "The Electric State" sadly lacks by comparison, despite its vague attempts at sociological commentary. By the time "District 9" reaches its devastating end, it's near impossible not to be deeply unsettled by the reality it depicts.

Where to watch: Apple TV+

Admittedly, what "The Electric State" lacks in emotional or moral complexity may be something of a selling point to viewers looking for a more feel-good viewing experience than the darkly allegorical "District 9" or the existentially troubling undertones of "The Creator." For those of you reading this article, we'd still recommend steering clear of "The Electric State" and checking out "Finch" on Apple TV+, which actually strives for and achieves a happier, hopeful tone (rather than accidentally landing on some anesthetizing but emotionally safe middle-ground by avoiding anything specific or interesting at all).

Tom Hanks stars as the film's sole human character, a skilled robotic engineer simply known as "Finch" who survives an apocalyptic solar flare event at some point in the not-too-distant future. Sadly, the event and its catastrophic ecological after-effects (most damaging of all the complete destruction of the Earth's protective ozone layer) have killed most of humanity, leaving Finch completely alone as he awaits his own death from increased exposure to solar radiation. His fortunes are reversed, however, when he miraculously encounters a stray dog he takes into his care.

Knowing that his days are numbered, "Finch" follows its title character as he sets out to rapidly build and train a robot (voiced by Caleb Landry Jones of "Get Out") that is capable of taking care of his dog after he's gone. The strange trio in "Finch" is unanimously loveable, and Apple spared no expense in sending them on a journey that boasts plenty of futuristic spectacles as it tugs at your heartstrings.

Where to watch: Netflix

Far be it from us to imply that Apple is the only steamer capable of telling a compelling science fiction story that also looks cool — in fact, Netflix themselves has done so at least once with the boundary-pushing animated feature "The Mitchells Vs. The Machines." This truly all-ages feature is also safe enough subject-matter-wise to watch with younger kids, but smartly written and funny enough to be genuinely enjoyed by teens and adults, making it the perfect option for family movie night.

Produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller ("The Lego Movie" and "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" and its sequels), the sci-fi-comedy follows a dysfunctional family road trip after it gets interrupted by a sudden robot apocalypse. With the fate of humanity on the line, they must work together with limited resources and even more limited patience to take down an army of evil robots "Phantom Menace"-style. The film is written by Mike Rianda ("Gravity Falls") and Jeff Rowe ("Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem"), with Rianda also serving as director.

There's so much to love about "The Mitchells Vs. The Machines" as an alternative to "The Electric State," including the fact that it boasts an equally star-studded voice cast and doesn't waste them on soulless blockbuster dialogue. The ensemble includes Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Eric André, Fred Armisen, and many more names recognizable to fans of "Gravity Falls" and "Saturday Night Live." (Oh, and also NBA All-Star Blake Griffin.) More than that, it holds a sweet, carefully nurtured story about parenthood at its center that is incredibly moving despite its simplicity. It could spark a number of

Where to watch: MGM+

We've covered grand visuals, apocalyptic narratives, cool-looking robots, and impressive technology — but what if you're looking for something with a bit more hardcore action? Despite what the energy "The Electric State" attempts to create in its trailers with licensed music, quick cuts, and carefully selected shots, the actual action sequences in the movie are totally deflated, so much so that you can basically see Chris Pratt swinging at the air underneath layers of weightless CGI. In contrast, if you want a film with action so viscerally rendered it's almost hard to watch at some points, look no further than 1987's "RoboCop."

Directed by sci-fi visionary Paul Verhoeven ("Starship Troopers," "Total Recall"), "RoboCop" tackles institutional corruption and corporate greed through the visor of the titular cyborg police officer. Peter Weller plays the leading role, portraying a dedicated but naive member of the Detroit Police Department who is nearly killed in a semi-orchestrated gangland ambush. His body is recovered by the obviously dubious Omni Consumer Products mega-corp, who replace the near entirety of his body with cybernetic parts while uploading years of law enforcement experience into his mind, transforming him into the "perfect" cop.

The titular character's relationship with the law, the OCP, and his own distorted memory all become increasingly complicated as "RoboCop" moves toward its ending. If you've yet to see it for yourself, rest assured that "RoboCop" delivers more than enough action (including the robot-versus-robot violence you'd want from "The Electric State") to keep genre fans happy, as well as elements of satire that have aged even better than its impressive practical effects work.

Where to watch: Starz

Though Chris Pratt, Millie Bobby Brown, and the rest of the stacked cast of "The Electric State" bring buckets of charisma to this clunky endeavor, the script and direction is unfortunately too devoid of humanity to give them anything meaningful to do with their talents. If this leaves you searching for a film that features a similar amount of talent but emphasizes their work over noisy but empty sci-fi tropes, you should search for "Robot and Frank."

The story of "Robot and Frank" (penned by "Spider-Man: Homecoming" co-writer and "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew" executive producer Christopher D. Ford) is much simpler than "The Electric State," which gives its cast more room to create realistic characters with complicated inner-lives. Frank Langella stars as a difficult elderly man (appropriately named Frank Weld) who has been all but written off by his remaining family. In order to be less responsible for his father's day-to-day survival, Hunter Weld (a career-highlight performance from James Marsden) buys a rudimentary semi-autonomous robot caretaker (Peter Sarsgaard) and leaves it with Frank. Little does Hunter know, the robot is capable of developing skills beyond its initial programming — and his father, a retired thief, is all too happy to accept a new partner in crime into his mundane life.

Jake Schreier of Marvel Studios' "Thunderbolts*" directs, with Langella, Marsden, and Sarsgaard joined by Susan Sarandon, Liv Tyler, and Jeremy Strong. The time Ford and Schreier spent making no-budget, high-concept short films in their youth (alongside frequent collaborator Jon Watts) shows, and they put an emphasis on story and character to the film's ultimate benefit.

Where to watch: Available to Rent or Buy

"Robot and Frank," "RoboCop," and most of the other entries on this list are solid films that require a fair amount of mental engagement to enjoy. Movies are often enjoyed as an escape from the stresses of regular life. And while that may require an intellectually engrossing story for some, others may want the sort of simple, mindless thrills offered by "The Electric State" that allow one to turn off their brains for a little while. If you're looking for a mental recharge, plug in to the broad 1986 comedy "Short Circuit," starring Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, Fisher Stevens, and Tim Blaney.

Avoiding hard-science explanations to make more room for bits and gags, the story follows a rogue prototype robot (voiced by Blaney) who flees the confines of the laboratory in which he was created for the open air of the Oregon coast. There, he is taken in by a kindly stranger (Sheedy) and allowed to develop a near-human level of sentience and autonomy. As they form a strange connection with one another, his two creators (Guttenberg and Stevens) attempt to track him down so that he can be returned to their facility and developed as the Cold War weapon he was meant to be.

"Short Circuit" is unabashedly silly, and its effects have aged in a significantly more noticeable way than those seen in "RoboCop." Still, the robot itself is impressive, and director John Badham ("Saturday Night Fever," "WarGames") knows just how to use it in service of absurd comedy.

Where to watch: Max

For a similarly endearing sci-fi adventure that's appropriate for the entire family, Robert Rodriguez's "Spy Kids" is still a classic. Though it was released in 2001 (and certainly looks like it in some effects-heavy sequences), its unfettered balance of action and adventure is still unique among movies made for younger audiences. Rodriguez proves here that his talent for violence — as seen in the likes of the very adult "From Dusk Till Dawn," "Sin City," and "Machete" — is underpinned by a boundless and nimble creativity that can be applied to bloodless stories as well.

At first, the premise of "Spy Kids" will feel like a significant departure from something like "The Electric State" — a film about two kids who learn their parents are part of a super secret, "James Bond"-esque government spy agency is certainly a far cry from a post-apocalyptic epic about sentient robots. As the film introduces the rest of its world, however, you'll see the "weird" factor more than makes up for the difference, including a similar variety of characters and environments. Later installments in the series expand the world even further, with "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over" integrating numerous mechanized monstrosities that would feel right at home in "The Electric State" – the same film also happens to feature Glen Powell and Selena Gomez in their joint feature film debut.

There are probably better options on this list for adults without children looking for weird sci-fi movies to stream. For the whole family, on the other hand, "Spy Kids" is a great live-action option that still packs a surprising punch 20 years later.

Where to watch: Disney+

No list of robots in film would be complete without the inclusion of "WALL-E," which was an instant classic when it was released in 2008. Much like its adorable protagonist, it has withstood the test of time arguably better than any other film released that year. We're guessing that for most of you, "WALL-E" is already a beloved part of your film catalog and probably the best entry on this list. For those who have yet to see it, it tells a similar tale of robotic friendship to "The Electric State" in addition to exploring the potential conflict between humanity and the technology we create — though not in the same predictable ways.

In the future imagined by "WALL-E," humanity became so reliant on machines and so careless of themselves and their environment that they voluntarily abandoned Earth to live on giant space yachts, where their lives are reduced to numbly rigid schedules and their mindless consumption is exacerbated by robotic forces intent on keeping them subdued. Meanwhile on Earth, the humans left behind a fleet of trash-compacting robots to clean up their mess and prepare for their eventual return. Seven hundred years after their departure, the Earth is still covered in garbage — and the only robot left standing is a singular compacting unit that goes by WALL-E. Lonely and desperate for connection, WALL-E is overjoyed when an advanced robot — EVE — arrives from one of the starships and he manages to follow her back into space to avoid losing her forever.

"WALL-E" is a visual and narrative masterpiece that is righteously considered one of the greatest movies ever made. As an alternative to "The Electric State," you'd be hard-pressed to find anything that contains as much excitement, emotion, and visual spectacle — though if you choose anything on the list as an alternative to "The Electric State," you'll do just fine.