(Credits: Netflix)

The Netflix library is not all sunshine and rainbows. It, too, has its bad days. While the titles may not make sense on your best ones, in case you’re craving a hate-watch marathon, these five sci-fi movies on Netflix could carry the day.

For those wondering whether hate-watch is a thing, you might be surprised to know that the motivation caters to everything that’s positively negative, leading you to derive satisfaction from failures you saw from a mile away. It’s like a car crash, you can’t help but watch things go to shit.

The shortcomings in these films vary. The premise may fail to convince, the ideas could seem far-fetched, the concept might be poorly conceived, or they can straight-up feel superficially outlandish. But that doesn’t mean the movies don’t make you curious.

This, surely, is a different pedigree of curiosity, one that finds bliss in relishing the bad. In a few cases, they can easily become the benchmark of critical underpinnings. In others, they simply act as a catalyst for escapism, serving as an entertainment getaway where the enjoyment comes from the awful heart. If you’re here for any of those reasons, here are the five worst sci-fi movies on Netflix that do the deed.

The five worst sci-fi movies to hate-watch

Awake (Mark Raso, 2021)

If you’re looking for hate-watch titles that practically make you feel “I’ve heard this before”, then watch Awake. The 2021 sci-fi thriller follows Jill, who goes above and beyond to find a cure for her daughter in a world gone mad, where everyone is sleep-deprived but Matilda. The trope is unoriginal, but it’s not always the worst thing.

While Awake has a strong core, execution is one of its biggest shortcomings. Not every film justifies a short runtime, and the premise of this one definitely doesn’t favour the approach of a complex theme like the effects of mass sleep deprivation with nuance. Although it still performs better than most of the sci-fi movies on this list, with a 22% Rotten Tomatoes approval rate, not even that is enough to save you from the delirium of the absurd ending.

Atlas (Brad Peyton, 2024)

Although Jennifer Lopez is praised for serving as the anchor for Atlas, the Brad Peyton-directed film has a disappointing 18% Rotten Tomatoes score. The setbacks are not one, but one too many. Atlas taps into the tropes of the dangers of unchecked reliance on AI, but over the course, the standpoint gets increasingly shaky.

Despite digging its feet deep into a gripping storyline, Atlas is a victim of inconsistency that fails to maintain the tone it begins on, resulting in a straightforward plot that’s unfulfilling. While the conclusion may not be predictable, the film, unfortunately, doesn’t benefit from it. It’s definitely a failed opportunity, but most importantly, the conclusion is alarming and contradictory to many.

Rebel Moon—Part Two: The Scargiver (Zack Snyder, 2024)

Once deemed the formidable flamethrower of the DCEU, when Zack Snyder promised an epic trip down the sci-fi lanes with his Rebel Moon films, everyone waited with bated breath. But not only did they disappoint, the franchise went from bad to worse by the time fans even caught up with the second volume, The Scargiver.

Set on the moon of Veldt, the film follows Kora and her warriors’ journey to defend their homeland against the Motherworld. The criticism came from various directions, including concerns surrounding an unoriginal premise, especially over borrowing sci-fi elements and tropes, most notably from Star Wars. The dialogue is unengaging, and the characters are thinly developed. What’s worse is that it has just 15% approval on Rotten Tomatoes, one of the worst-reviewed films of Snyder’s career, despite his illustrious directorial resume. While Snyder fans might find certain things to their liking, nothing seemed to have saved Rebel Moon from the swipes and memes that followed.

Uglies (McG, 2024)

Joey King has been associated with the ultimate feel-good franchise on Netflix, The Kissing Booth, but who knew she would also land in the feel-bad lists of Netflix? Based on Scott Westerfield’s 2005 novel, Uglies is a dystopian sci-fi drama that takes viewers into a post-apocalyptic future where people aren’t considered “pretty” but “ugly” until they resort to compulsory cosmetic surgery at 16.

Although the novel was deemed groundbreaking, clearly ahead of its time, Netflix’s version couldn’t come to par. While Uglies could have been a game-changer, the film’s social commentary and exploration of beauty standards scratched just the surface level, leaving the audience unconvinced and the readers frustrated. Neither the delivery, nor the script, nor the CGI effects were up to mark, leaving you to reel in what it could have been, had it been a calculated execution.

The Electric State (Anthony and Joe Russo, 2025)

The Russo brothers have long been hailed as the flagbearers of MCU blockbusters, but even after fanning the flames of an anticipated sci-fi action adventure away from the conglomerate, The Electric State, the film, unfortunately, fell flat on its face. Make no mistake, the film was not short of A-listers, from MCU usuals, such as Chris Pratt and Anthony Mackie, to Millie Bobby Brown and Stanley Tucci, among others.

Yet, it was marred by shallow plot development, over-the-top CGI effects, and poor pacing, ultimately making The Electric State insubstantial and unpredictably disappointing. Although it’s loosely based on Simon Stalenhag’s illustrated novel, the Netflix film does it far from justice. It’s the perfect example of wasted potential that takes celebrated Hollywood sci-fi patchworks for granted, making space for the fall of a legend. If that doesn’t convince you, the film has a subpar rating of 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, so get those hate-goggles on.