Shows and Movies Like Netflix's Project Power to Watch If You Like Project Power

Project Power is Netflix's newest big, dumb, seemingly algorithmically-generated action movie. It's about a drug that gives people superpowers for five minutes at a time that's sweeping the streets of New Orleans and causing a lot of problems. It stars Jamie Foxx as a guy trying to get his daughter back, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a cop who doesn't play by the rules, and Dominique Fishback as an ordinary teenage girl in extraordinary circumstances. In the big dumb Netflix movie quality rankings, it's above Bird Box and Bright, but below The Old Guard and 6 Underground. 

If you watched it and feel like watching something like it but better (or simply like it, we don't judge), we've rounded up some other superhero movies that aren't based on existing characters, superhero shows set in New Orleans, and another Jamie Foxx action movie for good measure. Watch them and feel like you just took a pill that turned you into a porcupine-person. 

Netflix's Project Power Review: Jamie Foxx's Pill-Poppin' Action Flick Is No Fun

Looking for more recommendations of what to watch next? We have a ton of them! And if you're looking for more hand-picked recommendations based on shows you love, we have those too.

Black Lightning

Watch it on: Netflix

If superheroes in the Big Easy was your favorite part of Project Power, Black Lightning is three whole seasons (so far) of exactly that. It's about the titular hero (Cress Williams), who used to be a supe but retired to live a normal life as a family man. But when an evil gang begins taking over New Orleans, he puts the suit back on and starts controlling electricity once again to save his city. Only this time, he's being helped by his daughters, Thunder (Nafessa Williams) and Lightning (China Ann McClain). It's based on a DC Comic. 

Marvel's Cloak & Dagger

Watch it on: Hulu

Not to be outdone, Marvel had their own New Orleans-set superhero show. Cloak & Dagger starred Aubrey Joseph as Cloak, a teenager with the ability to engulf others in darkness and transport them to another dimension, and Olivia Holt as Dagger, a girl with the ability to emit daggers of light from her body. They gained their powers when they were kids due to energy released when an offshore oil rig collapsed in the Gulf of Mexico. It's kind of like if it had two main characters who were both Robin (Fishback) and wasn't as violent. C&D ran for two seasons on Freeform before getting canceled last year.   

Alphas 

Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video

Like Project Power, the Syfy gem Alphas isn't entirely about superheroes, but it is about superpowered people. That's makes a huge difference as the characters are still growing into their powers and potential, learning the differences in using their powers for good and abusing them. In Alphas, a special government agency hires select people with powers to stop crimes committed by other people with powers, making it a smart procedural with a cool twist. The writing was sharp, defining its characters by much more than their powers alone, and telling epic stories that culminated in a whopper of a series finale, even if it wasn't intended to be. Though it sounds like a lot of other shows, it was better than most of them. -Tim Surette

The Boys

Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video

If you added a little snark to Project Power, you'd probably get something like The Boys, one of Amazon's biggest hits. Like Project Power, it's a violent, action-packed look at the abuses of superpowers, but unlike Project Power, it's a scathing teardown of hero culture, making it the ideal superhero show for people who don't like superhero shows. The premise sees a group of popular superheroes forming The Seven, a Justice League-like organization that's owned by a corporate conglomerate that uses the heroes to franchise films, sell products, and other devious things I won't mention here. It's smart, funny, and bloody. -Tim Surette

Limitless

Watch it on: CBS All Access

If you want more of dudes eating something and then going all HAM on people, gobble up some of this CBS procedural, which was remarkably fun and daring for a show on CBS in 2015. Based on the Bradley Cooper film of the same name (Cooper also makes cameos and produced the show), Jake McDorman plays a man who takes an experimental pill that gives him access to his entire brain for 12 hours, making him a super-genius able to tap into his full potential, both mentally and physically. With Dorman's charming performance and some out-of-the-box writing, Limitless was a one-season-and-done underrated gem that probably would have lasted longer if it was on another network. -- Tim Surette 

Hancock

Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video

There aren't a ton of other superhero movies that a screenwriter just came up with and aren't based on a comic. But Vincent Ngo (and rewriter Vince Gilligan) did that with Hancock, which stars Will Smith as a guy with powers similar to Superman's (flight, invulnerability, superhuman strength) but none of his interest in truth, justice, and the American way. He's a bitter alcoholic who often doesn't even remember saving people, and Los Angeles resents the damage he causes during his careless sprees, but the city still turns to him in a time of need. It's more of a character study than Project Power is, but it still has big action sequences, an uncommonly grounded milieu, and a charismatic, antiheroic main character. 

Chronicle

Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video

This found footage-style film was a surprise hit in 2012, and is one of the most successful original concept superhero movies. It stars Dane DeHaan, Andrew Russell, and an on-the-cusp-of-stardom Michael B. Jordan as three teenage boys who gain superpowers after being exposed to a mysterious meteorite they find in the woods. It's all fun and games at first, but then Andrew (DeHaan), who was bullied and a loner before he got powers, slides deeper into isolation and darkness, and things stop being fun. It's a character-driven morality play against a superhero backdrop, and feels like a really good Netflix movie made before Netflix movies were a thing.    

Sleepless

Watch it on: Netflix

This Jamie Foxx crime thriller isn't a Netflix original, but it feels like it could be, with its proudly derivative Training Day-meets-Takenpremise and competent if unexceptional action sequences. Foxx plays a corrupt cop who's trying to get his son back from mobsters who kidnapped him. You know what you're gonna get, and your expectations will be met.