Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) on Netflix

The lives of reporter Polly Perkins and her ex-boyfriend, Sky Captain Joe Sutton, intersect. For the past three years, large robots have been roaming the Earth, taking what they need, and vanishing as quickly as they appeared. Joe and his technical assistant Dex have been investigating and battling these mysterious robots. Meanwhile, many of the world's scientists have been systematically kidnapped. A Dr. Jennings, believing that he is the next target, tells what little he knows to Polly. His beliefs are that a Dr. Totenkopf, who has not been heard from in over thirty years, is carrying out a project he started prior to World War I, this project which may be associated with these robots. Polly and Joe, with Dex, join forces to find Totenkopf, which may not be easy due to their still antagonistic relationship. As they piece together Totenkopf's plot, Polly and Joe realize that stopping him from carrying out his grand plan of creating his version of a Utopian society may not be as easy as killing him.