We’re well into September now and the release calendar is finally starting to fill up, especially for sci-fi fans. Transformers Onethe animated prequel from director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4), will be released this weekend together with The substancethe new body horror film starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. And we haven’t even talked about MegalopolisFrancis Ford Coppola’s much-talked-about science fiction epic starring an all-star cast led by Adam Driver, which is out next week.
If you’re looking for the best sci-fi movies to watch on Netflix right now from the comfort of your home, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. This week, we’ve compiled a short list of the best sci-fi movies you can stream this weekend, including a beloved (and, at the time of writing, sadly sequel-less) action thriller starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, a cult classic satire on interstellar fascism, and an animated reboot of a revered tokusatsu icon.
Let’s see what this month has to offer!
Editor’s Choice: Edge of Tomorrow
Director: Doug Liman
Form: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton
“Groundhog Daybut…” is almost always a good pitch for a movie, but add Tom Cruise, aliens, and a whole lot of sci-fi action and you suddenly have a recipe for one of the best and most entertaining films of the past decade: Edge of tomorrow.
The film plays Cruise right into character, starting out as a slimy army PR man quick to laugh and use a charming word but clearly considering himself above the sweat and drudgery of everyday soldiers, and far too good for a humble life of combat. But when he suddenly finds himself trapped in a time loop by the evil aliens trying to destroy the world, it becomes clear that combat was his destiny. Of course, it takes a lot of training to go from spokesperson to soldier, which is why war heroine Rita Vrataski, played superbly by Emily Blunt, is here.
It all makes for a fantastically fun film, perfectly combining huge action scenes with the inherent silliness of Groundhog Day‘s trial-and-error format. Cruise’s character runs himself into the ground countless times, trying again and again to improve even a little bit, but failing far more often than he succeeds. In other words, it’s a perfect metaphor for what makes Tom Cruise such a perfect movie star: You get as many takes as a scene needs to get it just right. —Austen Goslin
Director: Shannon Tindle
Form: Christopher Sean, Gedde Watanabe, Tamlyn Tomita
Ultraman: Rise is perhaps the best entry point yet for anyone who’s ever been curious about Tsuburaya Productions’ iconic giant superhero. Set in a separate continuity from all previous Ultraman series, the film centers on Kenji “Ken” Sato, a hotshot baseball player who moves back to his native Japan despite being on the verge of winning an American championship. In reality, Ken is the only son of the former Ultraman – a giant, transforming superhero dedicated to maintaining harmony between humanity and kaiju – and has moved to Japan to take up his father’s mantle.
Initially struggling to balance his personal life with his duties as the new Ultraman, Ken faces even more problems when he unintentionally becomes the adoptive parent of a baby kaiju. With the help of his AI assistant Mina and eventually his own father, Ken grows into a responsible adoptive father, but also a hero worth believing in. Ultraman Rice is a reboot that plays on the core principles that make Ultraman such a compelling and iconic hero, builds on those foundations with a storyline never before touched upon in the franchise’s history, and does so with a level of visual aplomb and creativity befitting a feature-length animated film. —Toussaint Egan
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Form: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards
Spaceship Troopers is set in a distant future where humanity has mastered interstellar travel and uses it to do what anyone would expect: colonize every alien species they can find.
Sci-fi movies are full of evil empires that stretch across the stars. But very few of those movies root us firmly in the perspective of those empires in the way that Spaceship Troopers does. But what makes Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi action film truly special is that it leaves the evilness of his Earth-based empire completely undiscussed. Instead, Verhoeven plays the film like state-sponsored propaganda, with characters screaming at the screen about the evilness of the insect plague without saying why Earth is invading their planet in the first place. It’s masterful satire in the only way Verhoeven could. —AG