The best science fiction movies to watch on Netflix in April

Greetings, Polygon readers!

This weekend sees the release of not one, but two science fiction epics in the form of Dune: part two And Rebel Moon, Part Two: The Scargiver on VOD and streaming. If neither appeals to you, don’t worry; we’ve once again descended into the backlog of Netflix’s streaming library to bring you a trio of the best sci-fi movies to watch this April.

This month’s favorites include John Carpenter’s 1984 sci-fi body-horror romance starring Jeff Bridges, an underrated post-apocalyptic blockbuster about mobile city fortresses scavenging for resources, and an anime adaptation of a cult classic cyberpunk manga.

Let’s see what this month has to offer!

Editor’s Choice: Starman

Director: Johannes Timmerman
Form: Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith

The pitch “John Carpenter’s version of Close meetings‘ conjures up a completely different image among fans of the Halloween director than his 1984 film Starman turned out to be. The film opens with a sleek spaceship descending on Earth in a frame not far from the opening of The thing. There’s even a bit of body horror: When the alien sneaks into the home of recently widowed Jenny (Karen Allen), the entity uses bits of her dead husband’s DNA to reshape his bodily self—from infant to toddler, from teen to adult. Jeff Bridges in just a few seconds. It’s sick! Then Carpenter gets all mushy in his most romantic film yet.

Starman is a sci-fi film through and through – the alien visits our planet after intercepting Voyager 2’s gold disc, and its arrival sets up a classic Spielbergian cat-and-mouse game between bumbling FBI and the on-the-lam ET – but As the alien takes the form of Jenny’s deceased husband, Carpenter digs deeper into human mortality than is often the case in these film stories. Allen, who finds himself in an impossible situation, and Bridges, who mixes his alien’s hyper-intelligence with childlike wonder, have the chemistry to make a silly story sing. Jenny knows the man in her passenger seat is not her husband, but he is a second chance. Carpenter mines the dreamy premise for all its juice, leaning on Jack Nitzsche’s unforgettable score that swells at just the right moments. Starman is pure Hollywood romanticism and proof that categorizing a director into one genre is the quickest way to limit greatness. —Matte plasters

Mortal engines

Image: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Director: Christian rivers
Form: Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Hugo Weaving

An underrated post-apocalyptic blockbuster from many of the people who made the Lord of the Rings films. Mortal engines was a box office bomb, but deserved much better. The story takes place in a future where cities are mobile and big cities prey on smaller ones. The story follows a young assassin (Hera Hilmar) who wants to take down a power-hungry leader (Hugo Weaving). Along the way she finds allies (Jihae) and maybe even a little love (Robert Sheehan).

But the characters or the story are not Mortal engines‘ main selling point (although Weaving is fully and delightfully committed to an over-the-top mean performance). Instead, it’s the fantastic production design and creative world-building that makes it Mortal engines feel like a breath of fresh air in the sequel/prequel/remake-heavy sci-fi blockbuster landscape. Now that the film is new to Netflix, watch one of the most undeserved flops of the 2010s. —Piet Volk

Debt!

Image: Polygon Images/Netflix

Director: Hiroyuki Seshita
Form: Takahiro Sakurai, Kana Hanazawa, Sora Amamiya

Alongside HR Giger and Shinya Tsukamoto, Tsutomu Nihei is one of the most prolific artists associated with the subgenre of posthuman science fiction, which focuses on gruesome human-machine hybrids and vast, desolate worlds set in the distant future.

Nihei’s 1997 manga Debt! is undoubtedly his magnum opus – a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk saga about a mysterious warrior known as ‘Killy’ who wanders the metallic wasteland of an Earth overrun by a techno-organic virus. Adapted into a feature-length anime by director Hiroyuki Seshita (Knights of Sidonia), Debt! streamlines the manga’s story into one adventure in Killy’s search for a way to undo the virus that has reshaped the world and endangered humanity’s last remaining descendants.

While the film loses some of the manga’s evocative, wordless melancholy in translation from page to screen, it misses none of the scale and depth of its world-building and vistas. The action is punishing and thrilling as Killy faces monstrous killer androids and a ruthless antagonist determined to kill as many unclean humans (i.e. everyone) as possible. Debt! is a worthy adaptation of the source material, but also worth a watch for anyone who considers themselves a fan of dark sci-fi animation. —Toussaint Egan